In other news I've also got a preliminary class schedule going. It's looking like I'll be in the following classes.
Fall:
- London's Times of Destruction and (Re)Construction
- The Chapel in Italy, c. 1300-1500: Form, Function, and Decoration
- Green Futures (taken in The Bartlett School of Planning)
- History & Theory of Architecture (taken in The Bartlett School of Architecture)
Spring:
- Skin and Bones: Medeival Bodies in London Museums and Galleries
- Methodologies of Art History
- American Geographies: Figuring the West, 1848-1914
- Modernity Through the Lens: the European Avant-Garde, Utopia, Technology, and Mass Culture
In the interest of full disclosure, I tried to sneak an Architecture studio course in there despite it not being a Humanities course, but I wasn't allowed by UCL. I am, however, very excited to take my Planning and Architecture courses. The latter will focus on a favorite architect of mine, Rem Koolhaas, pictured below with my brother and sister.
Note: Rem Koolhaas is not a member of the Connors family.
In less navel-gazey news, I've been getting a better sense of the interface between America and Europe (or at least their respective sensibilites). American issues with obesity are pretty well known here, well enough at least for a guy I met in a design gallery to inform me that Herman Miller was now making a wider version of the iconic Eames Lounge (have I mentioned that the London Design Festival is this week?) for American markets.
He also told me that upon his visits to US cities he was surprised by how close "posh" (upscale) areas were to more depressed ones. Given this set of charts I saw this week, it's a rather astute observation; it seems that segregation is alive and well in the US, it's just not institutionalized. Obviously race and economics are their own issues, but the wealth gap (chasm?) in the US does often align itself along racial lines. Not that the UK is without its own socioeconomic challenges, but so far it seems that the level of diversity here is much higher (of course, neither Boston nor U of M are known for being terribly diverse- how much of this is culture shock I'm unsure).
Less depressingly, he mentioned that a common trip to the US for Europeans included flying to the east coast and driving to California or Las Vegas. It's interesting, not only because it throws into focus how spacious and geographically varied our country is, but also because this is a trip not many Americans get to do (at least as far as I've been able to observe). Every person to whom I've mentioned driving cross-country has either told me that it was one of the best things they ever did or that it was something they'd always wanted to do. It makes me want to rent a car and drive out into the country here, just for contrast. I don't know if that's legal. More on this later. I should also recommend James Reeves' excellent The Road to Somewhere: an American Memoir here for anyone interested in reading about the nooks and crannies of the US you find when you just get out and drive. After all, isn't that the American dream?
