Independent Travel Notes: Classroom vs. Experience

Ca' Brutta - Milan - Muzio

                The group I traveled with during independent travel consisted only of Khris Kirk and myself. The fact that we ended up traveling together was largely due to the fact that neither of us jumped on board with any of the other groups of people as they planned their trips. Despite the circumstantial nature of our pairing it worked out beautifully. Having just the two of us meant that there was lot of flexibility our itinerary. Also Khris choose Berlin as one of our destinations (the others being Athens and Milan) and I am extraordinarily glad she did.

                Most of the sites we visited over the course of our travels were buildings and locations that we had already studied. Some were things we’ve covered this semester, and some were things that we just had a general knowledge of. Regardless, already having knowledge of the things that we were viewing is what set this trip apart from the day trips and extended travel trip that we had taken with the group. Traveling became more about the experience of the place rather than the background information regarding it. It was especially interesting to see how my expectations of what being in a place would be like differed from actually visiting the place.

Philharmonie - Berlin - Sharoun

Jewish Museum Berlin

- interior
- Liebeskind

                One of the most frequent the misconceptions I had regarding the buildings I visited related to scale. For example, the buildings in the Kulturforum in Berlin (the Philharmonie, Berlin Library, and Neue Nationalgalerie) were all much larger than I had anticipated. This created a very different affect than looking at pictures of them as they were much grander and more striking in person. In contrast, the Parthenon and various other ruins in Athens were much smaller and had a generally less impressive than I had imagined them to be. Perhaps this had to do in part with the fact that they were largely in ruins and many were partially covered in scaffolding. However the two most remarkable places to experience were the Liebeskind Jewish Museum and the Jewish Memorial Garden. In both cases this was the result largely of the compression and release of space. While it can be theoretically understood that a space might cause you to feel claustrophobic, unbalanced, or create a sense of relief it cannot be fully comprehended until it is experienced in person.

Ruins of a theater in Athens

The Parthenon - Athens

                Over the course of this semester I’ve learned that sketching really does help me to better understand what I’m looking at. When I draw something I gain a better mastery over it. Sketching forces me to see and recognize things that I might not have recognized otherwise. I better recognize the relationship of proportions, the way things are joined together, and the general form of things when I sketch. Perhaps the most useful sketching exercises are the ones in which I get something wrong because it shows me the difference between my expectation and reality. When I have to correct something it means that I wasn’t seeing it properly to begin with. Over the course of my extended travel trip I had a lot more time than I usually would on a day trip or a group extended travel trip to stop and sketch. As a result I believe I developed a greater appreciation for the buildings which I saw over independent travel.