So this is school eh...?

I'm nicely sandwiched between finishing a paper and having a midterm next week, so I thought it might be best to ignore studying for a bit more and update the old blog. It's been almost a week- wow.

The coolest Venice thing I did this week was go to get my numero di codice fiscale. It is my goverment issued ID code so that I can get paid to work at the school. I will be keeping the lab open 2 nights a week so students can stay late and work. Some nice easy work that will put a very small, but still nice piece of change in my pocket. Tomorrow will be my first day on the job.

Anyways, getting the code required me to go unattended to a governement building and wade through some paperwork. It was by far the easiest bit of paperwork I have done here hense far. Everyone was very kind and spoke slowly to me. What was crazy was that the building used to be a church (I think) and some of the tombs still remained on the walls (I'm sure about that). But I guess that is what happens when you can never build.

Besides that school has been pretty busy. I spend all day at the lab working my little figures off, making pretty pretty art. On Wednesday the fellow Kristin and I got the screen printing shop in order, so that is now good to go! Woot! I want to make a fashion illustration of the 11 american's as pigeons and silk screen that. It sounds fun to me!

Okay, okay, I'll give this whole learning thing a shot- FINE!!!

oh, and I miss you all terribbly.

MTV is everywhere

Before I came to Italy, there had only been one popstar I had heard of: Tiziano. While it is a much smaller country than our good old USA, I never thought I would get to see him.

Well, turns out I did! While on a feild trip in Milan our class just so happened to met outside of where Italian MTV filmed and I just so happen to show up 30 mins early from lunch when I just so happen to see Tiziano be the guest that day. The crowd was able to watch him from a Megatron outside.


And what a crowd.

Most were pre-teens armed with signs.
And the man of the hour himself (in black).

See a famous Italian popstar- check!

118

Well I got to have a little adventure today. Kaite, the diabetic, has three times before gotten so low on her sugar levels that she slips in to a mini coma and won't wake up. I'm usually called in to shake her awake, make loud noises, and have her get up. She will be pissy, but after a few glasses of OJ her sugar levels are back up and she is good to go.

Well today, after 25 mins of yelling and shaking, she still wouldn't respond. I sat her up and proped her against my knees so she was sitting. After another 20 mins, 2 glucose pills, and me acting like Mama Bear by putting honey in her mouth, we finally called the ambulance. Turns out the number is 118.

Really, I called the woman who is our Venice laison here and she called the ambulance- I had to make sure to preface the conversation with, "Now we're not panicing yet, but Katie is having a moment." But werid thing, turns out that the emergency people will take a cell number and call you as they are coming. I kept getting these calls from the EMT's asking what was happening and where we were. Of course, I have no idea how to say any of this in Italian.

The other girls got a little jumpy, this possibly being the first time they have dealt with a none responsive person. It was really similar to dealing with a passed out drunk- lots of dead weight and no response. Anyways, she finally wakes up about 5 mins before the EMT's show up. For the next hour they use her as a human pin cushion trying to find a vein to give her glucose. It took a while, but everything ended up okay. Tonight we all treated ourselves to Chinese Buffet on the mainland.

Only bummer (which Katie now jokes about) was we didn't get all the way to the hospital, which would have been awesome! The ambulances here are boats- how cool would that be? Also, the hospital is an old confertteli building, which looks like a gaint fancy church. Seeing inside would have been sweet.

Meandering in the Fish Tail

Castello is the district in the south -east of Venice and host an amazing amount of both historic and religious attractions. I went in search of one of the churches I need to write a paper on, but instead enjoyed the day and wandered around the residencal area.

Note: It is said that Venice looks like a fish jumping over a log, so Castello would be the fish's tail.

I'll upload more pictures when the internet wants to play more nice.

SuperGarden

Seeing as today Venice was having some marvelous weather, I went for an explore (note above post). While on that explore I came across the SuperGarden show which was highly enjoyable. You can read the whole statement below, but the whole idea is that designers from different genres were able to come together and explore the developing design language focusing on the expanding enviroment in Singapore. Fancy, eh?

To work with the idea of a "super garden" there was a great strip of astro-turf that ran the length of the exhibit. There was a fun little wall too that the local children loved to climb up.

The astro-turf had a nice affect of being one solid unit that ran from the outside to inside where it acted as the table for the exhibit pieces.

The interior. The plastic half-domes had an audio track playing with the artist explaining their projects. I liked how when the noise combined it seemed like you were in an active studio with ideas being tossed around.

The dome from below.

So here is my developing thought on design- possibly even a teaching philosophy? It seems like the practice of learning design is currently presented in two phases: General Basics and Focused Genre. At first you are shown everything; here is graphics, here is fashion, here is interiors, here is furniture, here is history, here is theory. Then it seems that everyone spilt off in to groups- the graphics kids go and make posters, fashion designers all read Vogue and make fluffy shirts, interiors drool over Ikea, etc. etc.

At this point, I feel traditionally, this would have been the end of formal design education, as well as most designers desire to really learn the other mediums. Sure, we can all appreciate each other, but how often has a graphic designer sat down and said, "I think I need to learn AutoCAT". Not so often.

I feel that it would be extremely helpful that if after designers have learned the needed skills and developed their talent in their chosen area, that they must approach far larger topics and use all areas to help resolve the design problem. Danh's final graphics course at UC Davis was a good first step towards that- but people from all areas should be put in the same class again, to help bounce ideas off one another.

Really, this isn't such a monumental idea on my part- just look at Charles and Ray Eames. They could approach any idea and use an entire arsenal of abilities to draw on. I think a lot of young designers forget that they do as well.

OKay, big long rant, not much stated or accomplished- but this is my blog so i'll say all the none sense I want.

Scuola Internazionale di Grafica

It's about time I tell you about my school. The Scuola Internazionale di Graficia is almost impossible to find. It is down a tiny little alley with no real sign to tell. 1789, which is the same year lithography was invented. Sweet!
When you enter the school you are greeted by a nice little alley way. It is so charming to be in a traditional Venice building (well truthfully, all of the buildings are traditional- my apartment is 17th cent I belive).
You walk by the "dean's" office to get to class. You can sneak a peak at Lorenzo hard at work.

Library- small but helpful.

The extremely modern hallway is so nice! It feels great to be in a newer area, if only for the brief moment it takes to walk back to the studios.

Here is a view of the other exterior part of the school. As you can see, the school is very small, but so charming! My stress level always goes down when I get to school.

Here is where I eat lunch/nap/ have italian class (the instructor likes to sit outside).


I have lunch with this freindly character.

In ture Venice style, there is a canal as a backdoor to the school.

Ah, here is my home away from home. Look at those presses! I was going to take more shots, but Matlide came over to tell me she was about to become a great-grandma. Nice-

Here is a lithography I did this week. My first adventure with the grease pencils, but a good time! I have the skills of an artist- better draw trogdor.

Today in school...

What do Giovanni Bellini's San Giobbe Alterpiece,




Titian's Pieta,



and Giorgione's La Tempesta all have in common?

I got to see them today at the Accademia! The accademia building started out as a meeting house for a confratelli, but has since been converted in to a state sun museum. We went today to look at the altarpieces and trace the "Byzantine Thread" as prof Christina likes to call it. Looking at stylistic choices we discussed the way the emergence of the renaissance over in Florence started to influence changes in Venetian religious iconography. Cool stuff!

But my main question: why do Italian artist sometimes put the Virgin in green? Other countries don't seem to do this- and it only happens for a certain time period... hum, something to research!

Virgin and Child by Antonio Vivarini 1441

As you can tell, I am in full grad student mode. It is really fun, but I'm already worried about having to get a job in a year. Like, I need to work for realz this time- not like that fake time before.

Kiss-Muah!

Pasta, Pasta, Pasta

OKay- I've eaten enough pasta. It was today at lunch, as my heaping bowl of spiral noddles and pesto looked back at me that I came to the horrible conclusion- I'm done with this.

There was a dinner party at the Dean's house last night. Lorenzo da Castro lives in his family plazzo (or palace), on the grand canal. The house was amazing! Huge ceilings with Murano glass chandeliers everywhere, a collection of international items, like vases from China, scrolls from Japan, wardrobes from Ireland- truly a collection.

At the end of the evening we were given postcards that Lorenzo's mother Matilde painted of the house, AKA palazzo di Parisi. Matilde also teaches at the school and is my instructor for both etching and book making. Someone said that she actually started the school some 25 years ago, but I'll have to look in to that.

We had a delightful time, speaking of various things such as racial discrimination in Venice to the evil of TV. After Lorenzo went on a very long speech about why TV was a horrible waste of time and mind killer, I had to ask where I could buy one. No worries! Turns out you can watch Italian tv for free at rai.it! Watching tv is the most helpful way for me to learn a language, or so I told Lorenzo.

The roomies and I all wandered home after dinner, accidently ending up S. Margarita where the majority of bars are located. Instead of having another romp at the one bar we go to, we all just bought gelato and went home. A grand evening overall.

Oh, and what did we have for dinner. You got it- pasta.