Katharine Conroy

Overview

The paragraph should give a three to five sentence abstract about your entire London HUA experience including 1) a summary of the aims of your project, 2) your prior experience with humanities and arts courses and disciplines, and 3) your major takeaways from the experience.

Milestone 1 Grunge Music in London

Grunge Music in London
Objective: A comparison of London and American grunge music that depicts the key differences and similarities.

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Milestone 2 Theater in London

Theater in London
Objective: Looking at theater in London to see the nuances different than New York theater

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Milestone 3, Capstone

Music Theory behind London Grunge Music
Objective: Analysis the key musical elements to London Grunge music.

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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 and The Tower of London

Today was the first official day of our time here in London! Still, a bit jet lagged, we started our time here at one of London’s most famous churches, Westminster Abbey or the Collegiate Church of St. Peter at Westminster. Many know this location as the place where many royals have celebrations such as coronations and weddings. In my most recent memory, I remember all of the excitement when Prince William and Kate Middleton got married at that exact spot. So as I roamed the great size of the church, I looked at all of the magnificent details on all of the tombs, craving, and statuary. The stained glass was also breathtaking and detailed depicting many monarchs and religious figures. However, my favorite part of the Westminster Abbey was the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior. It showed that no matter what class you were you would still be judged just the same under the eyes of God.

After the trip to Westminster Abbey, we went to see the Tower of London. It housed many precious items such as the Royal Crown Jewels, the armory, and torture devices also known as instruments of persuasion. As I walked through the castle I realized how important their history and tradition was. The monarchy is very devout to their traditions with many dating back hundreds of years. An extension of this would be the Yeomen or Beefeaters, who can be seen safeguarding the crown jewels. Originally my original impression of the Beefeaters was that they were people who were dressed in traditional garb to simulate the past uniform style, but when I asked a lady from information, she informed me that they were highly trained ex-military. This was very surprising and added greatly to my experience. After the first day of actives in London, I was very exhausted but also still very excited to see what was in store for me in the upcoming weeks.

Activity #2 St. Paul's Cathedral

Today we went to see the St. Paul's Cathedral , which is part of the Anglican faith. This cathedral was gorgeous with its murals, mosaics and baroque style. the baroque style was very unusual for an Anglican Church due to the fact that is was used frequently by the Roman Catholic church, which it split with when the pope denied King Henry the VIII a marriage annulment.

When I first walked in, I saw the huge baptismal font that is used during the christening of those seeking the faith. There were also wonderful icons of Jesus and Madonna and Child that I have only been able to see in textbooks or online. The Nave was filled with statues in memory of famous was generals.Then, once you are done gawking at the sight in front, you to gaze up at the ceiling and you realize the magnitude of the cathedral. The journey up to the Whispering Gallery was very tedious up to those stairs but it was really cool to look down onto the ground below. However, I am terrified of heights so let’s just say the ceiling was very pretty from that height! Overall, I thought that it was some of the most impressive artwork I have ever seen.

Activity #3 British Museum

The journey we took today brought us to one of the first places we met our advisor during our first day out and about; the British Museum. When walking past the museum, you can see its Greek architecture filled with columns and arches. The whole museum is decorated with ornate crown moldings and tray ceilings, which add to the openness of the rooms. However, unlike most of the sights seen so far, most of the exhibits are artifacts instead of a places to explore. It very much felt like the MET with all of the exhibits emphasizing different times in history and all that they had to offer.

My favorite exhibit of the museum was the one featuring the Mesopotamia region. This exhibit brought me back to sixth grade when I first learned about this region. I saw many tablets with writing in cuneiform, which I remember learning as a kid. It was really cool to see new and different artifacts there. I even got to see the Rosetta Stone, which I remember being a huge deal because it was used to decode other ancient languages. There were also some elements of the museum that kind of had something to do with my theatre milestone, due to the fact that there were ancient artifacts such as masques. This showed the early roots of both theater, where masks were often used to depict characters. Overall I really enjoyed the museum because it brought me back to a wonderful time of my life.

Activity #4 Natural History Museum

I was very excited about going to the Natural History Museum! I absolutely adore going to these types of museums due to the fact that they contain a myriad of exhibits with different exhibitions. The exterior and interior of the building is filled with a mix of roman and gothic architecture, which gave the area a feeling of openness and spaciousness.

When walking in, I immediately thought about my favorite museum The American Museum of Natural History in New York City. I sent a lot of my childhood and teen life exploring the place I called home. There was always something new and cool to see and it had my favorite prehistoric friends the dinosaurs too. So on arrival, I expedited my way to the dinosaurs and more specifically the prehistoric sea dinosaurs. They had a huge collection of pliosaurs fossils and some ichthyosaurus too. It honestly reminded me of the movie Land Before Time: Journey to Big Water. They also had a animatronic T-Rex which I found really amazing! But in comparison to the American Museum of Natural History, I feel it does not have as many really big dinosaurs (though I may just be biased). Pertaining to my project, I did see a picture of the Nirvana cover Nevermind, which shows the impact that grunge music had on London culture. Overall, found the museum very different then I originally thought. It focused mainly on a lot of different animals, reptiles, and geological topics, which made this a unique experience.

Activity #4 National Gallery and Lunchtime concert

Today, I saw The National Gallery and it was really disappointing due to the fact that my favorite artist, Monet and all of the Impressionists, were closed today. I really enjoy the impressionists because of the way they see the world. In their works of art, they provide nature and people in their everyday lives. They are not staged and contained many colors and movements. Another artist I was looking forward to was Johannes Vermeer, but they only had one of the three paintings available. I remember reading a book in second grade called Chasing Vermeer, so I was really interested in seeing a few of his paintings, but the one that was there was very intricately painted and contained a lot of symbolism.

We also saw a concert at the St Martins of the Feilds, which was really awesome. The concert was played by Nikolay Ponomarev, who played the piano. I personally really enjoy listening to music and differentiating the styles of composers, so I was excited by the list of songs on the program. The Transcendental Etude No. 10 in F Minor by Franz Liszt had a very heavy and somber sound to it while as Etude No 10, Op25 in B minor by Chopin has more of a light and airy texture to it. It reminded me of sitting in my music history class in high school and the analysis of these songs to understand where the composer was trying to communicate.