Ethnography Project

The Journey...

The beginning of the journey started once again in the building covered with literacy (the Atkins Library).  Our group met up on the first floor of the Akins library.  Once we got together, we started discussing the objective of the assignment.  Then we each picked our own choice of literacy relating to architecture.  After having our mind made up, we dispersed and went our separate ways.  For my choice of architectural literacy I chose the "old gym".  It was pretty cold outside so I decided to stay indoors and started looking up pictures of the building (through google maps/ earth) and how it has changed.  Later I thought about visiting it.  I had already been to the building and at first I had an "old school" impression of the building.  Even before some one told me it was the "old gym" I could see from the design of the building as it had much space and thought it was fit to accommodate many activities (sports particularly).  The design of the building had me thinking of visual aspects of literacy in which just seeing a building, can tell a lot of the building.  The building was pretty much isolated and had many entrances, double doors, and placed above ground level (at least from where I was standing).  The stairs were pretty cramped, it had many steps and the floor was riddled with literacy.  The design of the floor had tiles filled with dirt and debris that told part its history.  Just by looking at it, a person can assume how old it is. In certain areas of the "old gym", a person can even grasp a sonic aspect of the literacy through the sense of smell (from the sweat and odors that may have crept into the walls where even time cant get rid of).

After completing this assignment, I came across an underlife of literacy and its relation to architecture.  I learned that buildings truly can speak.  Not literally, but as we perceive it through our senses we are submerged deep into the knowing, as if we were the reincarnation of the building itself.  Just by looking at a piece created by the mind of brilliant architectures we can tell a portion of the mystery.  Even if we were blind fold but had an acute sense of smell we could still generate manifold amounts of the buildings features.  If all of the senses were present, we could assume an incomputable amount of wonders pertaining to the architectures design.

(here are 2 quotes that I kept in mind while doing this assignment)


"It is impossible, as impossible as to raise the dead, to restore anything that has ever been great or beautiful in architecture. That which I have insisted upon as the life of the whole, that spirit which is given only by the hand and eye of the workman, can never be recalled."
~John Ruskin


"Although we may attain various aspects of the enigma... Who can know more of the creation than creator that created it?"~Anonymous