How did this trip relate to my Major?

Art, Art, Art! Everything on our trip relates back to me and my major in some way or another, but a few examples really stood out to me. These are the examples that have impacted me directly and have influenced my work or ethics.

I would have to say that while touring the Basel School of Design I fell in love with the font they used on the walls. "Akzidenz Grotesk" was the name of the font. Part of my major is to create 3D design in Photoshop and After Effects and choosing the right font is always the hardest part for me. Some fonts are pixelized some are ugly but rarely do I find one just right. I have now used this font in a few of my projects and it turned out really well. I enjoyed learning about typography and the placement of elements on a magazine cover. It was cool to see how all these elements come together to create one coherent cover. This is a process I go through every time I design something and seeing it broken down the way it was done before computers has given me a totally different outlook on how I create designs now. Before learning about this I used to think of design as composing objects around objects without much concern for the layers or order of layers. Now in my recent projects I have started to become layer conscious and have even started building projects from the bottom layer up.

The next aspect of the trip that related to my major was the tour of the Museum fur Gestaltung and seeing the poster collection. For every film I create I always try to create a movie poster for it. It was really interesting to see the different posters and how they are composed differently based on the era of time they are from. It was interesting to see how the Russian propaganda posters varied so much from the United States propaganda posters. The "Kennedy 4 President" poster was all red, white, and blue with no real harsh shapes. Compared to the Russian poster which had a hard red and orange radial striped background with bold block letters. It opened my eyes to all the different ways people have conveyed a message through a small poster, yet that message can be changed and interpreted depending the style of the poster. In Art 210 I had to make some propaganda posters but did not put much thought into them regarding the style.  Now, looking back I could have made them much more meaningful just by tweaking some colors and shapes.

One tour specifically has influenced my decision to add a minor. While are Ars Electronica I really enjoyed the 3D printing lab. I would like to add a 3D modeling minor to my college career. I do not know if this is something that the University of Tampa offers, but I am extremely interested in taking some classes in this field. I was fascinated how people could design something and then print it out with a printer and the product have moving parts and interlocking connections. It was a weird feeling to hold a sphere that had one thousand moving parts inside but came out of one printer with no building needed. All  the parts moved individually and interacted with each other with precision and accuracy.

Lastly I would have to say the part of the trip that influenced me the most was the Alternative Graffiti Tour with Jason. It was totally amazing, YA! As we walked through the city looking at these huge murals of art really opened my eyes. I normally limit myself in what I create. I do not normally step outside of my comfort zone, but as Jason spoke about how these guys climb to the top of the roof, jump off the edge, and paint the side of the buildings, I realized if I do not step out of my comfort zone I will never be able to create anything that incredible.  Being in the film industry, it is all about taking huge leaps into unknown areas. If you asked me two years ago about work, I would have told you I hate reality TV and would never do that. But I took a huge leap out of my comfort zone and well now I love my job. I'm working five days a week on The Real House Wives of Beverly Hills and a few other shows. I have started experimenting with new forms of editing and graphic design, because if they could jump off a building and create something amazing, then its time for me to take a giant leap and try something new.


These are just a few examples of parts of the trip that have directly influenced my work and my major.

Trip Review

Going to Europe on this class trip has been the highlight of my college career so far. I really enjoyed visiting all of the museums and local venues in each country. My favorite place we visited was the Basel School of Design. It was really cool to see what a college of arts looks like, especially one that is world renowned. Seeing how each student gets their own desk and work space blew me away. I would never have imagined that in a college environment.

The other place that I enjoyed the most was Ars Electronica. I would love to go back there and I really wish we had more time to see the whole museum. I do have to say the Deep Space exhibit was a bit of a let down. It was 30 minutes long and really did not do justice to the online description.

I just wish we had done a little more research and spent time in class discussing these places so that way I knew what we were going to see. I have never taken an art history class besides Art and Technology and I felt very left out on a lot of what we were seeing. I wish that we had known which places we were going to see, so that the presentations could have focused more on those places.

If I was to go on the trip again there would be only a few things that I would change. I really wish we did not stay in Zurich for 5 days. It was the most expensive place and I feel it did not benefit the trip in the learning aspect. I wish we had stayed in Basel for a few days and gotten more time to explore the art museums and other colleges in that local area.

I also wish we had more time in Vienna. The museum of Modern Art was right near our hotel and we had no time to see it.

I would also have to say the walking tours in each city would have to be the most beneficial part of the trip. Walking and seeing history throughout Linz  & Berlin was incredible. I walked by the building Hitler designed probably 20 times before I realized what it was. Doing the graffiti art tour in Berlin was also really cool. Even though we do not study graffiti at school it was interesting to learn about that culture and how it is shaping the city of Berlin. I wish we had more activities like this that not only showed the art aspect but the historical aspect of the places we were visiting.

The only other thing I would change would be the amount of free time we had. It was nice, but frustrating at the same time. I wish we had more museum tours lined up and more of a constructive daily schedule, or knowing ahead of time when and where we were going to have free time so that we could research and plan things to do.   

If I had to give a person advice before coming on this trip it would have to be these three things:

1. Know your itinerary WAY ahead of time and plan accordingly. Free time is a total waste of time unless you have something planned. So plan ahead for free time.

2. You’re in a foreign country with totally new cultures and experiences DO NOT SLEEP IN, do not waste time, do not sit around and wait for others. Go do what you want to do and explore! Do not be afraid to try new foods and local delicacies.

3. Bring extra spending money. You will never know when you need some and you never have enough. Everything in other countries costs more and the conversion rate changes everyday. Do not get caught without money. Also never carry all your money at one time. Always split it up and make sure to have a back up just in case something happens. 

Last day! I survived the alien land!

Today we woke up bright and early to see the Bauhaus art collection. The collection was extremely cool and lived up to all of my expectations. My favorite piece in the museum was the spinning metal light sculpture. Seeing the light bounce off of it created some extraordinary shadows and effects. It was like a Bauhaus disco ball. I would love to recreate that and film it back at school. It also reminds me of the ceramic pieces I made for my portfolio that play around with light and creating geometric shapes.

My other favorite piece in the museum was the desk lamps. The goal of the students was to create a useful lamp with minimal use of supplies, but to be very functional. It was interesting to see how other people thought when designing these lamps and how each student learned from the next to eventually create a lamp that was perfect.

**Unfortunately we were not aloud to take photos here**

Next we moved onto a practical workshop where we were grouped up into teams and created our own Bauhaus inspired tea pots and cups made of paper and tape. We had to use a minimal amount of supplies and create the perfect tea cup. Once again I fell back to my love of simplicity and white/black color schemes. My tea pot was square with a contrasting circle tea cup. Each one decorated with black stripes and sharp corners.

After exploring all of the art, we made our way on a walking tour. We walked through an old Jewish ghetto (that has been completely rebuilt) and ended at a very famous chocolate store.

The store was built with Bauhaus inspiration and even the packaging was designed by a Bauhaus designer.  This store makes all of the chocolate without any milk or sugar. Personally, I was not a fan.  But I did buy a few bars for my family and Brooke and Santi. Afterwards, we took a quick nap and then all went to our last group dinner. It was amazing! I had meat and potatoes and it could not have tasted any better! It was barbarian style food inside an old looking dungeon restaurant.

This trip has been a ton of fun and I made lasting memories and friendships! It has exceeded all of my expectations and I am sad to go home. Well Europe, it has been fun! I loved you and you loved me. For my last blog post in this alien land, it's safe to say I will be back!

Oh and Fran, your the bomb! 

So over paying to pee!

I can officially say I have seen every inch of Berlin possible. Today I spent the best 20€ of my life! Niki, Tae, Meghan and I purchased tickets for the Yellow Line Hop On Hop Off tour bus. The tour took us all over city and we got to see way more sites than I could have ever imagined.

We got to see the Victory Column which is a super tall statue in the middle of Presidential Park. The view from the top of the statue was incredible! It looked out over all of Berlin. We only had to climb 8,986,716,871 stairs to get to the top. No, but really it was a lot of stairs. We also got a student discount! Thank you Santi for telling us to always carry our student ids!

On the way we found this interactive art installation. As we walked by, these huge screens lit up and created a snowy effect. Tae and I proceeded to dance and mess around with the installation for 30 minutes.  It was cool to find a random installation piece in the middle of the city. Now back on the bus we go! A few stops later we saw the Holocaust Memorial, the Parliament building, the U.S. Embassy (which was closed because it was Memorial Day in the U.S.), and a ton of other buildings and memorials. At every stop we made sure to take a selfie, so here is my selfie collage for the day.

These are only about half of them... At one of the first stops we got to see an old palace. I wish we could of gone in and seen more but it was stunning how big and luxurious it would of been to live there. It is one of the few places I would like to go back and see.

Along our tour we got the chance to take a picture with some men dressed as boarder crossing guards at Checkpoint Charlie! It was really cool to see them dressed up with what the guards of the time period would have looked like. I was able to connect the dots of what it would be like going through the checkpoint as if I time traveled back to Berlin.

Right after that we had to venture over to the Lego store. Niki had to drag me out because all I wanted to do was build Legos. I LOVE LEGOS!

By the way, I'M SO TIRED OF HAVING TO PAY TO PEE. All in all today we saw way too much. More free time in Berlin would have been great with all of the history and art to see there  After a short nap we all ran off to the movies, but before we could catch the train we had to dodge all of the neo-nazi protesters outside our hotel. It's okay, we made it through untouched. We went to see Pitch Perfect 2 and I have never laughed more in a movie before. About ten minutes in the movie starts trash talking Germany and the German life style. I have never felt more awkward in my life. In a movie theater, in Germany, in Berlin, with four Americans sitting in a row, watching this movie completely make fun of everyone surrounding us. It was pretty interesting.

Now back on the train to bed we go. But not to soon on the way home did I make sure we took a train to the far outskirts of the city, just to turn around and make sure I had enough time to write this blog. Because once I get to my bed LIGHTS OUT. Well here's my stop. Till tomorrow people, good night. 

Watch your step, there's glass everywhere!

I explored places today that if I was not pushed to go near I would have kept my distance. I really enjoyed the graffiti art tour and I feel we learned about more than just graffiti.

We started off our tour in the RAW. This was a small area that has been taken over by all kinds of artists and their works of art. It was interesting how the graffiti was a way for people to express what was going on with history. They used it to demonstrate how they felt about the government and how they felt about the war. 

We got to see all different types of graffiti from pissing, to spray paint, to post ups. We even got a little insight about the way an artist earns respect in the world of graffiti. They have to be the first to tag the wall and be the highest on the wall. Sometimes this meant risking your life hanging from the side of the building. But what I found most interesting was how Berlin passed a law that said, "To be charged with the crime of graffiti the artists has to be caught in the action of creating the art." This means if someone claims a piece they can not get in trouble unless the cops catch them in action. Our tour guide was extremely knowledegable about everything we saw and he even went out of his way to make sure we understood what we were looking at. I am super glad we did that tour.

After the tour we had the rest of the day free to do anything we wanted. A few of us headed to lunch and then back to the hotel to rest for a few hours. We then all left and went to this music festival/ carnival kind of event.  It was a holiday in Germany.

There was tons of people! I felt like a sardine! The one thing I absolutely hate about being here is that their is glass everywhere in the streets. People just break the bottles and leave them. The carnival was littered all over. The plus side to being covered in trash by drunk people is sometimes they drop money. I found a 20 euro note on the floor! I was really happy about that. It was tons of fun to shop and listen to the music playing.

We then went on a fun adventure trying to get back to the hotel. We had to go an opposite direction to avoid the crowds and drunk people. We eventually made it back and now are planning out tomorrow. I am really excited for tomorrow!

We're on the road again.

This morning was the least adventurous morning yet. We woke up pretty early and hopped on a train to Berlin. I am kinda glad we left really early because we got to Berlin around 1 p.m. and this allowed us time to go out and explore the city.

On our journey throughout the city I got to cross something off of my bucket list. Ever since I started learning about World War II, I have always wanted to visit the Berlin Wall. Although we have a piece at the Ronald Reagan library at home in Los Angeles, seeing it in place where it stood, holds a totally different meaning. All along the wall are huge pieces of art that are absolutely incredible.




The wall is riddled with political statements and historical references. My favorite one was the blue Jewish star on top of the German flag. This symbolism was a huge part of the war. It is a memorial to all of the German Jews that were effected by the war.

After seeing the Berlin wall we made our way back on to the train and went just a few stops away. Lindsey found this Berlin dungeon attraction. It was actually really interesting. It was an hour long interactive tour through old medieval Berlin. We learned about the potato famine and how the people suffered from the plague. It also talked about the monks and how they kept secretes along with a mock up of what an old medieval court session was like. It was beyond funny too! They killed Tony and labeled Tae a "fashion killer".

We have never laughed so hard in our lives. After that we all ventured back to the hotel and rested up. Then a big group of us headed out to the Hofbrauhaus.

This was a really cool place. It was a giant hall filled with tables and old style German food. People were dancing, singing, and drinking. I felt like I was in an old German town drinking. Although what ever I did triggered my whole body to break out in a really bad rash. It wasn't fun. Meghan and I ran over to the Apotheke to get some medicine. Now off to bed in severe pain. Hopefully I'll get some sleep tonight. 

Oh you modern art, you're so silly.

It is extremely weird to think that Hitler absolutely hated modern art, providing he himself wanted to be an artist.

Touring the Bauhaus was pretty interesting. I feel today we learned more about modern architecture than I have ever before. I find it really strange that under Hitler's rule they had to tear down parts of the buildings and re-purpose them. Some of the masters houses had to be completely re-done on the outside to blend in and not stand out.  I also really liked their window designs. If you know me, the one thing I really love is the cold. If its cold out the windows are WIDE open. I really liked how one pulley and wheel could open almost all the windows on one side of the building. I do not know why, but that really fascinates me. I suppose it is the efficiency behind it. 

The next thing I really enjoyed was hearing about all the famous Bauhaus parties. Everyone would come together on the roof and dance and be crazy and just be themselves. I really liked that. I wish U.T. had something like this. Touring the whole campus was a lot of fun.

I really enjoyed seeing the Master houses too. That's what I want my house to look like eventually. I love the sleek colors, sharp corners and huge windows. If I could design a house I am pretty sure it would look like a Masters house, just a lot bigger! 

After that we ventured into the city and found a beer garden restaurant to eat at. The food was really good and seemed to taste very authentic. The wait staff spoke no English so it really tested our skills in being able to communicate in a foreign country.

The food however was delicious and amazing. I had a meatloaf and potato meal. The meat was so good and the potatoes were perfect! Once we were done, we wandered the city and found a really cool building. It looked like an old city hall but we are not to sure.

After all this adventure it was time for a nap and then dinner. We went out as a whole group to an old style restaurant in the city square. The food was beyond good. I had some grilled chicken with garlic potatoes. I could have eaten ten to twelve servings. I also had this thing called a "Raddler Beir". IT WAS AMAZING! It is beer mixed with lemonade and its actually refreshing to drink. Today was an interesting, informative & fun day, but we are off to Berlin tomorrow and I can't wait!!!!