20:40

I'm still reading my texts, highlight passages and take notes in preparation for my article. I hope to be done with it within the first weeks of the holidays even though I haven't started writing yet. I have the feeling It's not going to take very long because I got accustomed to writing texts over the last couple of weeks.

09:20

I had a tough training course this week that left me no time for my research. I'll try to get back into the topic again and create upload my outline...

8:30 p.m.

I spent some time undisturbed at the library and did some further reading on our topic. Now I'm going to prepare another PPT which is supposed to answer the questions asked by my fellow students. It's also going to be the the connection between the basic architectural outline we presented in our first PPT and the closer look on individual pavilions that is going to follow next week (or over the weekend).

Re: the weather

Albrecht, where were you at 7 a.m. on Monday? In Dresden, the sun was out and it was quite warm! Pls read my email regarding your research.

07:00 a.m.
Ready to start the day! I searched for some 'academic' articles yesterday evening and found a quiet a few. I started by entering the names of Cret and Hood into the Google Scholar search page and connect them to the Century of Progress exhibit. All I found was some articles on other buildings they designed and links to Google Books. Even though some pages are missing in those previews we find on Google Books, they still can provide a valuable resource. I also came across various academic papers that were protected by a password and required mebership/pament in order to access them. I did not link those. I should check, whether some of those pages are accessible from the Slub although I doubt it. I still have to edit some of the Delicious links. But first I'll pay a visit to the bakery.
This weather sucks, all my cherries will be rotting by the end of the week if it continues to rain like that :(

07:15

I revived the old tradition of devoting the first two hours of the day to my research on world's fair architecture. My teammate and me agreed to have a closer look at the hall of science as a prime example of fair planning and building design. We'll meet at the library today at noon to agree on a strategy for our further research. Thus we can get started to produce some results. I neglected delicious over the last two weeks. I hope I can catch up soon.

10:25 As far as academic work is concerned, yesterday was a complete failure. Too much distraction at home. 

I'm at the sulb now and hope to get some work done.

It was actually good we had a break last week. I was completely absorbed by one Hausarbeit and a presentation both due to yesterday. I neglected my research and even missed the poll. But now I'm back! I'll contact my colleague and we will coordinate our next steps. Meanwhile I will continue reading on my own.

Albrecht, respect for your committment: you get up quite early to work on your topic. I myself are not able to follow one logical thought at that time of the day, hence my replys to your blogs come always late at night (when I'm at my best!)

I understand that you are fascinated by Chicago's architecture. That is exactly the reason why I wrote my MA thesis on skyscrapers in Chicago. But pls keep in mind that we are focussing on the 1933-34 expo in that city and that ran completely counter to architectural intentions in that city! Yes, the 1893 expo was influenced by the Chicago school (of architecture) and in turn influenced the architecture of that city in its "city beautiful" movement. But the second fair did not! If you REALLY want to do a comparative study of the two fairs with regard to Chicago architecture, I'll try my best to assist you in research. However, I think you would then move too far away from our seminar topic and would most certainly not be able to work satisfactorily in your group. What shall we do?

You can focus on modern architecture, but functionalism is most clearly NOT present at the Chicago Expo of 1933. Art Deco is in the Expo, but how are you going to relate that to beaux-art-school type of design? Give me a hint and I'll try my best at guiding you!

06:30

9:20 p.m.

Long day full of hard labour. Last but not least: back to my text!

08:25

I got up at six and didn't find my newspaper in the letterbox. Bad luck in the first place turns out to be quite beneficial for my learning progress. Instead of spending hours over newspaper I took my beloved texts and continued to work. If my team mate agrees, I would like our work to focus on the interdependency of contemporary/modern and modernistic architecture and the architecture at Chicago's Century of  Progress Exhibition. (maybe also compare it to 1893)

 Thus I we would have to use the first part of our presentation to introduce the history of architecture in Chicago, main ideas and protagonist,  define terms such as 

- modern

- modernistic 

- beau arts

- art deco 

- functionalism 

etc

During my stay there I focussed on architecture and took loads of pictures we could use to illustrate our presentation.

 

 

So it's the brandy stage already... ;o))) We are just halfway into the semester! What are you going to drink towards the end?
Albrecht, the good thing about Lisa Schrenk's book is that its devoted to the architecture of the Chicago Expo in its entirety. So whatever chapter you read will be -- more or less -- related to your topic. Hope you get some rest at your grandparents' and pls don't forget to contact Sarah about Friday's presentation after you return.

05/24 

9:25 a.m. I'm on a two-day visit to my grand parents in the mountains and therefore offline; no internet here.  I'm going to post these entries as soon as I get back. I'm still reading the book by Lisa Schrenk and really regret having agreed to my team mate doing the summary of chapter II. There's no question, chapter two is my area of expertise. I can't contact her now but I'm simply going to do a brief summary on all the chapters I've read so far which have to do with our field of research. 

This might help me, I hope, filtering the main ideas, draw my own conclusions and keep preserve them by writing them down instantly.

10:29 pm

Everything was printed neatly; I replaced my folder through a ring binder. I went through the text by Christine Kalb first and got the impression that this is the text to be read last. I' just reading the book by Lisa Schrenk. It's very interesting and I'm going to read it from cover to cover. I've printed the first five chapters and will read them tonight and tomorrow. I found the introduction very helpful because it provides a good overview over the aspects that are especially interesting for our project. My teammate intends to write a summary on chapter two. I might take the introduction but don't want to commit myself to it yet. 

I better stop typing now and get back to my text. I've had way too much brandy...

5:28 p.m.

I'm still printing. Distraction by other duties impeded my davance...

2:28

I've downloaded all texts and systematized them in folders on my computer. Now I'm going to read through them and decide which ones to print.

 It's almost two in the afternoon and I haven't even properly started yet. Actually, I wanted to read the chapters yesterday but did not have the time. There wasn't a single free minute over the weekend either. I hope that is going to improve. 

I haven't decided on whether I should print the texts or read them on the screen. 

I've neglected my learning log over the last week. To be quit frank, it was because I did not really learn much worth talking about. Of cause, I had a look at some books on architecture to get the spelling (of the names mentioned in) for our first comments concerning the expert groups right. Doing that I got carried away by some chapter that was not related to our topic at all, as it usually happens to me. Nevertheless I published our comment yesterday. We don not have a provoking thesis yet; I is still to come.  

Re: your summary of main points of the first chapter

This second in-depth reading proved to be worth it: so far I cannot see you having problems understanding the texts, thus I keep my comment short.

Have found the link on delicious, but haven't found the time yet to read it (though it looked quite promising at first glance). Albrecht, pls add more tags to your entries than merely your initials. I have edited your first entries, but then you might have had another intention in mind when you posted a link. Thanks.

Looking forward to an interesting discussion on Friday.

Roche's levels of location Roche mentions are:

- the inernational level:

-> multi annualy

-> purpose: competition, outward representation

- national level

-> annually

-> purpose: promote identification with the state/ political system 

- urban/ community level

-> usually annual

-> expression of identity 

The reasons he provides are actually factors of ascending or descending  importance, depending on the point of view. They represent a chain of influence.

person->nation/history->culture (international)

culture->nation/history->person

On the other hand history and culture both influence a person's perception of his life by helping him to 'mark' his course of life. 

history-> person <-culture

The sociological dimensions do not fit in there, they are on another level.

The modern/non -modern dimension of mega-events:

Modern mega events emphasize modernity. In order to illustrate the change (as opposed to how things have been before), they have to refer to past times too. 

The national/non national dimension of mega-events:

Involving several nations, 'mega -events' are inter- and even 'supernational'.

They are national to the extent that they are an arena for the host nation to represent itself in means of power and ideology.

The local/non-local dimension of mega-events:

'mega-events' are local because they provide a role model for the city of the future (technology, architecture) and  they are non-local/cosmopolitan because of extensive media coverage the whole world is able to participate.

Even though I must admit that my concept of reading the text 'during the breaks' of my seminar was a big failure. Only two minutes after I had finally started to read, someone sat down next to me an started a conversation. Yesterday I used my free periods for reading. I can now claim to have (at least superficially) read the text once. I found it not too hard to comprehend, clearly structured and quiet interesting. Unfortunately the text was inspiring enough to make me pick up another book from my bookshelf in order to look up certain points mentioned in the text. (by the way; I linked the book on google books) That was more time consuming than it should have been. Now I'm going to have another go at the text to pick out some of the main points.

Good morning!

I'm at a convention somewhere in a remote area in Western Germany right now. The room was too warm, the bed too hard. Now I'm sitting in the lobby and have just started to read the Roche text. I like it so far. We'll see what comes out of it. At least I know now what to do tomorrow night instead of even trying to sleep :D

By the way, I got my Delicious links together during our lesson still.

I read the text twice and now feel fit to publish the five terms I identified reflect the main ideas. 

Nr. 1: "bourgeois fantasy world" (p 19 §2)

Nr. 2:"culture of abundance" (p.22 §2)

Nr. 3: "advertising as integral to the city beautiful" (p 26 §3)

Nr. 4:"object of immense local interest" (p.29 §2)

Nr. 5:"(...) museums helped sustain the ideology of imperial abundance"(p.31§3)

For chapter two, the headline in its from our perspective quaint terminology sums it all up. 

Well finally.....

I made it!

This is my learning log and  like most of you I have never done anything like that before. I'm not a big fan of internet blogs or virtual communities and usually neglect my profiles. I think I have to get used to this first.