putting history into practice

For this assignment we stepped outside of the classroom and walked around campus for about 30 minutes. We were asked to take a second look at what we would typically walk by without notice, and consider what we've been discussing in class recently, such as circles, groups, and stacks.

In this sketch that I did I observed various circles, groups, and stacks around campus. One thing I noticed multiple times was the amount of grouping throughout campus. I drew one example of this, which is the columns shown outside the Ferguson building. Another example I noticed was the buildings in the quad. All are uniform and proportionate to each other, centered around a courtyard like area. There were many examples of circles across campus, college av, the fountain, and the EUC especially. There are repeated dome like ceilings in the EUC, along with a sun pattern below the domes. Each dome also had an oculus in the center of it, which is notably seen in the Pantheon. The music building on campus emulates the idea of circles extremely well. Everything appears balanced and unified, even simply the benches in the outside entrance to the building, all emphasizing repetition and harmony. One example representing both circles and stacking is the fountain on campus. It does a nice job of creating a sense of balance with the half circles and full circles stacked on top each other in a fluid motion. The circles surrounding the fountain also do a good job of directing your eye, focusing it, leading it upwards towards the actual fountain.

One thing we were asked to consider while observing circles, groups, and stacks around campus was to ask ourselves if we think that environments influence RITUALS, or if rituals influence ENVIRONMENTS. I believe that it is the environment that has control. For example, the fountain is a known for a place to gather and socialize with friends, telling us that it is the environment that influences the ritual. This is strange to me, however, because historically it appears to be the opposite, that many rituals controlled how the overall design of that space was positioned, Stonehenge for example.