Today we woke up a little early, had a quick breakfast and went out to the architecture school for our first meeting with Beatrice and Lisa for our Travel Logs. I was scheduled for 1:30 but I decided to come in early to work on the blog there. We all relaxed in the space while we worked and talked about the various adventures we had this weekend, and just enjoyed the space (we have windows!!!). Then before I knew it, it was time to present my idea. The Travel Log is a requirement for one of our classes, and is basically a tool to express our explorations in the city. The project is pretty open-ended, and we can use any medium we want. I decided that writing would be the best way for me to express the things I am interested in, so I talked a little about this blog and the things I am interested in. After some discussion, we came up with a pretty awesome idea!
For the Log, I was interested in how people interact with the various spaces and monuments in Rome. We have read articles regarding tourism and the history of Rome, and I think the contrast between how tourists and natives understand space is intriguing. While the tourist sees these spaces as a big checklist to be done as a series of events with no discernable order or relation other than that the same group of people designed them, the native has to interact with them on a daily basis, and they become much more than a point on a map. So my idea was to write stories about specific space and used these two people as the means to do so. Beatrice liked this, but made a great suggestion for how to approach this in a more dynamic way, and here it is!
My Log will center around a journey made by a random tourist (names would be appreciated) as he weaves his way through the city, trying to see as much as possible. The narrative will primarily focus on his feelings in each space, with looks at the way that he interacts with it, both consciously and subconsciously. The primary theme of this will be the lack of an understanding of the “big picture,” and this will be highlighted by a fuzzy account of any journey through the city between these points (as if his head was buried in the map). At each point, the narrative will be infused with the experiences of someone else. There are three other characters to the story: myself (staring in the role of the “educated traveler”), a current resident of Rome (probably middle-aged), and a retired resident. My character will provide some history/information on the site as well as my own observations relating to the scope of our visit as well as the readings. The younger Roman will represent the person who only interacts with these spaces in passing, like passing by the Colosseum just because his favorite restaurant is on the other side. This will illustrate how the lives of the Italians are really affected by the presence of these monuments, and is a bigger commentary on the historical baggage that the area has carried for hundreds of years. The final character was a late addition that will represent the grumpy old man that bemoans the way that the city has changed. He is on a similar journey around the city as the tourist, and is mostly commenting on how things have changed due to the influx of tourism. These characters sit upon a scale that has pure history (Old Fart) on one side and pure contemporary (Tourist) on the other. The experiences of these two frames the way that we have been exploring and understanding this city as not only a series of important sites but also an extremely intricate organism with many layers and great variation.
So that is my idea in a very long-winded (what’s new?) way, and so in the next few days I will be creating the path and beginning to observe the spaces to base the characters’ experiences on real people. Let me know if you have suggestions, and I will probably be calling upon some of you to proofread. Anyway, after we finished there I took the train back home where I went shopping for some milk and a new folder. On the way we stopped at a restaurant that sells these things called Suppli. This is my new favorite thing ever!!!! It is a fried ball filled with rice and melted cheese…yummy! Anyway, after we finished our shopping I went up the road with Joe to try out the ten-euro deal for an early dinner. I had pasta with a garlic sauce with bacon and sun-dried tomatoes for my first course (pretty great), a salad for the second course (pretty decent), with panna cotta for dessert (pretty good again). The wine we were given was pretty awful, so my first taste of white wine will be forgotten. Overall, the meal was pretty much worth the ten euro we paid for it, so I am happy with it.
After lunch we came back home and goofed around for a while before doing our Italian homework, scheduling classes, and working on some studio. Sadly, we really didn’t get anything done tonight, so we are going to have to work hard tomorrow! We have lecture bright and early so it was good that we had a pretty mellow day today.
No comments:
Post a Comment