Month: October 2019

I have to say that I have never been the biggest fan of the MOMA, I don’t really have much of a reason, I just don’t think it’s my place. It just always seems to be packed to the brim with people no matter what day or time I go. But despite that, I was intrigued to see what it looked like post renovations. I think the MOMA is one of those places where you need an entire day to mosey through, and also I would definitely need to bring food with me for sustenance. I didn’t take normal notes like I normally do, I just think I was really overwhelmed by all the people and all the noise. I don’t think I really had the ability to focus in on what I was seeing, and really absorb what I was looking at.

There were some really cool rooms and features though. This room (below) in particular had a really intense feeling for me. I can’t explain it, but it felt different than any other room. Maybe I would have changed the art featured on the walls, but it was just something about this room that gave me an airy and open feeling. Part of me also felt like maybe I was in a swimming pool underwater, and the lit ceiling was the surface of the water.

This room (below) was interesting to me because it gave a window (literally) into what another room had to offer. I think that should be carried into other rooms. I think that would have made me feel less overwhelmed by the museum, and would allow me to know what I wanted to eventually see.

This room gave me an interesting feeling as well, probably because it was different than any other room I had been in while we were there.

This window into the stairwell is a feature that they kept the same after the renovation. I took this same picture probably 6 years ago when I was in high school.

Overall, I’m glad we went. But I think next time I would have to go super early in the day (maybe even when they opened), and also bring food and water with me.

I spend a lot of time in Central Park, so I was thrilled that this was our field trip, especially on such a beautiful day. I have a new respect and understanding of Central Park since beginning this class. I read about it several times in Devil in a White City, and have heard you discuss it as well. I didn’t realize that the lakes were man made, I just thought they were natural. I nanny a boy on the Upper West Side and he goes to school on the Upper East Side so I have scootered many times all the way through the park early in the morning when it is still relatively quiet, and when the air is crisp and fresh. He also came up with nicknames for different parts of our scooter path. I grew up in Upstate New York in the middle of nowhere, so I always find myself craving nature. I spend as much time outside before that isn’t really an option anymore. I was really intrigued when you explained that the paths were made twisty so people would get “lost” so they would feel like there was more land than there actually was. It makes the park more of an experience than just a plot of land, so that people will hopefully forget the hustle and bustle that was just beyond the trees. Central Park is designed nature, curated to feel like nature.

 

We then made our way to the Obelisk, which was outside of the original MET. I learned that it is a single piece of granite with hieroglyphs carved into the stone. It was created in 300BC in Egypt. I can’t imagine people creating this, especially without modern day tools and transportation. It’s incredible. It’s crazy that it was floated down the Hudson River, and then New York City created a special railway just to get it from the Hudson to its current home.   

 

 

 

 

 

On our way to the MET, I learned that where the MET was put, was where there were villages of homeless people, primarily people of color as well as former slaves. The people trying to put the MET there used discriminatory language to start the crusade to get them moved. I also learned that the original MET was actually in Central Park, faced south, and contained a lot of Greek sculptures that were actually fake.

This is a picture of the original facade.

I think it is cool that they not only paid homage to the original structure, but also didn’t let all those materials and money go to waste. I learned that keeping the original entrance in the museum is referred to as palimpsest.

This picture is another example of palimpsest. It is the facade of the Branch Bank of the United States.

I took this while we were all waiting on the second floor overlooking the lobby. I liked how it showed the Greek/Roman influence. 

I thought this was so beautiful. It was called Mourning Victory, sculpted in marble. 

 

 

This is a sculpture in gild bronze of Diana, the Roman goddess of the hunt and the moon. I just thought it was so beautiful. It was originally a functioning rotating weathervane for the tower of Madison Square Garden.

The rooftop is where we finished our trip for the day. I loved just discussing the things we were seeing, instead of it feeling like I was being told what I should be interested in.

 

In total I walked about 7.5 miles that day.

Our Queens Museum of Art was jam packed, as the Museum had a lot of diverse exhibits. This picture of the globe outside of the museum was a lasting exhibit from the Queens World Fair. It was massive, and made me feel so small (smaller than usual).

I took these pictures in the lobby, I think it was a beautiful way to enter the museum. Just like all of the different exhibits being so different and diverse, this mural has so many different facets to it.

This exhibit was so eye opening, I didn’t realize how large New York City is. It would be cool if there was a way to continuously update it, while not erasing the past. Maybe by adding layers? Or hologram/projection? It’s interesting the Robert Moses took part in creating this, as he created so much of New York. This model was also color-coded to show the various types of land use/building use. This model was also part of the World’s fair, it had airplanes flying in and out of airports, and lights got darker and brighter to simulate daytime/nighttime. They really thought of everything, and in 1964 it was the world’s largest scale model and averaged 1,400 visitors each day of the World’s Fair.

I really liked the World’s Fair exhibit because since reading Devil In The White City, they really intrigue me. This exhibit had pictures, videos, and real memorabilia from the Fair, which was really cool. This picture I took was a map of all the exhibits featured at the Fair. We didn’t spend a lot of time there, but my favorite part was all the photos, because otherwise I can’t imagine what they were like. I feel like in my life time I haven’t heard anyone discuss World Fairs, and I feel like maybe I didn’t know they existed really.

I liked this exhibit because my favorite part of history classes was seeing the political cartoons. They say so much through just the drawings and minimal words. But like they say, a picture (or drawing) is worth a thousand words.

I’ve always found glass making very interesting, it is so fragile and one mistake can cost the artist the whole piece. This picture is a lamp from the Tiffany Glass exhibit. Louis C. Tiffany was the son of the founder of Tiffany & Co, and spent his whole life being exposed to design and craftsmanship. Louis was a trailblazer in the world of glass.

This piece was the marrying of Lichtenstein’s work and other famous artworks.

 

This embroidered piece was very “Great Gatsby the eyes of god” for me, and very dreamlike. I loved looking at all of these because they are so intricate. When I was younger I use to embroider t-shirts and I can’t imagine how much time and effort this took. Especially the shading, the shading using string is incredible.

This field trip I walked almost 4 miles.

When I ride the subway I often think about what came before the car I am in. Surprisingly, I had never heard of The Brooklyn Transit Museum which exists to answer all those questions. I learned about the subway fare dating back to 1904, where the cost of a ride was only a nickel. This fare stayed the same for FOUR DECADES, 40 years! After 40 years, it was increased to 1o cents, which definitely didn’t take into account inflation. That’s crazy to me because the subway fare seems to be increasing about 25 cents every 2 years or so. At the museum, I also saw the evolution of the turnstile. First it was wooden, and rotated horizontally and had to be manually operated. It was cool to see the change in design, style, color, and materials. The way of paying also changed over the years. There were paper tickets, coins, and tokens. Metro cards weren’t introduced until 1993. There were also ways in which people used counterfeit tokens called slugs. People evaded fares using foreign coins, washers, amusement tokens, and even tokens from other transit systems. The weirdest trend of fare evasion was called “token sucking”. Token sucking was when people would jam the token slots with paper or something and waited for an unsuspecting traveler to drop a token into the slot. When the turnstile didn’t allow them through, they would walk away from the turnstile to ask for assistance. In that moment the evader would sneak over to the turnstile, put their mouth over the slot and suck the token out. Creative booth agents started coating the turnstile slot with hot sauce to deter evaders, also pretty funny if you ask me.

Anyway, that was a big tangent.

I really enjoyed looking in all the subway cars, and seeing all the materials used, and all the original ads on the walls. It was cool seeing the longevity of some brands, like Vicks, Mars Milky Way, and Campbell’s Tomato Soup. My favorite story we heard from the museum director had to do with the 2nd World’s Fair in Queens. She explained the dilemma of not knowing how travelers speaking so many different languages would find their ways to and from Queens. That’s when they decided to paint the subway cars that were going to the fair blue, so that all people would have to do, would be to look for the blue car.

We then left the museum and walked to the Brooklyn Bridge. That was a great walk because it was such a beautiful day. We walked by the river and learned about the previous docks that existed where we were walking. We also discussed the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, and how high the water rose.

We then walked over the Brooklyn Bridge. It was actually my first time, as I generally try to avoid the touristy things that people go to just so they can take a picture for Instagram. The bridge was really beautiful, I’m glad I did it. I found it weird how many people were selling things on the bridge, and at the entrances of the bridge. I mean it makes sense, I would just think their would be some more rules about selling things in the middle of the bridge. I’m glad I got to walk the bridge, especially because it was such a beautiful day. I did some more research on the bridge online because I was more preoccupied with surviving the walk over the bridge (because of all the bicycles and tourists) to really take it all in and actually learn about the bridge. I learned that it was the world’s first steel-wire suspension bridge, and one of the oldest roadway bridges in the US. It’s cool to think that all of the seemingly little wires actually have a bigger purpose.

Overall it was a really beautiful day and a really cool field trip. Also I walked over 7 miles by the end of my day.