Gczahorsky

Grant Zahorsky

Overview

In London, I will focus on the photography/videography of the culture, people, historical sites, abandoned buildings, and graffiti in England. Each photo/video will all make a statement on society/environment or how nature can affect manmade object and vice versa and will have a brief historical background along with other information as a caption. At the end of the 2 month stay in research, I will gather all of the background and photos and videos and create a portfolio style website from scratch that contains all of the media I will have captured along with its respective research.

Milestone 1

The Culture and People of London
Objective: Photography/Videography of the culture/people in England. The photos/videos will all make a statement on society and/or the environment. Each photo/video will have a background and history related caption.

Below the objective statement, Insert a one or two paragraph summary of your findings from having reached this milestone. Edit the link below to link to your milestone page.
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Milestone 2

'Historical and Cultural Affect On London's Infrastructure
Objective: Photography/Videography of the grafiti, historical sites, and abandoned buildings in England. The photos/videos will portray the affect of nature on manmade objects and viceversa. Each photo/video will have a background and history related caption. Below the objective statement, Insert a one or two paragraph summary of your findings from having reached this milestone. Edit the link below to link to your milestone page.
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Milestone 3

Art Capsone
Objective:Creation of a portfolio website that displays a gallery of all of the photos and videos with the captions and backgrounds along with a description of the project, etc.

Below the objective statement, Insert a one or two paragraph summary of your findings from having reached this milestone. If this milestone, for you, represents a humanities and arts capstone, please indicate so. Edit the link below to link to your milestone page.
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Activity Journal

The activity journal represents an ongoing log of reflections gained through each and every project activity on the calendar.

Westminster Hall and the Tower of London

Today, we explored the Westminster Hall and the Tower of London. This was extraordinarily exciting for me because I am very interested in buildings and their history and architecture. Since my milestones are about the culture and affect of nature on buildings and vice versa, today fit perfectly into helping get a better grasp on my topics. I am also a very devout Christian, not a Catholic though, so it was incredible to see one of the world's most famous churches. It was much different than I thought: not architecturally but I was surprised by the amount of people. I knew it was a huge tourist location, but I thought it still functioned as more of a church rather than an exhibition hall. This, of course, shouldn't have been a surprise because consumerism and tourism is taking over some of the most incredible cities and locations on the planet. Even then, I thought there would be more reference to the religion of Christianity and less to the people buried there or the marriages that happened there. Again, this is a ignorance on my part because the target demographic is not Christians seeking more knowledge and a closer relationship to God, but rather tourists who will make the owners and the city money that really care more about the people buried there and its history. All in all, it was still an incredible tour and they definitely know how to do their job and provide an excellent and immersive experience for tourists of all shapes, sizes, and ages.

Although I was familiar with Westminster Hall, I honestly had no idea what the Tower of London actually meant. I had heard the name, but never done any research on it. Because of this, I literally assumed it was a large tower that was historically important. I was half-right. The Tower of London is an incredibly fascinating place with more history than I could have imagined. I realize that I didn't grow up on English history, but I do feel that this should have been mentioned at least once. Walking around the walls and seeing what the people would have seen at the time, minus the modern buildings, was absolutely incredible. And then going from there to immediately seeing the Crown Jewels was an experience I won't forget. Honestly, seeing the jewels wasn't about seeing such large, expensive jewels, but more because I am very intrigued by all of the conspiracy theories. People come up with the most insane ideas, but yet still somehow make them make sense. It fascinates me that people can be so detailed, that they can create a "logical" story from the tiniest details with the weirdest conclusions. They even made a whole video game series on it! Who does that!? In the end, seeing all of these different monuments and memorials and items, was absolutely amazing and a great way to start the term.

National Gallery

The National Gallery is a place that I've always wanted to visit, especially when I was a child. My dad and I used to take trips around the United States and visit as many art galleries as we could so going to one across the ocean was incredibly special. When we got there, we met up with our group and waited in a surprisingly short line to get inside. Immediately, we went upstairs to the first set of galleries and saw some of the most incredible pieces of art I have ever seen. Incredibly, the Getty Museum in California was up to par with this museum and some parts of it reminded me a lot of the Getty. This made me think back to the time I went to the Getty with my dad and I remembered how we used to count the amount of Money paintings in the gallery because he was one of my favorite painters. I set out to go count how many Monet's they had in the National Gallery and on the way I saw a sign for Van Gogh, another one of my favorite painters. Unfortunately, the Van Gogh exhibits were all closed until later in the week so I couldn't see any of those, but we were able to see incredible Rembrant's and Ruben's. On the way to the Monet's, we also saw The Repentant Magdalene by Cagnacci. This is a painting that I have never seen but was absolutely incredible to me. The artist actually had a different plan for the painting than what is the final product. He had painted the Vice has a standing figure and added another woman behind the repenting Magdalene. In his final product, the Vice is pictured falling and the other woman is no longer there. It's actually possible to see a little of the older painting still on the canvas! All in all, this was an incredible time and I learned a lot. It was very relatable and it was amazing to see all of the altar pieces and the da Vinci paintings, but it not relate to my milestone that much.

British Museum

The British Museum is a museum that I've heard about in passing, but never gotten too much information about it or what is inside of it. Today, as we got lost in the insanely massive building, I figured out that they have almost everything a museum could have. It was incredible. The building was styled in such a Greek/Roman fashion that it came to life as we entered the Greek and Roman eras. They have everything from the Rosetta Stone, to old African artifacts that I have never seen at any of the other museums I've been to in my life, to almost the entirety of the Parthenon. This place is amazing, but honestly, it mad me a little sad and disappointed in today's culture. Most of the items in the museum were made before the birth of Christ. And they still exist today in our museums. That is an incredible feat, but what will be left of us in 2000+ years. I don't think much of anything. Yeah, we will have phones and computers and cars, but no monumental statues or buildings like we have in today's museums. I personally think that is pretty unfortunate. I'm sure most of our culture will change by the time this happens, but once it does what will be left?

This museum was not too related to my milestone other than how time affects these gorgeous buildings. It is unbelievable that buildings built around and before the birth of Christ still exist and I think it is sad that many people take this for granted.

St. Paul's Cathedral

Today's trip to St. Paul's Cathedral was an incredible one and kind of did have to do with my milestones. Christopher Wren designed the building and started construction in 1675 to bring more of a protestant church to the once Catholic church that stood on the site. As time went on, this church finished its construction and it quickly became one of the most famous churches every built. This is related to my second milestone because I am studying the affects of time on manmade buildings. Though this building has undergone some intense cleaning and modernization and refurbishments, it is quite amazing that it is still standing with very little, if any, problems whatsoever. Not only did that relate to my second milestone, but Wren also designed and built another church, called St. James church, in London that I visited by accident the other day. We were walking through and exploring London and we came across a church that looked beautiful and had a plaque on it that said it was designed by Wren, so we went inside. This related to my first milestone because inside the church, in every pew on the left side, there was a homeless person sleeping. Every. Single. Pew. on the left side was taking my a homeless person getting inside out of the weather and away from the noise. This was incredibly sad to me and I felt very bad that I couldn't do anything to help, but I am very glad this church is doing something for them.

Going to St. Paul's really was an incredible experience. It was so amazing to see how the way people worship has changed since the 16th century. I wish we had more churches that would be similar to it without being Catholic churches. It really is fascinating to me and so was the entire Cathedral, especially the Whispering Galleries because I have a terrible fear of heights. Walking up those stairs without being able to see how high I was really threw me for a loop and disorientated me. Once we got to the top, it was a whole different story. The first thing I saw was wood and I thought I would have to walk on it which was immediately a turn off and gave me a "nervous giggle" which is always a fun time. Anyways, I was able to make it around to the exit, after much struggle, but it turned out I was going to another entrance, not an exit. So when I got to the real exit, the two security guards, who saw me struggling, pointed out that I was right next to the exit. It was hilarious and they laughed while I laughed out of nervousness. After finally getting down, I got to explore the crypt and was so relieved I was finally on the ground. In the end, this experience was amazing and I learned a lot about the church and history that I never knew beforehand.

Activity #3 Name

A paragraph for your personal reflection for another activity on our calendar goes here, just it was outlined in the previous example. Repeat this same process for the remaining activities. Whenever there's an activity on the calendar, complete an activity journal reflection. You can make it easy for your advisors to give you a high grade for your journal entries by ensuring that they are thoughtful and reflective with regard to your project milestones. Don't make the mistake of assuming that your activity and your milestone are automatically unrelated just because one relates to art or music (for example) and one relates to another theater or history; part of the activity immersion as to experience the overlap of London-based culture. There are numerous ways that specific elements of one discipline influence elements in another. In your journal entries, note these connections as best as you can be explicit when mentioning articles that you contribute to and create.

My Complete Contributions

The journal section should end with the following link to your complete contributions (new articles, edited articles, added media, etc.); delete this sentence and replace the username Vjmanzo below with your own username: