Our last class outing was to the London Transport Museum- an outing we decided upon as the original planned outing was another duplicate from my other classes.
The museum itself was very over-stimulating and crammed and crowded with displays and replicas and interactive exhibits. I found myself struggling to engage with the material being presented, as I was constantly being distracted by audio tracks from various displays or too much information being thrown at me at once.
As neither of us had been there before, it was to be expected that we were going to have to play it by ear more than usual and just explore and see what we would come across in terms of relatable information to our course material. Overall, I don't feel that the displays were particularly relevant, as they very much focused on means of transportation in London and beyond throughout time from several centuries ago up to the present. There was plenty of interesting information about how the underground network was created and how the tube and buses and trains have evolved, and I particularly liked seeing the design of posters from tube stations from throughout the decades as they were so uniquely and creatively designed.
What I found to be especially meaningful about the last class time and outing, however, were our conversations reflecting on the course as whole and on the overall experience of a class with just a student and a professor.
I have absolutely loved this class. The course itself was extremely relevant to my interests in terms of the subject matter, and the adaptations we made to make it even more directed at things I am interested in (such as writing this blog after the weekly outings), were an added benefit of being the only student that I was not expecting. The way in which the lecture revolved around discussion while taking notes on a giant notepad that I was able to take away and add to my own notes was an entirely new method for me, and I found it to be very helpful as well as an effective way for me to follow along and be able to voice my thoughts without being distracted by trying to take notes constantly.
It was definitely challenging adapting to a class so centered around discussion and dialogue where I was the only student- I didn't have other classmates to answer the questions or speak up instead. It intimidated me during our first class session, when I realized how much more effort and concentration and thorough understanding it took for me to be able to really engage and make the most of our time together, but I quickly grew to absolutely cherish those conversations. It was so much more stimulating and interesting to absorb the lecture and then have to respond to questions and contribute my thoughts immediately after, and it definitely kept me engaged and attentive in entirely new ways. I had to be a much more active student, and I truly enjoyed it.
The format of the class also pushed me to challenge myself in terms of my understanding of the weekly assigned reading material, and in terms of how I was able to interpret and apply the theories and concepts to writing in the public sphere as a broad theory in itself, as well as to apply it to my own personal writings.
Our weekly outings were always extremely relevant to the topics we had discussed in class, and I loved seeing the theories and our discussions come to life in the various walks we took and museums we visited and places we explored each week. I enjoyed having time to wander and soak everything in on my own, and also being able to learn from the knowledge and wisdom of Nina as she pointed out important things or shared information with me about what we were seeing. I left every outing feeling much more enlightened and aware of the history and culture of London and of how the public sphere really functions in the real world, and not just on paper.
I learned more from this class than I have from any other class in my education until this point, and I am so grateful for the experience. It was more challenging, and more rewarding, than I was ever expecting. I read articles that were dense and very academic and about theories and beliefs I had never been aware of, but I feel that I was able to grasp the concepts well and explain them in our conversations, which was very gratifying. I came to see the public sphere in an entirely new light and to understand it more fully as it has changed and evolved since the days when Habermas first analyzed it to today in a world consumed by social media.
As a result of reading and studying these well-written and complex articles and excerpts, I feel that my personal writing consequently improved. Writing my weekly blog posts gave me a chance to thoughtfully analyze and process the outings in terms of their connection to the material we had studied in a more casual and informal way, and the midterm and final essays have given me the opportunity to find where my voice is in the larger scheme of the material and solidly present my personal arguments in a more formal way.
These past eight weeks have given me a complete new understanding of and perspective on the way that the public sphere functions today in contrast to how it functioned before new media technologies, and an increased awareness in my abilities as a student and what I'm capable of doing. Thank you, Nina, for everything this summer! I'll always remember this class and all of our time together fondly.
Friday, July 13, 2012
Friday, July 6, 2012
Week Six Outing: Foundling Museum
This week's outing was to the Foundling Museum- a museum focused on the work of Thomas Coram and the creation of the Foundling Hospital several centuries ago as a home for babies who could not be taken care of by their mothers.
There was an extensive exhibit on the Foundling Hospital that included many poignant displays of information and narratives, but I found that the temporary exhibition that focused on England's pleasure gardens was more relatable to our class discussions.
The exhibition was entitled "The Triumph of Pleasure- Vauxhall Gardens- 1729-1786." Pleasure gardens were something I was minimally aware of, and I was very curious as to what the history of them was in the context of our class discussions mostly in terms of the use of public and private spaces.
These gardens were open to the public in the late 1600s and they were extremely popular among Londoners seeking to escape the chaos and clamor of city life. They were places of pleasure and entertainment, and not typical gardens of flowers and plants that I had originally pictured. The goal was to create a feeling of a whole other world for visitors- a paradise that was totally unique from London life, and an oasis from reality.
This goal was achieved through creating a dramatic experience for the visitor- entering the gardens through dark tunnels and then emerging into a well-lit, energetic, bustling garden full of entertainers, musicians, dramatic architecture and trees, where everyone was dressed in costume. Musicians and bands would be playing from an outdoor bandstand, and it all truly led the visitors to feel as if they were in a whole new world.
We commented during the tour of the exhibition that this concept is strikingly similar to popular teen stores in malls such as Hollister or Abercrombie. These stores keep the lights very dim, the music very loud, and the smell of their popular cologne wafts outside and carries far beyond the shop's entrance. The entrance is usually adorned with pictures of scantily-clad models, or even mannequins or employees that are very rarely fully clothed. Shopping there isn't like a regular shopping trip- it's meant to feel like a unique, dramatic experience and like you are being transported to a whole other world beyond the rest of the mall.
These places are public (or at least semi-public) spaces, yet their function and purpose is one that is slightly dangerous and definitely controversial. They aren't spaces that families could attend with young children, or places where the elderly would feel safe and at peace. They're dramatic, they're scandalous, and they focus on pleasure all while in a relatively public space.
These pleasure gardens tended to get out of hand at night, with tempers flaring perhaps as a result of alcohol, music increasing in volume, etc. Perhaps the way people acted late at night in these pleasure gardens determined the present-day closings of gardens and squares and parks at nightfall, to keep trouble down and keep society behaving well even in the dark. I would say that it seems a logical conclusion to draw. Pleasure gardens might not still be around today in the same way that they were several hundred years ago, but public spaces that are a place of tranquility and serenity in the middle of a bustling city still are. They live on in the squares and parks that are so frequent among London, and they live on in a much more subdued and less dramatic and thrilling manner, as much more open spaces to all of the public equally and freely.
There was an extensive exhibit on the Foundling Hospital that included many poignant displays of information and narratives, but I found that the temporary exhibition that focused on England's pleasure gardens was more relatable to our class discussions.
The exhibition was entitled "The Triumph of Pleasure- Vauxhall Gardens- 1729-1786." Pleasure gardens were something I was minimally aware of, and I was very curious as to what the history of them was in the context of our class discussions mostly in terms of the use of public and private spaces.
These gardens were open to the public in the late 1600s and they were extremely popular among Londoners seeking to escape the chaos and clamor of city life. They were places of pleasure and entertainment, and not typical gardens of flowers and plants that I had originally pictured. The goal was to create a feeling of a whole other world for visitors- a paradise that was totally unique from London life, and an oasis from reality.
This goal was achieved through creating a dramatic experience for the visitor- entering the gardens through dark tunnels and then emerging into a well-lit, energetic, bustling garden full of entertainers, musicians, dramatic architecture and trees, where everyone was dressed in costume. Musicians and bands would be playing from an outdoor bandstand, and it all truly led the visitors to feel as if they were in a whole new world.
We commented during the tour of the exhibition that this concept is strikingly similar to popular teen stores in malls such as Hollister or Abercrombie. These stores keep the lights very dim, the music very loud, and the smell of their popular cologne wafts outside and carries far beyond the shop's entrance. The entrance is usually adorned with pictures of scantily-clad models, or even mannequins or employees that are very rarely fully clothed. Shopping there isn't like a regular shopping trip- it's meant to feel like a unique, dramatic experience and like you are being transported to a whole other world beyond the rest of the mall.
These places are public (or at least semi-public) spaces, yet their function and purpose is one that is slightly dangerous and definitely controversial. They aren't spaces that families could attend with young children, or places where the elderly would feel safe and at peace. They're dramatic, they're scandalous, and they focus on pleasure all while in a relatively public space.
These pleasure gardens tended to get out of hand at night, with tempers flaring perhaps as a result of alcohol, music increasing in volume, etc. Perhaps the way people acted late at night in these pleasure gardens determined the present-day closings of gardens and squares and parks at nightfall, to keep trouble down and keep society behaving well even in the dark. I would say that it seems a logical conclusion to draw. Pleasure gardens might not still be around today in the same way that they were several hundred years ago, but public spaces that are a place of tranquility and serenity in the middle of a bustling city still are. They live on in the squares and parks that are so frequent among London, and they live on in a much more subdued and less dramatic and thrilling manner, as much more open spaces to all of the public equally and freely.
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