City Life Project

            Progress, an interesting concept. The idea that we should always be moving forward is that of intelligence. Many people acquire a highly misconstrued view of what is actually taking a step in the right direction. During the early 1900’s the question of “Is this progress?” was being asked by everyone but the top of the social pyramid. Both good and bad came out of this era in history but mainly what people were given was a higher appreciation for nature and the natural world around them. The ends justify the means here, however, the abhorrent urban living standard, the growth of architecture, the art nouveau movement and the rise of photography as an art all lead to the people wanting more of the natural world in their daily lives.

            Simple putridity was the standard in which most people lived in during the early nineteen hundreds. Their homes so crowded sometimes, with multiple families to one room. It is impossible for the people of modern America to grasp this concept, being that most children have their own room sometimes even their own bathroom. Being wealthy could help one escape most of the cities problems but unfortunately it could not aid you in escaping the towering steel buildings, the smog in the air from pollution or even the stench of rotten feces on the street. Apart from the wealthy, the poor and lower middle class had more pressing matter to worry about. Sickness plagued many of the people in the city. Because of the forced close living space, often times if one member of the family got sick the whole family and other tenets sharing their home would contract the disease as well. Around thirty million people at this time period lived in cities, or thirty percent of the population, and about one in three people were close to starvation. People weren’t being payed well enough to afford food, let alone medicine. Most of these issues were caused by the overcrowding problem, too many people trying to get too little. The crowding problem could be attributed mainly to the structure of most cities. The idea of using steel girders was being popularized and cities began to grown up instead of growing out. This allowed for massive apartment complexes to for and even skyscrapers. These tall skinny buildings squeezed people together, proliferating all kinds of filth and disease and discontent. Architect Louis Sullivan was most known for his work in building skyscrapers and he began to build on the people discontent by trying to achieve a higher exposure to the natural word through features such as large windows for more light and less geometric shapes. His pupil, Frank Lloyd Wright, built even more on his idea.

            Frank Lloyd Wright is one of the worlds most know architects. Frank Lloyd Wright built a bride in to the modern world as we know it through his architecture. He had this fantastic idea of making things more modern but at the same time more natural and simplistic. He used low pitched roofs to reflect the parries flat land, he used stained glass to not only allow the light in but to color it in a meaningful way. He most people know his style as being very horizontally based, and in this way he showcases the things that are not simply horizontal lines. He had stone vases the would be basically just lines but then the plants would grown out of them. This is to make your eye focused on not just the stone, but the plant. He wanted people to get a spiritual appreciation of architecture and nature.  He saw no point in having the modern world completely separate from the natural world so he combined them together in a way most soothing to the eye. He stated at a time “Using this word Nature…I do not of course mean that outward aspect which strikes the eye as a visual image of a scene strikes the ground glass of a camera but that inner harmony which penetrates the outward form...”. This quote is very fascinating in how He feels about nature. He spells Nature with a capital N, treating it as some higher being to be respected rather than mowed over. In a Time when building were sheer lines and cold grey steel, This architect gave them curving arches, mosaics, stained glass, and plant like carvings. People were striving for this. They were living without the natural world and they wanted what they couldn’t have. Frank Lloyd Wright helped to show them just how elegant the natural world can be. He was also one of the bigger names in the Art Nouveau movement which was highly popularized during this time.

            Art Nouveau showed up for about a fifteen year period in American and made a huge impact on the status quo of art in that short amount of time. As previously mentioned, people needed to escape from their mechanical world. And often times people show their emotions and beliefs through their artwork. This artwork targeted the organic motif. Like Frank Lloyd Wright, these artists began to add flowers and vines to their sculptures and paintings and such. This was a way to add a little bit of natural life into the life’s of the people forced to live without it. People wanted to escape the idea of modernism in art and William Morris did that. Morris was a key member of this movement and fought against Victorian design. The artists of this time got back to the basics. The threw out the idea that sculpture and painting were the only true forms of art. The people wanted changed so they changed everything. Seeing the world through these artists’ eyes gave the common people of the time period a higher appreciation for what is organic to the world. The artists drew the vines and people together with such respect that its obvious how they felt towards the subject. Another form of art that was being made popular during this time period was that of photography.

            Photography has always been a fascinating subject to human beings. The idea that one can take a picture of exactly how something appears in just that moment of time is astounding. When Kodak released a camera in 1888 that was available to the upper middle class, the genre took off. People took pictures of everything and it wasn’t until later that it became respected as an art form. Considering Kodak’s logo “Just press the button and we’ll do the rest” I see why. Photography became understood to be more about the subject matter and making a point rather than showing actual skill. Ansel Adams became a big name in photography. He was an environmentalist at this time, wanting to remind people of the organic world that they had forgotten. His pictures are all of natural settings never with any humans. The black and white simplicity of the photographs made the contrast in his photos pop out to the viewer’s eye and make them want to look at it. He did a great job at educating people in this matter. He is often criticized for showing a doctored world to the public. The world isn’t as natural as it seems but he did what he felt was needed to be done.
            Through all of these forms of art people have grown to a higher level of understanding and care for nature and have come to realize that the modernism can include organic material rather than just that of machinery. The unhappiness that these cities bred set the ball in motion for actual progress. after all, progress cannot begin until there is discontent. People have a nasty way of wanting what they cant have, and i feel as though this is a great example of this. For example the Art Nouveau movement was overtaken by the Art Deco movement which involved lots of geometric shapes and illustrated ideas such a cubism. However seemingly "modern" this new art form was one can still see how the concept of how important nature is to human life stuck with it. Where the style changed much of the subject matter remain to be about natural life. 

Sources:
Art Nouveau History - I used this Source for an overview of the Art Nouveau movement and what the key ideas of it were.
Art Nouveau - Very brief look into the art Nouveau movement. i used this to acquire further questions about the movement.
Louis Sullivan - Used this source for a look into Sullivan's life. this source gave me some key points about the man to further research such as his modernism and key role in the art Nouveau movement in architecture.
Artlex - This source provided me with a description of Art Nouveau and what its roots were. This was especially helpful because it provided pictures after its descriptions.
Khan academy, Photography - I used this source for an overview of the development of photography. this also gave me a good incite into how people viewed it as a lesser art form because of its ease of use and how it later developed into being a more respected form of art.
Sierra club, Ansel Adamas - This source gave a great description of how this photographer played a part in the rise of photography. It also discussed the validity of the meanings behind his photos.
Loc. Urban Live - This source was very helpful in giving me numbers that i could use to help prove my points about life in the cities during this time period.
Frank Lloyd Wright bio - This entire website was immensely helpful in giving me information about the architects life growing up, his architecture, and his personal philosophies about nature. I i acquired a fantastic quote about nature from here.
Frank Lloyd Wright: A Gatefold Portfolio- This book has flip out pages of Frank Lloyd Wrights buildings and his plans for said building. it provides descriptions about how each house is significant and different. I used this book while beginning my research to get a good start on learning about his personal style.
Frank Lloyd Wright Inside and Out - This book, like his portfolio, also provided pictures along with descriptions. This one, however, went much more in-depth with the symbolism and beliefs behind the specific features of his homes.
American History - Alan Brinkley - This textbook allowed me to achieve a nice starting point for my research. It also gave me a lovely  description of th problems of Urban life and the development of people trying to make nature a priority.

Ansel Adam's black and white photograph of a valley and mountain

An art nouveau door, showing the movements adherence to nature ideals

vase incased in vines and flowers to show the art nouveau's dedication to natural ideals

Crowded city life in the early 1900s

Carnegie Believes that in order to benefit the lives of other people he has to give money to help make education and peace a priority in the world. He believes that people must make their own lives, he does not want to simply give people money and help. Carnegie Builds up organizations and donates money to provide people a better way of taking control of their own life. With companies such as the Carnegie institution of Washington and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, He hopes to provide opportunities to those less fortunate. Almost every corporation that he funds is based around education. Personally i believe that this is a great way to give money. The only counter argument that could be used is that this plan does not directly influence the lives of underprivileged people. He is leaving a giant part of progress up to the people. If i had a hundred million dollars i would give the money away in much the same way as Carnegie did. However i would be more focused on the advancement of the scientific community than he was. I would spend it all funding research projects for things such as stem cell research and quantum physics.

Religion of the Native American People

Native American culture is one that I have always found to be an interesting one. I took a particular interest in their religion because of how different it is from any other. After accumulating data I found that their religion was extremely influential in everything that they did. Almost no other religion effects the daily life’s as much as theirs did. The structure of their religion and the many allegories are used to form a way of life throughout the Native American people.

The structure of the Native American’s religion is a very complicated ordeal, and even just how their religion is set up can change the way that the people think and act. One of the first things that I discovered about the religion was that there was no organized Native American religion. This is an unusual concept to us nowadays because of how our lives are so dictated by rules and living by one doctrine that we can all look up to. Every tribe had different beliefs than their neighbor right next door. That being said, there is a lot of overlap between religions. For instance almost every one of them had a “Great Spirit” of some sort and had the same basic values of their neighbor tribe.  This unique structure to the religion has brought on a vast amount of religious tolerance. If there is one thing that most religions were not a, a few hundred years ago, it would be tolerant. Most Religions fight with the others because it is the will of their deity, for example the crusades. But being immersed in a setting where you are used to having people with different beliefs than you make you more tolerant of their right to have them. When the Europeans came over and tried to push Christianity on the Native Americans most of them tried to learn about it and try it out instead of rejecting the idea in disgust. On the note of Tolerance, In a good deal of the Native American religions the “Great Spirit” was a female, Or it was usually an animal. This made the people more akin to gender equality, and also a respect for animals. Another interesting thing that influenced the Native people was their view on the concept of an afterlife. Most, not all, versions of this religion believe that they would go to a sort of Spirit world when they died. Others believed that they would reincarnate as an infant or star. This is uncommon in the sense that there really is no final judgment placed upon ones soul. There is no “hell” or “reincarnating as a lesser being”. The people seems to be familiar with the thought of death, in many stories they travel to the spirit world and there is no talk of dismay or sorrow, it is simply a different world. This gives the people a very unique state of mind in that they are not doing the right thing for a shot at a blissful eternity. They are respectful, kind, and trying people because they believe that that is what they should do. It makes them a very selfless people. After observing the structure I began to look more closely into the stories that were told to the people.

Myths and legends are often told in a religion to teach a moral lesson or a way of living one’s life, and the same is true for the Native Americans. The first thing I did was pick up a book about myths called The Mythology of Native North America. I began to look at their hero myths because I find that that usually tells a lot about what a religion values. Following the story of “The Lone Man” I found that their ideal person was supposed to be benevolent, a skilled fighter, cunning, and faithful to the spirits.  This allegory was the first of many that I observed. The story of 3 men that get wishes from a Spirit named Glooscap was meant to teach the people to not have lust or greed and to always listen to the words of the spirits. Looking at the native peoples way of life we can see just that. It was not in their nature to be greedy at all. they never hunted more than they needed, and they had no concept of money or stealing. Lust was also not a problem with these people because of how they kept to the only have relations with your wife rule. This really just shows how the people take the words of their religious stories to heart. Another example is of the story of “Iktomi and the rock” where a lesson is taught not only to be generous but also that everything has a soul. This man is talking and giving things to a rock, and the rock talks back to him. There is no sense of surprise at all in the story when the rock speaks, it is complete natural that the rock should be considered a person to them. This is reflected in the people’s great reverence for nature. Leaving as little of a mark on the land as they can, and being respectful of all things. This was an extremely odd concept to myself when I learned that they believed this but I must say that most cultures could benefit from the belief that harming the land was harming a living being. Their emergence myths taught them to pray to their spirits and that the Spirits that they worshiped were not so unlike themselves. The Spirits were very humanized and not really seen as all powerful, most of the emergence myths seem to be based of of chance rather than power. This has made the people not so "god fearing" enhancing their selflessness much like their view of the afterlife did.  All these stories took part in everything that they did. During battle they taught them not to fear death with the story of the sprit world being no big deal. They smoked tobacco because of the story of smoking sending their prayers to their gods. They even learned agriculture to be important from the story of “The Corn Mother”.  At the end of my studies I couldn't help but hold a respect for them for devoting so much of their lives to their religion.

Indian Country- I used this site for its many stories, mainly the one about the porcupine. This site gave me a great incite into how the native Americans view their animals and the stories and which they teach this lesson.

indigenous people- This site was fantastic for its story about creation/end of the world. I used it to acquire a sense of how the Native Americans view their gods. i found it interesting to see the prices payed when their gods are not praised.

The Mythology of Native North America- This book was by far the most important of all my sources. It contains many stories about Native American Mythology. I used these stories to find the lessons that the children were being taught through religion. 

American Indian Myths and Legends-I used this book to cross reference the Stories from the other mythology book of the native Americans. also i found many ways that the people praised their gods here.

American Indian Trickster Tales- I used this book because of the many ways that trickster tales often times are meant to teach a person a lesson. i spent the while reading this book and found many stories about how to live ones life.

- A picture of a Native American drawing of a raven. This is a very important creature in their culture, many creation myths involve a raven creating the world.

- This picture shows Native Americans smoking a pipe. This was often done as a religious ceremony rather than a matter of pleasure. It was believed that the smoke carried prayers up to the spirits.

 - The Coyote is often a God in Native American culture and is seen here being rather human like. The animals were thought of to be equals to humans and this is shown through their uses of animal gods in their stories.

the West

Garrett Hagood
Contrast to the American Western Fantasy
Any American knows that what we hear on movies and in the news and what is in actuality are often times two completely different things. In the western era of the United States the history has been greatly distorted to be what Hollywood has made it out to be. We can see this in the contrast between the heroic cowboy that we all know and love and the real cowboy, the other western myths that have been proven to be fun, but yet untrue, and the contributing factors to how this idealization of the American cowboy came to be.
The word “cowboy” is one of freedom and adventure and brings to mind the image of a man dressed in all white defending a damsel in distress from the corrupted villains surrounding them. This is a fun image to behold in your mind, but there is a reason it sounds like it came from a children’s story book. Its not real. We are a country of dreamers and that’s a great thing, but you have to be able to discern the reality from the dream because a person living in ignorance cannot push progress forward. Most people believe that the cowboys of the west were freemen that did as they pleased, didn’t allow anyone to push them around, and altogether symbolized everything a hero should be. They are supposed to be decent folk that were respected and were respectful back. Looking at the historical evidence of the “cowboy” we know this is untrue. Cowboys were nothing special, they were simply men doing an honest day’s work most of the time for a wealthy rancher. Basically they were handi-men, the work they did was not glorious, and they defiantly did not carry around expensive white guns to fight off bandits. A cowboy was one of the lowliest professions a man could have. They did what they were told, got their hands dirty, and were paid very poorly for it. They were not a an embodiment of the American dream, unless the American dream was to be waist high in manure for hours on end in the sweltering sun getting paid barley enough to live off of. But I don’t think that’s what us dreamers had in mind.
The cowboy wasn’t the only thing wrong with the general knowledge about the western America; there is often a huge misconception about immigration and racism as well. The cowboy has managed to draw almost all the attention away from the other people who weren’t to terribly exiting. People didn’t often go to the fair to hear about the reality of the Chinese living conditions, no they wanted excitement, they wanted adventure. Now a days people don’t even realize how bad the Chinese had it. They were probably more hated at the time then black people were. I did not even know about the Chinese riots until this year. People actually rioted against the Chinese because they were willing to work for such low wages and stealing American jobs. Its fascinating to me when I found out about the Chinese exclusion act. I couldn’t believe that the Chinese were actually banned from America. That just goes to show how clouded the American knowledge of the west was.
With all these tall tales of the west one has to ask the question, “who started these?”, and a large portion of the stories came from buffalo bill. Buffalo bill was a man that was in love with the west and often visited and came back with marvelous stories. He was an entertainer that put on shows about the west. He often times portrayed the cowboy as the heroic adventurer that we all know and love today. The people of the time had nothing to compare his myth to, they just took it as fact. This became the birth of the great American cowboy.

Chapter 15 Reflection

    Garrett Hagood
             I have always been interested in history and in turn had known a great deal about the civil war and, the era that preceded it, when we began studying the time period in history class. Most of what i knew at the time had come from my father, or my previous history classes. I knew the most about topics such as Slavery, the rise of segregation, and the general animosity felt between both sides of the country. Slavery, being a big point whenever this era is discussed, much as i had thought that it was. that being said, I learned a lot that I didn't already know, but I had already had the basics of the time down pat. I i had always found an interest in how a country can be torn apart and then put back together again as had the U.S.A. It seems to be impossible to get rid of the feeling of rivaly and hatred. To this day one can still see evidence of a bias that has held since the time of the civil war between states and races.

                 While learning about this chronicle in time a few things manages to pull themselves off the page and lectures and into the view of my fascinated eye. For instance I had previously conceived that the social stigma against the blacks was apparent throughout the entirety of the nation, that much was true at least. But i had always thought that Blacks were left out to dry during the time. i had not believed that the government actually gave help through organizations such as the Freedman's Bureau. I had been fascinated by the juxtaposition of a nation of hatred against a nation that is trying so hard to rebuild and give out help in the form of education and housing. I had also been intrigued by the fact that congress was willing to compromise with the south. I was shocked that our nation would allow another to impose their own will, and in a way, let the south "take the power back" by kicking the federal troupes out of the south.

                To me, history is an incredible import section of the academic world to study. Not only is it interesting, but it provides an window into the future. As the old saying goes "history will repeat its self". The best way to be prepared for the events that will transpire is to be familiar with the mistakes of the past. It is seen in everywhere you look, on the news or in your own life. Everyday a political mistake is being replicated. such as it is today with several countries in the middle east. Like with Nazi Germany, some people just want to leave them alone until they grown to big to stop. Looking back at history, we know that's a bad idea.

animoto

Hey everyone! in my animoto video i depicted, with just a few pictures, my view on america!
to me america is about leadership, strength and above all freedom. i tried my hardest to show that using pictures of george washington and uncle sam. i also wanted to showcase america's ingenuity so i added pictures fromt he industrial revulution along with a contrasting picture of a ford car a century ago and then one from just a few years ago.
http://animoto.com/play/LG7CwTwlqnwSPolaidnD9A

HI