Blogpost 3

In class we discussed 10 different ideas and how they relate to the Acropolis is Greece and the Xianyang Palace in China. These ideas include space, power, experience, principles, precedent, size, order, scale, technology and surface. The question now is how do these principles relate to present day architecture. More specifically, UNCG campus. To begin with, space or location has been important from the very beginning. The Acropolis is place upon a hilltop and Xianyang is located in the middle of the city.  These are both very important spaces in their cultures. UNCG goes along with this precedent that was set thousands of years ago. It is located in the heart of Greensboro. In comparison to the surrounding area, the size of the land that campus takes up is much larger. Next we have scale which coincides with the size. Each of the locations were spread out which allowed them to appear much more grand. The size along with the scale of them both help to contribute to their aspect of power. Xianyang does this as well. The buildings surrounding is are not very large, so the palace stands out amongst them which gives it a more powerful appearance. Another thing that adds to the power of UNCG are the various emergency poles that are located around campus. That shows people that it would not be difficult to get an alert to the police that protect the campus.

Another idea to be thought on is experience. In both Xianyang and Acropolis, the materials that were used in building were materials that could be found in the area. Therefore, they were materials that the people had experience working with. They were the surface materials that existed on the land. Today it is much easier to get your hands on different materials because of our means of transportation, and this allowed the people that built UNCG to have a much wider range of materials at hand. This also meant that they had more experience with these materials and that made it easier to select what should be used. For example, dorms are made with brick instead of wood. This is because if they were to be made of wood they would not be as durable and would also be much more susceptible to fires. This is something that was learned through experience with using the different technologies. This kind of experimentation was also used on determining the size and shape of the columns on the Acropolis. It took many trials and errors to come up with a design that would emphasize the beauty of the building.

All three of these places were established on a certain set of principles. The all have their own purpose. Be it a place of worship of gods or an emperor when referring to the past, or a place of learning when talking about the present. These principles also help to relate to the order of the places. In the Xianyang palace the person with the most power is the emperor, and it becomes less and less as you go down the chain of power. This occurs in UNCG as well starting with the Dean and going down from there.

Social Networking. Italian Style.

Social Networking comes in many shapes and forms all over the world.  It is constantly growing and changing. My focus however is on the networking trends of Italy.

http://www.vincos.it/world-map-of-social-networks/

As you can see from the image above, Facebook has pretty much taken over the social networking world.  It is the highest used networking site in a countless amount of countries. One of which is Italy. This form of social networking has been on the rise in Italy. It has been growing steadily at almost 3000% annually. It is so highly used that even police have used it to aid in capturing fugitives. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8570796.stm] Facebook however is not the only form of social networking that is used regularly in Italy. 

http://www.vincos.it/world-map-of-social-networks/

Netlog and Badoo are also of high use. Netlog is a website that allows you to do a wide range of things. You can chat with friends, add pictures, blog, check out what music is popular, join groups, check out events, play games and more. It comes in second place only to the almighty FACEBOOK. It is somewhat similar to the second place site of the United States, which is MySpace. You can customize the background of your profile and give it a touch of you and it also has many of the same features. However, you cannot add music to it, which is very popular on MySpace.  Badoo on the other hand is an online dating website. You can check out profiles of people near you, add pictures of yourself, message people, use chat, and get ratings. People find you quickly. From the ten minutes it took me to join and do research to the time I left, I had already received ten messages. If you want to be noticed even more you can use credits or pay money to put yourself in the spotlight. Another thing that you can do with either credits or money is view the people that want to meet you. Due to its ranking as number three in Italy it can be assumed that online dating is a very popular form of social networking.

COLOR WEEK!

The time for color has arrived. Throughout this week we did a lot of exercises to allow us to have a better understanding of color.  All of which caused headache after headache. The basic task was to choose two colors out of a pack of color aid paper and up with the color that is in between them. We also did this with three sheets of paper.

Day One. This was the first day that I started using the colors. On this day the assignment was to get used to working with the colors and practicing the technique. I chose two colors and had to find the mix of the two. After I found the mix I had cut out three 3x1in strips and place them into a piece of foam board. This was simple enough, but I later found out that it was only the beginning.

Day Two. The assignment for this day was very similar to that of day one. I still had to choose two colors and find the middle mix of the two. What was different about day two was the layout of the colors after they were selected. Instead of three strips the layout was a cross made out of five 2in squares. The ends of the cross were the original colors that I chose, and the middle was the mix of those two. On this day I began to realize that this could be more intense on the eyes than I had originally thought.

Day Three. Now marks the day that I would have a headache for the rest of the week. Day three I had to use five colors. Four to make a square out of 3in squares. They were to all be place 1in apart. In the middle of them is where the fifth color went. Then the mixture of the middle with all of the corners had to be put in the place where they intersected.

Day Four. First day that three way mixtures entered the equation. I thought this was going to be ridiculously difficult, but after looking at soooooo many colors over the past few days you start to realize that there are only certain colors that it can be and you don't have to think as much. However, searching through the numerous colors in order to find that one magical color did add to the head pain. It is all worth it when you find that match though. The assignment to turn in on this day was a triangle made of three outer triangles of my own chosen colors with the mixture in the  middle. I also started work on the big diamond.

Day Five. This day I had to finish work on the diamond.  All of the colors in this are cut into triangles. The top is a light color and the bottom is its darker contrast. On the two corners of the top are two random colors I selected and below them is its shaded version. If divided into two triangles the colors that are on the middle of the edges are mixtures of the two corners that surround them. The rest of the colors are three way mixes are colors that they are surrounded by.  The last assignment came from using the colors that I ended up with in my diamond.  I had to create four 3x3in compositions to represent the four seasons of the year. They are arranged as winter, spring, summer, fall from the left end to the right.

Final

Light. . . . . Box?

To begin this semester, we were given an assignment that would help us to think more about space than just about individual objects.  In order to achieve this we were told to create a 12x12x18in box and to divide the light inside of it into FOUR SPACES. Now, this is somewhat ambiguous, as are all of the instructions we get, but the time had come to ride to the occasion .

Beginning this project I just knew what I wanted to do, and I knew it was going to be great. I started off making my box out of cardboard to get into it, then I drew up an intense, abstract design and cut it out. BAM! It was greatness. However, once I finishes and looked at it, "knew" turn in to "wan't so sure about" and "greatness" turned into "just no".  That was no big deal though, for a first attempt I liked it and after further examination I realized that I wanted to keep some of the properties of this initial box and bring it along with me for the ride.

Next I decided to just keep experimenting on this box because I didn't truly know what it was that I was looking for. I made a random cut on the side and shined light through it at all different angles and used different light as well, but I wasn't really feeling this so I decided not to go with it.  What I did learn from this though is that I rather enjoyed the way that it looked when I moved the light around so I kept this in mind to call back upon later on during the duration of this project.

After this I decided to go into more of a corner approach. I did not cut something out of one of the corners though, which seemed to be a logical conclusion for the box, but instead I cut off the corners in the back of the box.  I really enjoyed the way that the light shined through on this one. it was magnificent. I just knew I had to keep it. Unfortunately I had not yet reached FOUR SPACES though and I had to add on something else to the box to give it more of a completeness. In order to achieve this I came to the conclusion the I could add a rectangular cut out to the top that was center left to right but off center front to back. That was a keeper as well and it was time to further develop the box in the next stage

Once I had figured out my four spaces it was time to either add SKEWERS or BRISTOL BOARD in order to bring those spaces to life and give them more of a three dimensional feel to them.  Instead of doing this on my box that had been bruised, battered, and abused, I decided to remake my final box and do everything on there. With this I learned the definition of HELL. I made my final box out of a different material which in turn made the light that shinned through different. After a long period of frustration, I came to the conclusion that it was best to incorporate the two boxes both into to final one. Parts of it were made out of foam board and parts out of cardboard. Stress Relieved. Once I did this it was easy for me to decide that I wanted to use black metal skewers as opposed to bamboo skewers or bristol board, and also where I wanted to place them.

Lastly I had to make a scale figure. I have come to realize that making a decision on this when you are in a state of delirium is probably not the best decision for me. It is almost inevitable for my state of being to shine through in this figure, and it definitely did happen. My scale figure ended up looking like a dancing cartoon person that was pole dancing.  Probablyyyyyy not the best thing to complete my project, so the scale figure definitely had to be upgraded at a later date in time.

In the final box I decided to also change the positioning of my light. I enjoyed the way that it looks it the front and in the back so in order to use both I decided that the building would be an east/west facing building so that these two positions, as well as the positions in between would all be seen. 

FINAL LIGHT BOX

position one

position two

position three

position four

position five

Blogpost 1

As I walked around campus on Friday the 21st a deep sense of oneness with my environment came over me. I started to realize how big of an impact it has on the way that we live our lives and what things we find subconscious meaning in. To begin with, the significance that a circle represents is seen all around us. It marks ritualistic, important, and many other places of meaning. Circles are found all around campus. One of which I witnessed was in the entrance to the EUC. The entire entrance has a circular form, and in the very center there is a moderately sized circle with rays protruding from it, evenly spaced around. When groups of people meet in this area it is only natural that they would migrate to that very center point due to its presence that it has in the room.

Groups are another thing that I found there to be a significant amount of on campus. Most of these were found in the forms of columns. One in particular that has a powerful stance were the columns found outside of the Ferguson building. These columns mark the pathway between Ferguson and the School of Education, and because there is great repetition of them, they have more of an impact on the environment. They are seen as more important. This is true not only with these columns, but with anything that is repeated numerous times in nature. As it occurs more the significance of it grows and changes it from something meaningless into something worth attention and praise.

Lastly, we have stacks. Stacking has been seen around since ancient times and has always been a successful way of giving something presence and meaning. For example, the pyramids in Ancient Egypt. The higher they were stacked the more important they were seen as. This remains true today. On UNCG campus, the library is the highest stacked building. Its stacks can be seen all throughout campus. The sheer mass of these stacks gives it a strong presence from almost anywhere. Although they do not take the form of a pyramid they still give that same feel and this remains true for stacks all around the world. 

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