Osgibbs

Olivia Gibbs

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

London Architecture
Objective: A descriptive timeline of the change in architecture throughout the city through photographs including comparing different churches, buildings, bridges, museums and even unsung architectures accomplishments such as parking garages (aka car parks).

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

London Street Art
Objective: To what extent does London's street art differ throughout the city via location, subject, and techniques?

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 Within, Holding and Around
Objective: To fulfill the art capstone requirement the objective is to compare, reflect and perhaps find a link to, the famous works of art hung in galleries to the building's architecture holding them and then to the graffiti sprinkled around the vicinity. Inside is art, outside is art and around is art.

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

My activity journal represents my ongoing log of reflections gained through each and every project activity including relations to my milestones and fun facts!

Westminster Abbey

   Monday May 8th
   Group Tour Westminster Abbey

Connections to Milestones: Direct Connection to Architecture Milestone
As you walk into the church, your automatically look up- this was done on purpose. The church is built in a gothic style so all the lines and architecture point up. The architecture aligns with the function of the building, because by looking up automatically you think of the almighty aka God. Also, another gothic style was the use of the arch, stones can be placed with a keystone so the weight is held up by the pillars on the sides.

Fun Facts/Stories to Remember:
1. The choral boys attend the elite choral school starting at seven years old until thirteen years old. They work everyday in the church singing and perform the Evensong 3pm on the weekend and 5pm everyday of the week. It consists of a few bible verses and then forty- five minutes of singing outside of the church. Anyone is more than welcome to join and listen for free. The choral boys are the most elite singers in the UK, so after age thirteen they have no problem finding another program to join. I enjoyed hearing the boys, even though at an elite school, are still boys; read about The Coronation Chair and the boys mischief 100+ years ago here Westminster Abbey.
2. When you leave the Westminster Abbey, make sure to turn around to see over ten statues carved out of different figures each with different stories and faith. One story was of a man who was in Auschwitz concentration camp and was going to be killed but pleaded not to be because he has a family and children. The one in charge didn't care but another man stepped up and sacrificed himself instead since he had no wife and no children. Fortunately, the man survived the camp and was reunited with her wife and children. So one of the statues was of the man who scarified himself. Again, all of them have different faiths showing that all are welcomed into the church.
3. The phrase Bloody Mary we all know today comes from Mary, a step sister, while in power tried really hard to convert priests to Catholicism by giving them the ultimatum; either convert or burn at the stake. And 300 decided to die with their faith and were burn at the stake, creating blood aka Bloody Mary.

"Work": Emily (x2), Trinity, Ben, Andrew, Justine and I all worked on creating the Westminster Abbey page.

Tower of London

   Monday May 8th 
   Group Tour Tower of London
   

Connections to Milestones: Direct Connection to Architecture Milestone
As we walked into the courtyard on all four sides you could see stone towers all filled with different exhibits. Each one varied in shape, including rounding buildings, square towers, walk ways on top, gates in between and arches. Again, with the purpose of the function in mind, the whole estate was surrounded by a wall to keep it private.

Fun Facts/Stories to Remember:
1. Throughout the entire estate there were animals, aka Royal Beasts, made out of chain wire from monkeys on top of the wall after you exist the Crown Jewels to the Elephant's head sticking out by the gate. They were unexpected and cool elements of art that have been added after the fact.
2. We also so the beginning of a performance which was a reenactment of the time period demonstrating one who might be exiled by disagreeing. It was fun because the audience was involved, unexpected and the actors/works were very much into character making it fun to watch. They must enjoy their jobs!
3. We waited in the short line for the Crown Jewels and saw all the crowns, swords and scepters bedecked in jewels that cost a fortune. My favorite was Queen Victoria's small crown since it was different and little.
4. Also I learned about different techniques for torture where the rack technique of simply pulling apart someone's joints really gave me the chills with the thought of it.

Work: Emily (x2), Trinity, Ben, Andrew, Justine and I all worked on creating Tower of London page.

The British Library

   Monday May 8th 
   Group Tour The British Library

Connections to Milestones: Direct Connection to Architecture Milestone
First and foremost I loved the gates as you go in that read British Library from top to bottom made out of the thick metal for gates. It was creative and clever instead of a boring regular gate. Also as you walk in the layout is different with angled rooftops which hands itself for a set of stairs as you walk in. The building is more modern than most we have seen, where it is a more clean cut design with little detail or sculptures.

Fun Facts/Stories/Tips to Remember:
1.Bags need to be searched before going in but food and drinks are allowed to be brought in!!
2. While there are many different floors, it can be difficult to find a seat so that is why my group ended up taking a seat outside after walking a lap around each floor.

Work: Emily (x2), Trinity, Ben, Andrew, Justine and I all worked on creating/editing The British Library page.

British Museum

   Tuesday May 9th 
   Group 2 British Museum

First official day working with Group 2, we walked to the British Museum, we were able to get right in with no wait and no purchase tickets necessary.

Connections to Milestones:
Direct Connection to Architecture Milestone: As you walk in there are the South staircase to your left to go up to a gallery but if you walk straight through the entry way you are in Queen Elizabeth II Great Court, which is the big white rounded structure in front of you. This is a great architecture landmark, being the largest covered square in Europe. When you are in this center location all the white and glass cover lets in the light and the entire area is very bright. Also, every wing has a different building design, with different ceilings, pillars and door frames. With each variation, it allows the viewer to realize they have entered a different gallery which often means a different region of the world is on display too.

Indirect: On the bottom floor is a gallery for Greek and Roman architecture where parts of different temples are on display. They still are intact because of the sturdy stone that it is made out of. The remains are huge, and standing next to them just makes me realize how big the entire temple would have been. This is a relation to my architecture milestone showing me different types of architecture from the past.

Fun Facts/Stories to Remember:
1. Come back in a few weeks to see the The Great Wave off Kanagawa who's gallery will be opening soon and check out the pop to modern american art gallery too!! 2. Drinks/food/coffee are allowed in! But no painting supplies. 3. I liked how the museum was set up by different country so it was like you were traveling around the world as you moved through different galleries.

Work: Emily Wilson, Natalie, Cole, Peter and I all worked on creating British Museum page.

Evensong

   Tuesday May 9th 5pm
   Concert

I attended the concert with a few other students and sat along the side so one of the large pillars blocked my view of the choir directly, so I watched through the TV screen. However I could see the priest reading the bible verses and prayers. It still blows my mind they are just young boys performing the songs, it both english and latin. I thought it was a soothing sound, but difficult to make out the words so I was thankful to have them printed in the booklet along with the bible verses.

Connections to Milestones:
The music and performance does not directly fit into our milestone, but it gave me another chance to sit and admire all the gothic style architecture within the Westminster Abbey.

Fun Facts/Stories to Remember:
1. Get there early so you can been seated literally next to the choir!! 2. And it only lasts about 30 minutes.

Work: I just added a few sentences to Westminster Abbey.

St. Paul's Cathedral

   Wednesday May 10th
   Group 2 Activity St. Paul's Cathedral

Connections to Milestones:
Direct Connection to Architecture Milestone: First by the steps the pillars and stone work supporting the front entrance is huge and grand. The building was built in the baroque style. Then the minute I walked in and my back was to the Front (just the bowl for baptism water), I was in awe- looking down The Naval at the High Alter is breathtaking. The arches, all leading up to the Dome are tall and regal decorated with gold and mosaics paintings above them. Then directly below the Dome I stood looking up to see the no color painting which covers the Dome. I learned that similar to the building itself being inspired by Italian buildings, the mosaic artwork was done too by an Italian artist. The bottom floor is The Crypt, where it is more modern and I can clearly see the inspiration of Italy. All the ceilings and walls are white, reminding me of the terraces in Italy. It was more simple both in decoration and architecture than above. Direct Connection to Street Art Milestone: One of CBloxx's work of art was on display. She is a top female street artist. It is a twist of the iconic women, Mary. "CBloxx has taken as her starting point Mary's situation as a refugee and has juxtaposed past and present to create a poignant piece that has real resonance at a time when the media is saturated with scenes of pregnant mothers, babies and young children fleeing violent oppression and abject poverty."

Fun Facts/Stories to Remember:
1. The Whispering Gallery (the gallery above the Cathedral Floor) was a little hike up the narrow spiraling staircase but sooo worth it. It allowed me to literally walk around the entire Dome. I even saw the tops of the domes leading up to higher alter, including where a 500 pound bomb fell in World War II destroying the alter. Also it is true; if someone whisper on one side of the gallery you can hear it through the wall on the other side! 2. It was interesting to see the Street Art on display by CBloxx- one of the world's top ten female street artists. and the fact that it was in the Cathedral, very unexpected.

Work: I added to the St. Paul's Cathedral page, focusing on the Crypt.

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: