Akgiacoman

A London Full of Colour

Kristy Giacoman

Overview

"A London Full of Colour" is a project that aims to portray a different reality of the daily life of London citizens. By picturing different scenarios in their reality comparing them to the reality that I choose for each one of them, the audience will be able to admire the beauty and uniqueness of the city from a different perspective. I have gone to international poetry competitions and taken painting and photography courses before arriving to college. This project will combine my favorite forms of expression through art and hopefully brighten the days of the viewers. The main message I wish to convey is that every single one of us chooses the reality they want to live in, meaning that the same place could be seen as a prison for our souls or a wonderland for our imagination.

Milestone 1

Colourless London
Objective: The goal is to display London as it is and to capture through pictures emotions displayed by people walking by or admiring the landscape. Pictures are taken from different perspectives and represent feelings of an average citizen living daily life.

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Milestone 2

Adding Pigment
Objective: The goal is to paint five oil/pastel surrealistic paintings of the most emblematic sites in London exaggerating the use of bright colors instead of the usual gray palette that is seen due to the weather.

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Milestone 3

Colourful Reality
Objective: The goal is to connect the emotions displayed in the pictures and the colors of the paintings in a creative way empathizing with the people walking by the site as a daily routine. Each one of the sets of paintings and pictures will be accompanied by a short story, poem or reflection.

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.

Activity #1 Westminster Abbey & the Tower of London

Monday May 8th 2017


Today we started the day quite early because we had to meet at the Westminster Abbey for a Tour. It was really interesting to go inside and listen to such numerous and wonderful different stories, some known to me and some unknown. We heard about people like the almost saint, Edward the confessor, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, Elizabeth I and her sister (bloody) Mary, and many more. However, my favorite story remained untold. As we entered the church, I saw the Scouts Movement flag next to the Girl Guides flag but we were in such a hurry that I could barely see what that was about. I then proceeded to ask our tour guide about it and he assumed that there was some kind of memorial to the scouts there but he did not know much about it. It was indeed in honor of Sir Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden Powell of Gilwell and Lady Olave Baden Powell.


After the Tour, we went to the Tower of London, a place full of stories that help us place ourselves in distant times in that same place. The Tower of London is home to the Crown Jewels, and has exhibitions that range from methods of torture to the King’s beasts. About the last one, I thought it was really interesting how when people saw animals like a lynx or an alligator, those seemed as bizarre to them as a unicorn and other mythical creatures. It was also majestic to thing about monkeys, lions and peacocks running around and sadly sometimes fighting for the king’s amusement.


When we exited the Tower of London, Sofia and I took our time to admire the London Bridge and decided that we were going to go back later. Also, we could see “the egg” at a distance and I was thinking on maybe also painting it as well as part of my project. I think I will be painting the London Bridge, the egg, the Big Ben, the London Eye and the Tower of London. I think those sceneries are inspiring, meaningful and represent many ages of the history that London has lived. After that we went to The British Library where we worked on our journals and milestones for the meeting. Professor Constance gave me great ideas about my project and seemed to really like it, which motivated me. I didn't like how late our meeting was though, but that was because we were the last team. Also it seems odd that there are teams of six and teams of four like us. I really like my team though they are all very nice and kind. Christopher is really funny, we have inside jokes and we laugh about them all the time. Trinity is always smiling and she has such a pretty face, so kind and friendly. Finally Ben is so smart! It is amazing how much he knows about everything, definitely a good person to have a conversation with. I am excited for the days to come and to get to know them better.

Activity #2 St Paul's Cathedral

Tuesday May 9th 2017


Today we visited St. Paul's Cathedral and it was truly mesmerizing. We woke up at seven to get there before it was even open so we were basically the first people in. The cathedral is so gigantic and with so many details and commemorations of outstanding men and women in the history of England that it is impossible to not enjoy the visit. The dome has three different galleries, but unfortunately the two upper ones are not going to be open until about a month from now. When I was going up the stairs though, it felt like they were endless The gallery of whispers (the only one open) lets you see up closer the paintings about the life of St. Paul. That gallery receives its name because of an unintended characteristic of its architecture, when two people stand at opposite sides of the dome, if one whispers to the wall, the other person will hear it loud and clear. I liked that our tickets included a guided visit with headsets because as I walked through the tombs in the lower level, I was listening to the life stories of poets, writers, military men and religious men and women. What surprised me is that the architect of the church was buried in a very simple tomb in the lower level of the church and that is exactly how he intended it. It was almost as if he was saying, "if you are looking for my monument of commemoration just look around you". He designed and oversaw the construction of other 55 churches in London after the great fire, however, St. Paul's Cathedral was his biggest accomplishment. I listen to every single one of te audios of stories, information and prayers and finished at about noon. Then I went with Ben and Christopher to the gardens of the church and after that we headed back home.


As soon as I got back to the apartment, I fell asleep in my bed, which was absolutely unintended and not very ideal because later that night I couldn't fall asleep until two in the morning. My best advise to future students that come is to be completely booked of exciting stuff to do the first week so you don't have time to take naps and at the same time you don't complain about it. When I woke up from my nap I went downstairs to the common room and cooked dinner with Sofia. It was the first time I ever made chicken all by myself, but I didn't tell anyone about it because I knew it couldn't be hard at all. Little did I know, because the kitchen is in the basement of the flat, it lacks of ventilation and the aspirator was not enough so the fire alarm ended up going off several times while we were cooking. The first time we evacuated the building, the second time we were about to and it just stoped. By the third time it started to go off we decided to implement an alternative method of solution (see picture). The turnout was actually delicious and everyone enjoyed the seasoned chicken with steamed vegetables with cheese.

Activity #3 Natural History Museum

Wednesday May 10th 2017


Today I had a great time at the Natural History Museum. The museum had 5 zones where I saw expositions of very interesting things such as Volcanoes, earthquakes, insects, dinosaurs, birds, sea creatures and many more. It made me think of all the magnificent wonders our world encloses and that we don't have to travel far to unravel the great mysteries of life on earth. I realized that there is the same amount of work exploring little things as minerals and insects, as it is to explore huge things like dinosaurs and distant planets. I love nature, and it never stops to amaze me with its perfect mechanism. Everything is here for a reason and everything that happens comes as a result of something else, like an infinite chain reaction.


When my team and I felt like we were done, we split into two groups, half of us went back to the flats while Ben and I stayed sitting at a cafe in the library enjoying the free wifi and comfortable chairs. We stayed there because we thought it would be more convenient than paying to use the tube to go to the apartments and then for going to St. George's church for the afternoon meeting. This under the belief that St. George's church was a 45 minute walk from the natural history museum. We worked on our articles and milestones and I called my mom because today is Mother's Day in Mexico. At five we started walking to Aubrey's street. It was a loooong walk, but it was also in a pretty fancy neighborhood so I didn't mind it much. When we finally got there two minutes before six, I was exhausted and hungry. Exhausted because Ben is a really fast walker and I had to keep up and hungry because we skipped dinner. To our surprise nobody was there, and the church seemed closed and empty. Then bed said "let's try the back door" and we sneaked to a private back little garden with pretty benches and all kinds of flowers in small pots. I sat down and Ben pulled his phone out and as he was looking though it he goes, "oh". We were in the wrong St. George's church. We were over an hour walk away from the right one and about 45 minutes by car. "We should tell professor Manzo" I said and he called him and said "we will be there in about half an hour, we will take the tube". We walked for a bit and went through about eight stops in the tube until we finally arrived to the one closest to the actual meeting place. The meeting was almost done and after it we all walked back to the flats to leave our stuff and find somewhere to eat. Sofia and I got lost looking for a specific restaurant we wanted to go and is was a bit scary but we finally found it and it was totally worth it. The irony is that it was 6 minuted awn from our flats and it took us about half an hour walking to find it. Still with it thou, still worth it.

Activity #4 The National Gallery

Thursday May 11th 2017


Today we went to The National Gallery and I was pretty excited for it, but I did not like it at all. I love art but I did not know about the paintings nor the painters there so it was like watching a movie for the first time but with no sound; you can kinda guess what it is about, but it is hard to enjoy the experience. So I went through it, I saw the paintings, I read some info but I wish I had a tour guide like in Westminster Abbey or an audio set like in St. Paul's Cathedral because that would have definitely made the difference. After going through the expositions, I went with Trinity to a cafe in the lower level and had the best banana bread I have ever had, which made the visit a little bit more worth it. Then Sofia met me there at noon and we went outside to take pictures. There we saw Peter and Chris and we walked together to a Chipotle nearby. After eating lunch, we split again and as the boys headed back to the flats, Sofi and I walked towards the Buckingham Palace. We went to like three different parks and took over a thousand pictures. We saw people marching, riding horses, biking, playing with there pets and feeding squirrels, ducks, geese, pigeons and even swans. It was a beautiful afternoon and we had walked about six kilometers from the apartment when it started raining. We took the bus back which also works with the Oyster card and we cooked dinner again for everyone. This night's menu was lettuce wraps with grilled chicken and angel hair, avocados and almonds. It is Sofia's favorite food and I can totally see why. After that we cleaned up and we had an emergency meeting because apparently something happened with some students regarding drugs and alcohol so V.J and Constance reminded us about all the rules we are to follow to keep ourselves safe and sound.


It was so hard to fall asleep though because someone was having a karaoke night with songs like "This is me" from Camp Rock and "Push it" from Jump in and of course the whole High School Musical and Hannah Montana repertoire. It was so annoying, they were not even good singers and were probably pretty drunk, but oh well, it can't all be beautiful right? I hope to get good sleep during the weekend, because these past days have been rough and we have so much writing to do that breaks and naps are not a thing.

Activity #5 The British Museum

Friday May 12th 2017


Today I went to the British Museum and I am amazed by how great their collection is. They have things of all ages and from all over the world. Chris commented on how as they conquered new territories, they would bring back treasures to offer to the king. I loved to be able to go through most of the exhibitions. We learned a lot about Ancient Rome and Greece and they even had an exposition room dedicated to ancient Mexican civilizations. We walked the museum as a team and I think that made it more fun. We complemented the exposition with fun facts each of us knew about our areas of interest.


I am very happy this week is done though... It was amazing but also very tiring to be walking all over the city and pay attention to all the wonderful places we visited everyday. To then go somewhere and write about everything in the journals and then the daily articles. This week I created an article about Sir Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden Powell of Gilwell, St. Paul, and I contributed to the existing articles of the British Museum, The National Gallery and the Natural History Museum by adding sections to each one of them. This weekend I want to be able to work hard on my milestone background because doing a daily article left me no time to work hard on it. Hopefully this weekend will be enough to get it completely done and go take pictures to the sites to start painting as soon as possible. The supplies are here and I can't wait to start using them. Being able to see London as a non tourist is exciting and I love that I have the opportunity to analyze and represent the reality of London citizens from different perspectives through my project.

Activity #6 Concerts

Saturday May 13th 2017

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.

Activity #7

Sunday May 14th 2017

Activity #8 Museum of London, Pastman's Park & Smithfield Market

Monday May 15th 2017

Activity #9

Tuesday May 16th 2017

Activity #10

Wednesday May 17th 2017

Activity #11

Thurssday May 18th 2017

Activity #11

Friday May 19th 2017