Author: sammyy0414

Today our class traveled to the High Line in Manhattan.  The High Line is a man-made park that runs through the meat packing district.  The High Line contains the remnants of the old buildings and train tracks that were once functional.  Under the bridges there are street vendors.  The food ranged from ice cream that melts slowly, to corn flavored ghelato, to burgers.  We learned that the community that is there today was built around the old community which held shops such as butchers, where the meat packing district got it’s name.  The preservation of the the old community shows the importance of the history of a city even in the present day.

I took pictures of the old architecture of the High Line breaking through the modern day advances.  In many of the pictures it is evident that even though the common design elements of today are present, there is a strong influence of New York in a past time.  This is evident not only in the art work on display, but in the details such as the fire escapes and the aged brick buildings.

-Samantha Silber

In this lecture we learned about the Rule of Thirds; the alignment of a subject to specific guidelines and intersection points. We also learned about Impressionist art and the use of tension, a grid, and color to make art more dynamic.  Art becomes more interesting as well as appealing when it has dynamic elements.  For example, we discussed the painting Napoleon Crossing the Alps by Jacques-Louis David.  We spoke about how David made the painting more dynamic by having the horse standing on two legs ready to run and the regally painted Napoleon on its back, pointing the troops forward.  There are small elements within the painting that make it dynamic as well.  there are reflections of patterns within the mane and the clouds within the painting.  Everything in the painting is points to the top left of the canvas; everything accept for the sky and the clouds.  What made this painting dynamic were the minute details that David put into it; more so then the names carved into the stones which represent the three generals ever at that point in time who had been able to cross the Alps; including himself.

Similar to art, music has elements that make it dynamic and appealing. Elements of music include rhythm, melody, harmony, and form. Rhythm is the most important element; it is the pattern of which the song follows. A melody is a tune or a song. For example, some rap does not have melody, it is replaced by the sounds of the words. Harmony is the background to the melody. It supports the melody and is usually made using many instruments playing at the same time that all go well together. Form is present within all art forms. It is defined as structure; various components of whatever is being described. Form includes the fact that all art forms needs some type of repetition. For example, Beethoven’s sonata has a 4 groups of 3 rhythm; a pulse.

-Samantha Silber