12:33:15
2:15:32
22:20:02
18:45:45
Friday, January 25, 2008
Thursday, January 24, 2008
This is the drawing I worked on for my processing class. Its actually a different way of visualizing time. The seconds 'hand' is the bottom left corner, the minutes 'hand' is the bottom right corner, and the hours 'hand' is the top one. Please note that the time is in 24 hour time. I noticed that when I ran the script straight from processing, it returned Greenwich Mean Time, but when I ran the exported app, it gave me the time straight from my laptop. If you could just tell me if the time is right on your computer and what OS you're on, I would really appreciate it.
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Monday, April 16, 2007
I think a blog posting has been long overdue. Unfortunately, I don't have any good news. School life is getting more and more intense as finals draw nearer, which means more studying and less blogging. Yet my desire to share my experiences from Northern Italy compels me to leave something. As a compromise, I made an effort to actually label some of the pictures from my trip with logical titles. Also take note of the Easter Sunday pictures. I was really fortunate to be able to sit so close to the action and be literally a stone's throw away from the Pope. That's it for now, but don't hold your breaths.
Sorry...
Sorry...
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
PARIS!
Spring break happened like two weeks ago, but I'm still catching up. What did I do? Well, the title of this entry may give you a bit of a hint. Yes, I went to the City of Lights for my spring break. But only the first half. I'll get to the second half in another entry. This trip was three days long, and I really was impressed. I cannot emphasize how beautiful Paris is. I mean, Rome is a fantastic city, but I found myself falling in love with Paris for all the things that Rome seems to lack. For example, Paris has straight streets. I miss looking down the street and seeing all of the store facades and windows, which is almost non-existent in Rome with a few exceptions (like Via del Corso). It was also immaculate. Completely clean.
Chateau Versailles
Makini and I decided to go to Chateau Versailles because she had some free tickets, so I figured why not. It actually ties in nicely with my history class as it really demonstrates a great deal of Baroque art and architecture. Basically I just walked around a lot without paying too much attention to anything. The chapel was probably the most impressive part, but the gardens in the back were also enormous. King Louis the XIV, the Sun King, built a fountain in the gardens with a bronze sculpture of Apollo emerging from the water riding his chariot. This was pretty impressive as was the general opulence of the entire compound. Great paintings inside, but the hall of mirrors was a little underwhelming. It was nice to be in the same space, however, that Woodrow Wilson once occupied.
Louvre
Umm... the Louvre was humongous. I did the best I could to walk through the important stuff. I saw Michaelangelo's slaves, the original sketch for the Raft of Medusa, the Mona Lisa, Venus of Milo and a whole bunch of other stuff. All really incredible except the Mona Lisa. This was really underwhelming. However, I was actually really impressed with the building itself. I know how controversial Pei's pyramids are, but I have to say the he did a great job with the interior display spaces. The courtyard in the Sully Wing looks great with some well crafted details. Pei deserves more credit than he's been given for this great facility for viewing art.
Notre Dame
So I made it a point to go and see the cathedral of Paris, Notre Dame. There aren't any Gothic churches in Italy, so I really wanted to compare and contrast. Notre Dame really was quite beautiful. The whole church actually worked as a perfect diagram of everything a Gothic church should be: pointed arches, ribbed vaults, stained glass windows, intense vertical proportions, flying buttresses, and Latin cross plan. Not nearly as easy to draw as a Romanesque church, though.
Spring break happened like two weeks ago, but I'm still catching up. What did I do? Well, the title of this entry may give you a bit of a hint. Yes, I went to the City of Lights for my spring break. But only the first half. I'll get to the second half in another entry. This trip was three days long, and I really was impressed. I cannot emphasize how beautiful Paris is. I mean, Rome is a fantastic city, but I found myself falling in love with Paris for all the things that Rome seems to lack. For example, Paris has straight streets. I miss looking down the street and seeing all of the store facades and windows, which is almost non-existent in Rome with a few exceptions (like Via del Corso). It was also immaculate. Completely clean.Chateau Versailles
Makini and I decided to go to Chateau Versailles because she had some free tickets, so I figured why not. It actually ties in nicely with my history class as it really demonstrates a great deal of Baroque art and architecture. Basically I just walked around a lot without paying too much attention to anything. The chapel was probably the most impressive part, but the gardens in the back were also enormous. King Louis the XIV, the Sun King, built a fountain in the gardens with a bronze sculpture of Apollo emerging from the water riding his chariot. This was pretty impressive as was the general opulence of the entire compound. Great paintings inside, but the hall of mirrors was a little underwhelming. It was nice to be in the same space, however, that Woodrow Wilson once occupied.Louvre
Umm... the Louvre was humongous. I did the best I could to walk through the important stuff. I saw Michaelangelo's slaves, the original sketch for the Raft of Medusa, the Mona Lisa, Venus of Milo and a whole bunch of other stuff. All really incredible except the Mona Lisa. This was really underwhelming. However, I was actually really impressed with the building itself. I know how controversial Pei's pyramids are, but I have to say the he did a great job with the interior display spaces. The courtyard in the Sully Wing looks great with some well crafted details. Pei deserves more credit than he's been given for this great facility for viewing art.Notre Dame
So I made it a point to go and see the cathedral of Paris, Notre Dame. There aren't any Gothic churches in Italy, so I really wanted to compare and contrast. Notre Dame really was quite beautiful. The whole church actually worked as a perfect diagram of everything a Gothic church should be: pointed arches, ribbed vaults, stained glass windows, intense vertical proportions, flying buttresses, and Latin cross plan. Not nearly as easy to draw as a Romanesque church, though.Monday, March 26, 2007
Umm... so this time I can say I have dropped the ball. I still have more from the southern trip to show you as well as Spring Break stuff.
Southern Trip Continued-
Stop 6: Lecce-
Lecce is one of the farthest south towns in Italy, firmly placed in the heel of Italy's boot. The stone that is found in Lecce is unusually soft, which was used in just about every building built out of stone. Due to the nature of the stone, the denizens of Lecce became extremely expressive in their sculpture and architectural ornamentation. Likewise, this ease of sculpting fostered a culture of facetiousness regarding said ornamentation. This was the church attached to the governor's house, not even the cathedral. The uber-ornateness of the entire city coupled with its super soft stone made it feel like I was walking through a TV set or something. Not my favorite town.
Stop 7: Massafra-
So this stop was primarily for a Masseria, a fortified farm basically. Kind of boring to tell you the truth, but interesting because we got to learn about the olive oil making process. The farm was actually huge and the land that they owned was enormous. Here's a picture of the olive oil presses that we saw, dating back at least a few hundred years.
Stop 8: Matera-
Okay folks, this one is the real deal. This town was just absolutely astonishing. Basically, the town, which is right at the edge of a ravine, was made primarily from cave dwellings. These cave dwellings have been dated back to the neolithic time period, but were inhabited right up until the 1950's
(CE)! During the Iconoclasm, many monks came here from Byzantium carrying priceless Byzantine icons. The caves were designed in way so that every room would receive at least some daylight, including the far back rooms. They developed in a way that they were initially cisterns which were then changed into rooms. Each dwelling is based off of a courtyard comprising a basic social unit of families.
These units, also known as "vicinati" helped the families support each other as well as protect each other. When we arrived, surprisingly, the city looked more modern than most of the cities we visited on the way to Matera. The bus parked in a lot near the center of town. We got out and started our walk to our hotel. I noticed that the teachers were actually more excited than the students because most of us didn't know what to expect. Anyway, after we continued to walk through what seemed to be an ordinary modern town in Italy, we stopped at a small arcade that opened into a terrace overlooking a dip in the landscape. Although it was dark, the amber street lamps told me that the undulating landscape I was looking at was made entirely of tile roofs and stucco walls! The tiny buildings appeared to have been built on some ocean frozen during a tempest. The only building distinguishable from the rest was the cathedral on the top of a hill. We continued to walk into the 'Sassi,' which is the name for the neighborhood which has been built into the ravine. As we later found out, the stone pulled from the caves was then used for the buildings that cover the entrances. Our hotel (lobby seen here)
was actually a collection of sassi caves chosen simply for its location near the lobby cave. The other rooms were accessible via the winding streets that strung the vicinati together. I honestly don't know what to say about the hotel, other that it was incredible. Just go and live in a cave. Try it out. Incredible. You'll know what I mean.
Okay so these pictures aren't everything. Even what's in my flickr, really isn't everything, but check it out please! You need to see the pictures to understand what I'm talking about! This stupid tiny thumbnails don't do the space justice! And neither do the full sizes, but they come closer. Matera was really breathtaking.
Southern Trip Continued-
Stop 6: Lecce-
Lecce is one of the farthest south towns in Italy, firmly placed in the heel of Italy's boot. The stone that is found in Lecce is unusually soft, which was used in just about every building built out of stone. Due to the nature of the stone, the denizens of Lecce became extremely expressive in their sculpture and architectural ornamentation. Likewise, this ease of sculpting fostered a culture of facetiousness regarding said ornamentation. This was the church attached to the governor's house, not even the cathedral. The uber-ornateness of the entire city coupled with its super soft stone made it feel like I was walking through a TV set or something. Not my favorite town.
Stop 7: Massafra-
So this stop was primarily for a Masseria, a fortified farm basically. Kind of boring to tell you the truth, but interesting because we got to learn about the olive oil making process. The farm was actually huge and the land that they owned was enormous. Here's a picture of the olive oil presses that we saw, dating back at least a few hundred years.
Stop 8: Matera-
Okay folks, this one is the real deal. This town was just absolutely astonishing. Basically, the town, which is right at the edge of a ravine, was made primarily from cave dwellings. These cave dwellings have been dated back to the neolithic time period, but were inhabited right up until the 1950's
(CE)! During the Iconoclasm, many monks came here from Byzantium carrying priceless Byzantine icons. The caves were designed in way so that every room would receive at least some daylight, including the far back rooms. They developed in a way that they were initially cisterns which were then changed into rooms. Each dwelling is based off of a courtyard comprising a basic social unit of families. These units, also known as "vicinati" helped the families support each other as well as protect each other. When we arrived, surprisingly, the city looked more modern than most of the cities we visited on the way to Matera. The bus parked in a lot near the center of town. We got out and started our walk to our hotel. I noticed that the teachers were actually more excited than the students because most of us didn't know what to expect. Anyway, after we continued to walk through what seemed to be an ordinary modern town in Italy, we stopped at a small arcade that opened into a terrace overlooking a dip in the landscape. Although it was dark, the amber street lamps told me that the undulating landscape I was looking at was made entirely of tile roofs and stucco walls! The tiny buildings appeared to have been built on some ocean frozen during a tempest. The only building distinguishable from the rest was the cathedral on the top of a hill. We continued to walk into the 'Sassi,' which is the name for the neighborhood which has been built into the ravine. As we later found out, the stone pulled from the caves was then used for the buildings that cover the entrances. Our hotel (lobby seen here) was actually a collection of sassi caves chosen simply for its location near the lobby cave. The other rooms were accessible via the winding streets that strung the vicinati together. I honestly don't know what to say about the hotel, other that it was incredible. Just go and live in a cave. Try it out. Incredible. You'll know what I mean.Okay so these pictures aren't everything. Even what's in my flickr, really isn't everything, but check it out please! You need to see the pictures to understand what I'm talking about! This stupid tiny thumbnails don't do the space justice! And neither do the full sizes, but they come closer. Matera was really breathtaking.
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