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January 15, 2008

Hard at work on their first assignment!

I'm blogging from GustoLab, watching a table of four getting to work on the streets of Rome

Here's the assignment in full:


If we look closely at a city we can perceive the armature or structural system supporting the daily activities of inhabitants. This armature in Rome is millennia old - some elements have been in continual use since 500 BCE. This project is designed to orient you to the City by becoming active observers of its parts and to orient you to the course by becoming active presenters of your findings to each other.

We will divide you into a number of groups of 3 or 4 students and ask you to work together to study an element of the armature of Rome from its classical origin to its present function. Learn as much as you can about the element, choose (in consultation with us!) one thought-provoking example to presentation to the rest of the us, digest the information as well as possible, and parcel out responsibilities for the presentation. EVERYONE in each group must present, and everyone should be ready to ask questions at other groups' presentations. Participation carries a lot of weight in all of our courses this term! Half of the groups will present on Thursday 1/17/08 (Giovedì 17/1/08) and the other half on Friday 1/18/08 (Venerdì 18/1/08).

The order of the elements here is intentional - we start with the bounds of the city, both real and symbolic. Then we think about lines which cross the map and which in 4 dimensional reality allow citizens to cross the City. Finally, we consider a set of linear elements which citizens never walked along, but without which life itself would have stopped - and almost did in the early Middle Ages.

WALLS and GATEWAYS
STREETS and ROADS
BRIDGES
AQUEDUCTS

While studying your element, think about being able to explain in the presentation:

1. When was the first one built, where and by whom?
2. the last one?
3. Why was it built? What were the political, economic, and social circumstances?
4. What is notable about the structure in terms of technical innovation, aesthetic design, quality of construction (materials used, permanence).
5. Who actually did the work?
6. How exactly did it function then, how does it function now?
7. What has happened to the structure since it was built? Is there any political/economic/social significance to this history?
Evaluation:
An acceptable presentation will present a digested view of what you've figured out from books and an internet search.

A good presentation will integrate the material, draw on your immediate observation, relate the site you show us to other sites we may or may not have seen already, and provide an idea of sources used to gather information. The audience will understand that the group members have discussed the contents of the presentation and how each contributor's portion works with the whole.

An excellent presentation will do all of the above and with style, showing care in both thought and preparation for the actual presentation, extending beyond the assigned questions to consider new territory.

I did a demonstration by taking them around the corner from the Campo dei fiori to look at what modern Rome has made of the foundations of the Theater of Pompey. Click and enlarge at point A on the map - look at the semicircles of streets and blocks . . . those rise up on the form of the theater, a semicircle of concentric and radial lines of masonry. There is almost nothing left of the building (unless you go in a few restaurants and certainly some cellars), but the ghost of the building still shows. The straight streets to the right (east) of the semicircle represents the side walls of the very large courtyard attached to the theater - which allowed patrons to stroll in gardens between acts or between plays. Pompey built the first permanent theater in Rome in 60 BCE - something which always surprises me. Plautus (died 185 BCE) and Terence (died 158) would have played only in temporary theaters, or on one of the flat spaces at the Forum Romanum! Pompey's innovation was to introduce a permanent building on the Greek model (sort of) to the City, which at least shows Roman assimilation of Greek institutions and almost certainly should be understood as Roman triumphalism, especially when combined with the decorative statuary Pompey certainly imported as well. Oh, and Julius Caesar was assassinated here, which allowed me a second link to the Forum tour last week.


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So, the group across GustoLab is hard at work deciding what to say and where to say it! I'm looking forward to the end of the week.

Posted by CrankyProfessor at January 15, 2008 10:15 AM