Search Serendipity

The Forum Boarium is home to two small temples which are among the best preserved religious structures from Rome’s republican era (between 509 and 44BC). The smaller, round building is the Temple of Hercules,

Temple of Hercules Victor

built at the end of the 2nd century BC by a greek architect, Hermodorus of Salamis.

The shape totally fascinates me. Someday I’ll visit.   To try and experience the space I turned to my simulator on Reactiongrid, found the dimensions on wikipedia and played around recreating it using an earthship construction. It doesn’t feel just right as the avatar (Pausanius) is about 7 feet tall. I’ll keep working on it serendipitously.

See the full gallery on Posterous

 

I find the Temple entirely refreshing compared to the rectangular shapes of so many structures.  It’s not practical. The use of space and light are provocative  What was the interior like? How did it feel to walk into the temple and pay homage to the god? Why were these shapes chosen and what is their connection? As a house designer and builder, and as a set and lighting designer I am curious about this.  This space evokes the sentiment of nature, something long obscured by rectangles. A platform like OpenSim gives me the visceral opportunity to design, construct, inhabit and connect my experience.

In the Light of Hercules

The full moon suprised me

walking my dog, it had just come up.  But why ‘Hercules’? Why ‘Pausanius’? I went back to the interior of the temple.  It feels so feminine to me.  Its not the rectangular chamber of a cave like the brother temple, at the Forum Boarium and its temple to Portunes. 

The Temple to Portunes a the Forum Boarium. Ah, it feels much better with windows.

Apparently the original statue? About the same size as the avatar–7′.

Stepping outside, Pausanius’ spine glows as it stands on edge. This feels like the forest to me, not as old as the cave. Yearning for the wanderer ways. Remembering the pines that were the cathedral.

 

Search Serendipity

The Forum Boarium is home to two small temples which are among the best preserved religious structures from Rome’s republican era (between 509 and 44BC). The smaller, round building is the Temple of Hercules,

Temple of Hercules Victor

built at the end of the 2nd century BC by a greek architect, Hermodorus of Salamis.

The shape totally fascinates me. Someday I’ll visit.   To try and experience the space I turned to my simulator on Reactiongrid, found the dimensions on wikipedia and played around recreating it using an earthship construction. It doesn’t feel just right as the avatar (Pausanius) is about 7 feet tall.

See the full gallery on Posterous

The Baths at Fuorigrotta: Naples 2.0 Competition

Blended learning: virtual and corporeal

I struggled with blending computers with "classroom" instruction. But then the classroom passed and became a transformed learning community, inhabited by the students, and made their own. The technology, the computers, iPods, iPads, cell phones, etc., are used as the students use them–as a tool to get to the real and physical world. Or, in other words, a blended classroom isn't a classroom at all, but part of a place where what is constructed and connected through technology is enacted as a learning community. A computer lab..or a lounge, with wireless the technology permeates the space. Where what device is appropriate? Norms are getting redefined and I'm not completely sure about some boundaries–some are crystal clear, others fluid. Blending my classroom means dissolving it and merging it with a variety of spaces, extending it globally at the same time.  This is the point missed with on line instruction–it has to be enacted in the world simultaneously. In a traditional instructional model delivered on line, the learner is now isolated more than ever, not even being in the same building or room with their cohorts. By blending the model–including the corporeal with the virtual–you get the best of both types of delivery; socially on line instruction and experiential community based enactment. 'Community' is used in the widest context, and to include both narrowly focused and extended communities of practice. Community considered as encompassing virtual and physical groups that embrace all of the elements for life: protection, sustenance, energy, internet, solitude and celebration, large spaces and small: classroom as ecosystem.

Real Time Internet for Passion-Based Learning