Youtube Link to Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtD4IegORy4
Scholarly Commons @ MU: https://sc.lib.miamioh.edu/handle/2374.MIA/5937
Scholarly Commons @ MU: https://sc.lib.miamioh.edu/handle/2374.MIA/5937
The Grand Tour - 2015 COLLABORATIVE PROJECT
This is a multi-part collaborative research project investigating the creative process through experiences and adventures associated with The Grand Tour, a European expedition that exposed young minds first-hand to culture, art, and music beginning in the late 16th century. Our goal, my research partner Josef DiPietrantonio and I, was to look inside the lives of strangers we encountered on our Grand Tour, and ask the questions: what do you do, and how do you do it? Examining the creative process is a large scale research prompt, but through taking note of historical exemplars and personal narratives, we discovered quite a bit about creativity and individuals in general. We wished to plan our travels in a parallel version of The Grand Tour so that we could study similar scholarly works of the liberal arts first-hand, with a modern perspective. The experience itself was primarily utilized as a stimulus for creating artistic works, which culminated in a series of multimedia projects presented in an exhibition at Duquesne University. In the exhibition the pieces are derived from inspirations found in Rome, Florence, Paris, Berlin, and Salzburg. The inspirational experiences include, but are not limited to, fine art, graffiti art, music concerts, performances, monuments, and meeting new friends along the way.
We met Vincent, an eager filmmaker and one of the founders of the “Shakirail,” an artist collective that transforms abandoned buildings into workshop spaces for artists in Paris. Vincent is a man reinforcing cultural and artistic entities in his city. We met Rich, the Artistic Director of the Florence Dance Company who designs digital backdrops and performances for the dancers in his company. We met Mr. Quenel, a sculpture restorator who works on famous historical pieces in Paris and Florence, but has a secret love for creating contemporary art. We met Xabi, a young skateboarder excited about his city’s support for skating and believes his sport brings different generations and communities together. We met Daniello, an aspiring mixologist whose dream is to someday make his own moonshine. These are only a few of the many we had the pleasure of learning about.
This journey, from proposing the project and taking the tour, through post production of the artistic works, has given us insight on the creative process, as well as how to work towards creativity at all times. The most prominent find from our experience was that adventure sparks inspiration that in turn fosters creativity. We learned to always take advantage of the time at hand and seek to find inspiration through our own form of adventure. During adventure, it is important to let your environment impose upon you, while leaving a worthwhile impression on the people and place as well. Furthermore, it is crucial for your mind to remain open and aware of your environment at all times.
The creative process often evolves with inspiration that is a personal connection. We found ourselves gravitating toward recognizable artists, works, and personal interests. One of Josef's main explorations came about through his love of running just as Liza found much enjoyment in performances, especially dance. Not all ideas must erupt from personal connections, but appealing experiences are often relatable ones. By taking both relatable, and newly inspiring experiences, one can experiment with ideas and take risks in order to explore new creative outlets.
Through our tour, we learned to involve ourselves in the inspiration and creativity cycle. The stories we heard and the works of art we witnessed in Europe were not only proof of their creators' processes, but they continued the cycle by inspiring us as viewers to create works of our own. Inspiration and creativity is a continual pattern that we have nourished throughout history. Just as others have inspired us, we have learned to strive to be the inspiration for the creativity of others.
Liza's An Adventure for Inspiration: Lesson Plan
Google Slides for lesson plan
Josef's Grand Tour Presentation
We met Vincent, an eager filmmaker and one of the founders of the “Shakirail,” an artist collective that transforms abandoned buildings into workshop spaces for artists in Paris. Vincent is a man reinforcing cultural and artistic entities in his city. We met Rich, the Artistic Director of the Florence Dance Company who designs digital backdrops and performances for the dancers in his company. We met Mr. Quenel, a sculpture restorator who works on famous historical pieces in Paris and Florence, but has a secret love for creating contemporary art. We met Xabi, a young skateboarder excited about his city’s support for skating and believes his sport brings different generations and communities together. We met Daniello, an aspiring mixologist whose dream is to someday make his own moonshine. These are only a few of the many we had the pleasure of learning about.
This journey, from proposing the project and taking the tour, through post production of the artistic works, has given us insight on the creative process, as well as how to work towards creativity at all times. The most prominent find from our experience was that adventure sparks inspiration that in turn fosters creativity. We learned to always take advantage of the time at hand and seek to find inspiration through our own form of adventure. During adventure, it is important to let your environment impose upon you, while leaving a worthwhile impression on the people and place as well. Furthermore, it is crucial for your mind to remain open and aware of your environment at all times.
The creative process often evolves with inspiration that is a personal connection. We found ourselves gravitating toward recognizable artists, works, and personal interests. One of Josef's main explorations came about through his love of running just as Liza found much enjoyment in performances, especially dance. Not all ideas must erupt from personal connections, but appealing experiences are often relatable ones. By taking both relatable, and newly inspiring experiences, one can experiment with ideas and take risks in order to explore new creative outlets.
Through our tour, we learned to involve ourselves in the inspiration and creativity cycle. The stories we heard and the works of art we witnessed in Europe were not only proof of their creators' processes, but they continued the cycle by inspiring us as viewers to create works of our own. Inspiration and creativity is a continual pattern that we have nourished throughout history. Just as others have inspired us, we have learned to strive to be the inspiration for the creativity of others.
Liza's An Adventure for Inspiration: Lesson Plan
Google Slides for lesson plan
Josef's Grand Tour Presentation
The exhibit Pieces
Rome
Colosseum Sketch Studies
Inspiration: The Colosseum (Rome, Italy) Background: Sketching was a successful tool to encourage creativity and further our understanding of the object or scene we were examining. Sketch studies are also a good form of documentation. We were inspired to sketch the Colosseum when sitting amongst the interior. A few days later we decided to overlay our sketches with an actual image we took. This was the only piece completed during the trip. Creative Process:
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Timing
Inspiration: Various ornate clocks around Europe including the Water Clock at Villa Borghese (Rome, Italy), the fresco clock in the Duomo (Florence, Italy), clocks found in the Galileo Museum (Florence, Italy), a clock designed by Leonardo da Vinci in his museum (Florence, Italy), and our own Mickey Mouse wrist watch Background: The frequency of ornate clocks throughout the tour as well as their consistently pleasing aesthetic and functionality inspired us to create a piece culminating the ideas of functionality and art. Each clock we saw was unique in that they looked and functioned in their own way. We wanted to incorporate the various pictures we took of these clocks into one aesthetic piece. The basis for this piece was the wristwatch we used throughout our tour. Creative Process:
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Personification 1
Inspiration: The Colosseum (Rome, Italy) Background: The inspiration for our personifications is derived from the life and personality seen in each separate iconic monument or scenery piece. The Colosseum was a recurring structure we saw during our stay in Rome. Each time we viewed it, and while touring it, we felt that it had a particular character. It felt strong-willed, wise, and as if it was a warrior itself. This was the first site that inspired us to create a personification, which encouraged us to see structures in a different fashion. Creative Process:
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Poems Inspiration: Written works by various authors in the book “Love Poems” of the Everyman’s Library Pocket Poem series, and the romantic poets/Grand Tourists John Keats, Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, and Goethe. Background: These Grand Tourists were scholars and adventurers who sought to explore multiple components of education, including literature, poetry, and art. When visiting the Keats-Shelley, and Goethe House Museums, we read written works of these scholars and purchased a book of poems. This encouraged us to write our own. Creative Process:
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Florence
Portraits Revealed
Inspiration: The Florence Dance Company (Florence, Italy), and Liza’s self choreographed contemporary dance piece, “Portraits” Background: Liza had the opportunity of taking a class at the Florence Dance Company and meeting with the artistic director. From this she was inspired by the company’s projected contemporary art backdrops for their performances that the artistic director creates. Based off of this inspiration, and the pop artist Andy Warhol, she used a projection as a backdrop for her self choreographed piece in her Dance Theatre Company concert. Continuing the cycle of creativity and inspiration, Liza decided to depict a scene from her dance piece that incorporated the idea of the vibrant projections used by the Florence Dance Company. Creative Process:
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Maps for the World
Inspiration: The Galileo Museum’s globes made by the Venetian cosmographer Vincenzo Maria Coronelli (Florence, Italy), and the paper maps we used to navigate each city Background: The globes in the Galileo Museum were built using several oval strips of paper and a papier-mache technique. We found this processes an interesting one to attempt. We felt it would be right to incorporate the paper maps from each city because they were such a prominent and crucial part of our travel. This work evolved as we found pieces that would exemplify the places we visited in each city. Creative Process:
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Exploring Firenze
Inspiration: The painting, Thebaid, painted by a number of Florentine Masters such as Fra Angelico and Gherardo Starnina, Uffizi Gallery (Florence, Italy), and the Sistine Chapel wall frescos The Stories of Moses and The Stories of Jesus cycles painted by various artists (Rome, Italy) Background: These paintings incorporated characters like Moses and Jesus in multiple locations of the painting, which implied a story being told. The painting Thebaid in particular was a landscape story painting that inspired us to create our own landscape story telling the tale of our time in Florence. Creative Process:
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Paris
Abstraction
Inspiration: Pablo Picasso’s Guitar found in the Musee Picasso (Paris, France) Background: We were inspired by this piece in the Picasso Museum because of Picasso’s eye for abstraction and attempt to build an abstraction. In the same way, we attempted to build an abstraction, like Picasso’s, and then render it. We desired to use an icon depicting a prominent aspect of our trip, which was a backpack. Creative Process:
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Interpreted Abstraction
Inspiration: Pablo Picasso’s Guitar (I Love Eva) found in the Musee Picasso (Paris, France) Background: We were inspired by this piece in the Picasso Museum because of Picasso’s eye for abstraction and attempt to render his built abstraction, Guitar. In the same way, we attempted to interpret and render our own built abstraction, like Picasso’s. Creative Process:
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Personification 2
Inspiration: The Eiffel Tower (Paris, France) Background: The inspiration for our personifications is derived from the life and personality seen in each separate iconic monument or scenery piece. The Eiffel Tower was an inspiring structure which provoked a character of ornate beauty and overarching radiance in the city of Paris. Creative Process:
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JagerBombed
Inspiration: The Men’s 3000m Steeplechase at the Diamond League professional track meet Meeting Areva (Paris, France) Background: We attended this track meet where American Steeplechaser Evan Jager took the lead in a world record paced Men’s 3000m Steeplechase. Unfortunately, upon hurdling the last barrier of the race, Jager clipped the barrier and plummeted to the track. Jager was passed by Kenyan Jairus Birech and would settle for a bittersweet second, still managing to break the American 3000m Steeplechase record and fell just short of being the first non-Kenyan steeplechaser to run sub-8:00. Creative Process:
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Berlin
Personification 3
Inspiration: The Berlin Wall (Berlin, Germany) Background: The inspiration for our personifications is derived from the life and personality seen in each separate iconic monument or scenery piece. The Berlin Wall was an inspiring historical structure covered in graffiti art. It evoked a character that was young and vibrant, but broken and beat up from previous endeavors. Despite the wall’s worn characteristic, it seemed to have a positive personality and a hopeful future. Creative Process:
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The Wall
Inspiration: The Berlin Wall (Berlin, Germany), the Nike SB Berlin Open, skateboarders throughout Europe including ourselves, Andy Warhol, Invader, and street art Background: Skating inspired this sculpture because we brought our skateboards to travel in Europe. Because of this, we met other skateboarders and immersed ourself in their culture. We also attended the Nike SB Berlin Open, a professional skateboard competition in Berlin. Furthermore, we skated the East Side Gallery of the Berlin Wall, which added the graffiti wall element to this sculpture, as well as the artists Andy Warhol and Invader, two very prominent artists of the tour. Creative Process:
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I Want to Be in Your Record Collection
Inspiration: A Berlin skateboarder, Berlin street posters Background: This piece was inspired by a specific Berlin skateboarder carrying a boom- box blaring the song “I Want to Be in Your Record Collection” by Mark Ronson, who was cruising by one of our dinners. He immediately caught our attention as embodiment of the Berlin culture. The form of the piece is representative of the overwhelming, multitudinous collages of excellent quality Berlin street posters that covered the city. The construction was an experiment with the concept of designing a piece and then substituting the intended media with another for the creation, in this case construction paper instead of the digital print. Creative Process:
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Dalimann
Inspiration: Print pieces from the series of three story sequences in the Dali Museum (Berlin, Germany), and our story of the Jedermann Bühne concert we performed (Salzburg, Austria) Background: Salvador Dali was an extremely inspiring surrealist artist that created a series of three sequences depicting the stories, Alice and Wonderland, Tristan and Isolde, and Faust by Goethe. Goethe was a Grand Tourist and a recurring figure throughout our tour. Dali’s style in his depictions of these stories were exceptionally entrancing, which encouraged our attempt to create a sequence of paintings of our own story using a similar style. Creative Process:
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Salzburg
Personification 4
Inspiration: Festungsberg mountain (Salzburg, Austria) Background: The inspiration for our personifications is derived from the life and personality seen in each separate iconic monument or scenery piece. The Austrian landscape was definitely an inspiring entity from our time in Austria. Not only seeing such an extraordinary landscape, but climbing the mountains encouraged much creativity. This mountain in particular holds the Hohensalzburg Castle. Creative Process:
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Strung
Inspiration: Marionettes from the Salzburg Marionetten Theatre (Salzburg, Austria) Background: We went to The Sound of Music marionette show which played in Salzburg, and was one of the most spectacular events. The marionettes moved in ways that made it look like we were watching a real play. This inspired us to create our own marionettes. Creative Process:
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Project Graveyard
Inspiration: Petersfriedhof cemetery (Salzburg, Austria), the memorabilia we brought back from our journey, and the projects never completed Background: We came across beautiful, ornate graves in Austria including the Petersfriedhof cemetery in Salzburg. The graves often had a flower box, and a cross or bird house posted behind the flowers. Here lie our metaphorically buried, uncompleted projects and souvenirs from our entire journey, such as idea sketches, tickets, programs, maps, and found objects. Creative Process:
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More
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Trading Cards
Inspiration: Friends (Italy, France, Germany and Austria) Background: Throughout our trip we met a multitude of Europeans willing to talk with us about themselves. Our intention was to look inside the lives of individuals we encountered on our Grand Tour, and ask the questions: what do you do, and how do you do it? Through personal narratives, we discovered quite a bit about creativity and inspiration. Creative Process:
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Correre, Laufen, Courut
Inspiration: The places Josef ran and the people he met on runs throughout the tour, as well as Meeting Areva, a Diamond League Professional Track Meet in Paris. Background: One of Josef ’s greatest passions is distance running. The tour gave him the opportunity to run in some of the coolest places in the world while conducting his training for the Duquesne Cross Country season. This piece is a compilation of the runs he did throughout the tour, including the 10k Corriroma race through the cobblestone streets of Rome, runs along the Berlin Wall and the Roman coastline, mountain runs through the Austrian Alps and up the Festungsberg to the Hohensalzburg Castle, as well as other amazing runs through a Florentine fitness park, the famous Boboli Gardens, and the Gardens of the Palace of Versailles. Josef met other runners during his runs and joined them for a few miles to investigate the running cultures around Europe. Some people Josef met included a medical student, a house-builder, an engineer, and a science professor who runs with a camera to sightsee. Creative Process:
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