Thursday, April 30, 2009

The Photographers’ Gallery





If I were to display some of my personal photos in a studio I know exactly how I would want them printed as well as displayed. I would probably have my photos sent out to Kodak or a similar company. I would want my photos somewhere along the larger side maybe 8 X 13. I would like a simple wooden frame with a classic dark stain around it. Back to the print I would want them to use a polarizer so that the colors would be a little bit brighter I think I would have it on extra glossy paper or maybe some of them would be have a matt finish. I would probably use a more modern technological method in order to keep my complications to a minimum. I think I would make my photos all limited editions with no more than 15 prints. The photos I would choose would probably be from my recent trip to Belgium or Wales.

The photos that I found the most interesting were the ones of the gum. At first I didn’t even know that it was gum. Who ever thought that playing with your gum could be considered art? I really liked how they turned out and were displayed. The one that I found to be the most annoying was the print of the Hawaiian Hibiscus flowers. I didn’t like it because I thought it was a little to simple and some what boring. It reminded me of wall paper. The photos that I enjoyed the most were the photos with the oil paint on top of them. I really enjoyed the photo of the leaning tower of Pizza. For some reason it the added paint looked to me like there are a bunch of clothes liens going to the tower and on these clothes lines are several pices of abstract clothing. I really enjoyed our trip to the photo gallery, although I do wish that they would have more on display. (I had the names of the photographers but I misplaced my notes)

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Aesthetic Tate Britian

When it comes to my Aesthetic I believe that I am a classicist. I happen to enjoy paintings where the colors flow together, complement each other, as well as balance each other out. I also prefer paintings of real things not blotches of paint on a canvas titled sunset, when in fact a blot of orange and yellow paint does not deserve the title of sunset.

Another thing that I include in my aesthetic is how it draws me in emotionally. How does the painting make me feel, does it make me happy or sad? Do I get a peaceful feeling when I am looking at it? I enjoy all different paintings that cause me to feel some sort of emotion.

When it comes to Turner and Rothko I noticed some similarities between the two artists. They had some similar brush strokes. Turner was a great artist who had a lot of variation in his work from abstract horizons, with sunsets to these beautiful paintings of Venice, and other beautiful places. From what I saw from Rothko he only painted these abstract and off the wall painting.

In all honestly I did not care for Rothko’s work. It was something that I could have created. I did like however the how he used different shades of red in one of his paintings. As I was sitting in the one room with the large paintings for some bizarre reason I felt really uncomfortable.

Victorian Underclass




During class on Tuesday we took a geocashing tour of all the sites of where Jack the Ripper had killed several of his victims. The journey was mostly threw East London, the portion of London in which has historically always been considered the slums of London.
All of Jack the Ripper’s victims had several things in common. They all lived in the neighborhoods of East London in the White Chapel area, the victims were all women, and they all worked as local prostitutes.

Back in this time during the Victorian age women were not considered equal to men. With the Industrial Revolution just getting started life for the urban poor was very hard. “The technology of the Industrial Revolution had a great impact on society. Inventions not only introduced new industries for employment, but the products and services produced also altered society. Mining to extract the coal and other raw materials needed to fuel the Industrial Revolution was a major new industry, and before 1842 even women worked in the mines”(Wickapedia: Victorian Age). Those who did not work in the coalmines worked long hours in factories, with horrible working conditions, and where labor laws were nonexistent.
Due to the Industrial Revolution, which drew, a lot of people to London caused a great housing shortage. “Available housing was scarce and expensive, resulting in overcrowding. These problems were magnified in London, where the population grew at record rates. Large houses were turned into flats and tenements, and as landlords failed to maintain these dwellings slum housing developed. Kellow Chesney described the situation as follows: ‘Hideous slums, some of them acres wide, some no more than crannies of obscure misery, make up a substantial part of the, metropolis... In big, once handsome houses, thirty or more people of all ages may inhabit a single room’” (Wickipedia Victorian Age Poverty).

The working conditions were so horrible and the wages were so low many people were not able to afford their rent. Because of this many women turned to prostitution. Prostitution was very common in poor urban areas, where women had limited power and control. It was considered an easy way for them to make money in order to support themselves. At this time in history their were much more women compared to men. Their for many did not even have a chance to get married, and their fore no one to support them, causing many of them to find work out on the streets. During this time period prostitutes were highly looked down upon, their were some efforts to get these women from working on the streets but it was very hard for them to become respectable people in society, they were seen as a social problem

Thursday, April 23, 2009



Aesthetics Dinner

On Tuesday evening I had the pleasure of going to Tas a Turkish restaurant in Bloomsbury Square. Not only did I enjoy my company I also really enjoyed the food. This was my first time to a Turkish restaurant and I was really excited to try it. Walking into the door I was greeted by a friendly host who show me as well the others I was with to our table. One of the first things that I noticed was the music is was calm and peaceful; the second thing that I noticed was how clean and presentable everything was.
I liked the white table cloths with the square plates and then the cloth napkins on top of the plates followed by bright yellow menu. I enjoyed the how the name of the restaurant was engraved in the silver ware; I thought it added a nice touch. They placed out two wine glasses for everyone one was for water and the other for wine.
I thought the menu was very creative I enjoyed all of the starts that were given to us. There were a total of seven starters: Humus, Zeytin Yagli Patlican, Tabule, Manca, Zeytin Yagli Bakla, Sebzeli Kofte (Falafel), and Borek. I enjoyed all of them, they were all unique and something that I had never tried prior to this dinner. The humus was really good I enjoyed eating it with the bread that they served. I also found the Borek to be really good. All of the starters were excellent however this was my first time eating this type of food therefore I have nothing to compare it to.

When it came to the main course we had several options to choose from: Karides Guvech, Kalamari, Turlu, Ispanakli Patates, Karisik Izgara, Mousakka, Tavuk Sis, Eksili Kofte, Tavuk Guvech. I ordered the Karisik Izgara; it was a mixed grill for beef, chicken, and minced lamb. It was very good all of the meat had a lot of flavor. It was served with Orzo, red cabbage, and finally white rice on the side. Everything tasted exceptionally well. Their was so much food with all of the appetizers and with the main course I was unable to finish all of my food I actually took about half of it to go. When the waiter came by with the dessert menu I laughed because I really wanted to try it but I couldn’t possible finish it.
I really enjoyed the table we were sitting at. We were seated near the window and had a pretty view of the busy street filled with people walking by. I also enjoyed all of the artwork that was displayed on the walls it was really pretty.
We also had the opportunity to sample two different wines thanks to Dr. Manly. We first had a bottle of the Taz house white wine. And then we had a bottle of the Taz red wine. I am not much of a wine drinker so I found the wine to be really strong. At first the red wine was very blunt and then near the end of the dinner it mellowed out a bit and got a little bit sweeter.
Overall I really enjoyed my meal at Taz and I would be more than happy to return soon.

The London Canals



Yesterday we had the opportunity to geocaching along the London Canals. We walk over one of the canals every day it is really close to some of our flats. At first the canals looked kind of sketchy with the dirty water and the graffiti along the brick walls down into the canals. After we started walking a little further past the first geocach, we started to see long and narrow boats where people lived. Some of these boats had the doors open to them and we were able to get a glance or two in as we were walking by. It was interesting to see, I don’t really understand why someone would choose to live in one of those small boats I would thing it would be rather in convenient and too much of a hassle.
As we continued to walk down the canals we came across some really large and beautiful homes. Many of these homes had steps that lead down to the canals. However their were gates that prevent people from getting to the canal form the steps. I believe at one time the owners of the houses used the canals as a form of transportation but now that is no longer the case.

As far as the infrastructure goes I believe the canals were once used to transport goods as well as people in and around London. After doing a little bit of research I found that the, “Canals were built to serve the heavy industry of the north and midlands and whilst London had industry and the country's major port, it did not have coal mines and the surrounding south east of England was mainly agricultural”

The canals have a long history many were built in the early 1800’s. and on several occasions their have been attempts to turn the canals into railways.

There is some discrepancy as to who were the first to create canals. The Chinese can claim that the Grand Canal of China was one of the first, in the tenth century, although even earlier examples existed in that country. The earliest canals were connected with natural rivers, either as short extensions or improvements to them. The difference between a natural river, and a wholly man-made canal is clear, but in between are many variations of river improvement and extension so it is therefore difficult to be precise about which navigation can claim to be the first canal! The familiar pound lock which is in use today in Britain is said to have been invented by Chhiao Wei-Yo, in the year 983, in China, although the mitre gate, an important part of the canal lock today, is credited to Leonardo Da Vinci

http://www.canalmuseum.org.uk/history/ukcanals.htm

Thursday, April 16, 2009

The effects of Fires, Plauges, and Cholera on London



Geocashing is a wonderful way of teaching people about significant locations and events in history. Last week our class learned about some horrible things that have happened in London, these things have changed London forever.
One of the first clues that we found was located at the memorial of the Fire of London. The memorial is two hundred feet high and is located in central London. The Great fire of London started from Sunday, 2 September to Wednesday, 5 September 1666. It consumed 13,200 houses, 87 parish churches, St. Paul's Cathedral, and most of the buildings of the City authorities. It is estimated that it destroyed the homes of 70,000 of the City's ca. 80,000 inhabitants. The death toll from the fire is unknown and is traditionally thought to have been small, as only six verified deaths were recorded. This reasoning has recently been challenged on the grounds that the deaths of poor and middle-class people were not recorded anywhere, and that the heat of the fire may have cremated many victims, leaving no recognizable remains.

Another thing that has had a huge impact on London has been plagues. The Great Plague (1665-1666) was a massive outbreak of disease in England that killed an estimated 100,000 people, 20% of London's population. The disease was historically identified as bubonic plague, an infection by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, transmitted through a flea.

One other place that the geocashing took us was to the John Snow Pub, where John Snow discovered the source of cholera, which was killing a lot of people in that particular section on London. Transmission to humans occurs through eating food or drinking water contaminated with cholera vibrios. The major reservoir for cholera was long assumed to be humans themselves, but considerable evidence exists those aquatic environments can serve as reservoirs of the bacteria. Once someone contracts cholera they can get sudden diarrhea where they can die with in three hours, if now medical treatment is rendered.

If I would have not participated in these geocashes I would have not learned as much about theses different things that have had a huge impact on London.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Greenwich Geocashing



This weeks geocatch was a lot of fun we took the DLR to Greenwich were we ate lunch at Mc Donald’s and then proceeded to the Royal Naval Collage for our first clue. From there we walked past a museum through a large park and up a hill to the Royal Observatory. There was the British Prime Meridian, which was not the prime meridian according to my GPS unit. From there we did come more of our code work and took a few pictures and then went to the final place right outside of the old Royal Navel College. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed Greenwich.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Week 2 Geocatching



On Wednesday morning Karen, Myhn and myself headed to the first tile right outside the Tower Hill Tube station. We found it really fast we didn’t even need to use our gps unit. Now that were excited we decided to go and find the other two tiles. We fired up our gps and started walking toward the London Museum. Along the way stopped to eat and then the Cash Machine. We eventually made it to tile 15 when we were looking for tile 14. Once we found 15 we studied the map on the tile and then 10 minutes later we found tile 14 next to the pretty church.

We thought we had the right coordinates to find the mystery cache so on Thursday morning we headed out and ended up in North London when we realized that we were in zone three our group decided it would be best to turn around and go back to the flats. When we got back to the flats we found out that I had written some of the information down wrong. Shortly after we headed out and found the right place. I tried emailing the answer but I couldn’t figure it out yet. THE SIGHT OF LUDGATE DEMOLISHED, the building 90 degrees St. Paul’s Cathedral, the significance of Ludgate is, it is one of the hills that the Roman Wall was built on.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Saatchi and The Tate Modern






Yesterday we went to two different modern art museums here in London. The first was the Saatchi, and second was the Tate Modern. For some reason I have never been a huge fan of modern art every time I enter a modern art museum I see some off the wall things that I do not consider art, but then again who am I to say what is and what is not art.
While I was at the Saatchi their were three works that really spoke to me. The one with the most impact on me was from the artist Shadi Ghadirian in his or her Untitled form the like everyday series. It was a series of paintings of women from the Middle East but in place of their faces was an object that in many ways tell women their place in that particular society. Take for instance the one with a broom as her face this message is telling women that their job in that society is to sweep and to do chores around the house. It is demonstrating some of the inequalities between men and women. Nearly all of cultures in world are patriarchal societies where the men are in charge and are viewed as superior to women. This is so even in America where women are expected to do a “Second Shift” once they come home from work. I like these paintings because I believe that the artist wants his or her culture to break away from that. The artist believes that women should not be viewed as brooms, mops, irons, and plates or anything like that women should be viewed as humans.

The second work that I really enjoyed was a painting Ahmed Alsoudani titled Baghdad I. I love this painting because it was so abstract and do different. I loved his use of colors and how the painting seems to flow together even though it is so abstract. For some reason I really like it.

The third exhibit that I really enjoyed was located downstairs in Gallery 13. It was the one of a bunch of old men sitting in wheelchairs rust rolling around randomly. I like it because at first it looked funny, then when you got closer it looked kind of creepy because these men looked real. After stand back and watching these fake old men roll around in their wheelchairs I was trying to figure out what the artist wants us to get form this exhibit. After thinking a bit more I have come to the conclusion that the artist wants us to realize that when we get old we might end up in a wheelchair just randomly rolling around a room. It is kind of sad and it makes me not want to get old.

After the Saatchi we ate lunch and then took a bus to St. Paul’s Cathedral and then took the Millennium Bridge over the Thames to the Tate Modern. I enjoyed the Tate it had a lot of interesting things, and had a lot of people there.
One exhibit that I enjoyed a lot was the blue and yellow bunk beds all with one book on top of each bed. With a HUGE black spider above the beds and old movies playing in the background with red arches going here and there. I think the artist is trying to say is that when you are a child (bunk beds usually children sleep in bunk beds) in your dreams everything seems larger than life, like the huge spider. This is so especially if you are freighted but something such as a spider. I think the red arches symbolize pain or fear and the movies I can’t really explained.
The next exhibit that I really enjoyed was by Joseph Beuys, titled The Pack 1969. I loved this one because it was a gray/ white VW Bus that had several wooden sleds behind it, each sled containing a survival kit, with felt, belts and flashlights. I think Beuys was trying to say that cars and technology can only get you so far eventually you may need to get back to more basic stuff like a simple wooden sled and a flash light.

I also enjoyed the painting in the Tate restaurant by James Aldridge. I like it because it takes a pretty scenic view of trees and woodlands and adds a bit of heavy metal music to it I like the colors that he chose and all of the birds in the wallpaper

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Geocahing Week 1






Geocaching Week 1
I completed all of the geocaching for this week.