Interactive Map of Western Architecture

Getting Art Students Engaged in Learning Geography:
Dan Greenwood & Marie Maber

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About the BLOG
The purpose of this blog is to share our experiences while working on the Interactive Map of Western Architecture project. Here we’ll be posting what obstacles we faced, how we planned out the project and what seemed to work well or didn’t pan out quite as we had hoped.

I hope you enjoy the blog and find it helpful. If you have any comments, please email me at dgreenwood@brookdalecc.edu.

Now it's your turn ...

If you’d like to create your own interactive map, here are our suggested steps.

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1.  Download Google Earth and see if it might meet the goals of your project. You can download Google Earth at: http://earth.google.com/ . You might also want to check out some of the other projects at Google Earth Outreach (http://earth.google.com/outreach/index.html). Finally, here’s my tutorial on installing GE: http://www.brookdalecc.edu/fac/tlc/fac/blogs/art-map/blog_post.php?id=23

 

2.  If you don’t have one already, get a free Google mail (gmail) account at: https://mail.google.com/

 

3. Learn how to use the free Map Spreader worksheet and Google Docs by checking out the information at http://earth.google.com/outreach/tutorials.html . This has a lot of important information on getting your new spreadsheet connected to your Google Earth application. To download the actual Spread Sheet and learn what to do with it you can go to http://earth.google.com/outreach/tutorial_mapper.html

 

4. After you have experimented with this Google Docs spreadsheet and Google Earth, you should create your placemark graphics and bubble template. For us the Tall Photo template was the best choice. This blog entry graphically shows how to customize this template. http://ux.brookdalecc.edu/fac/tlc/fac/blogs/art-map/blog_post.php?id=28

 

5. This is often one of the hardest steps (unless the placemark is for a very famous site that is). Use Google Earth or other resources to find the correct location of your sites. Don’t get discouraged if you miss the right longitude and latitude. I certainly did. Here’s an example: http://www.brookdalecc.edu/fac/tlc/fac/blogs/art-map/blog_post.php?id=14

 

6. Now create any images or text for your placemarks. Marie passed many of these to me via this blog. Here’s an example: http://www.brookdalecc.edu/fac/tlc/fac/blogs/art-map/blog_post.php?id=13

 

7. Now start adding new placemark information for each site. This page has details on this step:

http://earth.google.com/outreach/tutorial_mapper.html

 

8. When you need to update information simply access your Google Doc spreadsheet and republish the changes.

 

9.  You can save your Google Earth project as a KMZ file which can be downloaded and viewed by from within the Google Earth applications. This blog entry demonstrates this:

http://www.brookdalecc.edu/fac/tlc/fac/blogs/art-map/blog_post.php?id=30

 

10. Finally save your KMZ file on some web server that your students can access. This could be within an ANGEL course shell or on a website.

 

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And there ya’ have it. Of course doing it yourself is never as easy as everyone (or in this case me) says, so please feel free to contact me at the TLC. 

 Best of luck!

  Dan

Permalink: http://www.brookdalecc.edu/fac/tlc/fac/blogs/art-map/blog_post.php?id=32

Some initial feedback ...

"The use of Google Earth is new and definitely helps ground the geography with the histories. Maybe pulling up rendered views with the satellite view will help center the image."

"I thought it was a good and different way to look at class material. I enjoyed it! (smiley face)"

"I thought that this is an amazing idea for presenting information online. I personal [sic] review notes online to help prepare for a test & this is a great source to do so."

Permalink: http://www.brookdalecc.edu/fac/tlc/fac/blogs/art-map/blog_post.php?id=31

Saving your Project as a KMZ file for distribution.

Permalink: http://www.brookdalecc.edu/fac/tlc/fac/blogs/art-map/blog_post.php?id=30

Marie's Narrated Tour Demo

• Provide an alternative delivery method that would let students who didn't want to install Google Earth have access to the project information
• "Chunk" the map into pieces that reflect the course material covered in each unit (i.e. Greek architecture) and the course timeline
• Add additional information in the form of audio for the placemarks

Permalink: http://www.brookdalecc.edu/fac/tlc/fac/blogs/art-map/blog_post.php?id=29

Designing the Project Bubble Template

When someone using Google Earth or Google Maps clicks on a placemark, a “bubble” opens. This bubble can contain images, text, hyperlinks, and other information. The Google Doc Spreadsheet Mapper 2.0 comes with several bubble templates. These templates can be edited from withing Google Docs.

For our project we decided to use the Tall Photo template which includes fields for a banner image, a main image photo, paragraph text, placemark file URL and copyright information. The template also includes other information including default text colors, bubble size, etc.

I designed the bubble banner for our project using Adobe PhotoShop.  You can download a GIF version to edit and reuse for your own project. 

The image below maps important aspects of an actual placemark bubble to the key items of the Tall Photo template. It shows the use of Brookdale colors, the sizes that I choose for the project and the URLs to the banner images that get loaded each time the bubble is displayed in Google Earth or Google Maps.

Feel free to reuse this information for your own project.

Dan

Permalink: http://www.brookdalecc.edu/fac/tlc/fac/blogs/art-map/blog_post.php?id=28

Embedded Google Map within the BLOG.

Permalink: http://www.brookdalecc.edu/fac/tlc/fac/blogs/art-map/blog_post.php?id=27

Take a look at our project using Google Maps

Permalink: http://www.brookdalecc.edu/fac/tlc/fac/blogs/art-map/blog_post.php?id=26

Experimenting with Goggle Earth Tour recording.

Permalink: http://www.brookdalecc.edu/fac/tlc/fac/blogs/art-map/blog_post.php?id=25

Using SpreadSheet Mapper 2.0

Permalink: http://www.brookdalecc.edu/fac/tlc/fac/blogs/art-map/blog_post.php?id=24

Downloading and installing Google Earth

Permalink: http://www.brookdalecc.edu/fac/tlc/fac/blogs/art-map/blog_post.php?id=23

New Timgad entry

Permalink: http://www.brookdalecc.edu/fac/tlc/fac/blogs/art-map/blog_post.php?id=22

Adding the "Dome of the Rock"

Permalink: http://www.brookdalecc.edu/fac/tlc/fac/blogs/art-map/blog_post.php?id=21

Entry for the Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal (1631-48) Agra, India

 This white marble tomb (mausoleum) was built to honor the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan’s favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who had died in childbirth.  Later, the mausoleum also accommodated the ornate coffin of Shah Jahan as well. There are false tombs of the couple on the upper level – where the public can visit.  The actual tombs are located in a private, lower level, and are not accessible to tourists.

Through careful design, this massive structure conveys the illusion of weightlessness. The walls are pierced with pointed arches and are carved with Koranic verse.  Wall surfaces are also embellished with inlaid semi-precious stones.  This building style is Islamic, having precedents in earlier dome-on-cube structures in Delhi.

The careful arrangement of form and space, dome and minaret, garden, fountain, and pools, together convey the illusion of paradise on earth.

Permalink: http://www.brookdalecc.edu/fac/tlc/fac/blogs/art-map/blog_post.php?id=20

Saint Peters Basilica

Saint Peter’s Basilica, The Vatican, Rome

The original, central plan for this building was created in 1505 by Donato D’Angelo Bramante.  It was simplified by Michelangelo Buonarroti in 1546, who also designed the dome.  Ultimately the dome was built by Giacomo della Porta, based on Michelangelo’s plans, and completed in 1590. 

Pope Paul V commissioned Carlo Maderno to add three bays to the nave, effectively turning the central-planned structure into a basilcan plan.  Maderno also designed the current façade 1606-1612.  The long arms that reach from the basilica into the piazza were designed by Gianlorenzo Bernini in the mid-17^th Century. The colonnade is 4 rows deep and includes 300 Doric columns made of travertine.

From the sky, St. Peter’s Basilica is most impressive. The long, curving colonnades providing a dramatic entrance. “As they enter the piazza, the faithful are embraced by ‘the motherly arms of the church,’ a nurturing enclosure for the crowds of faithful, and a stage for the processions and other sacred spectacles on which, at this particular period, the Catholic Church so strongly depended for its appeal (Trachtenberg, 343).”

 
Sources:

Fred S. Kleiner and Christin J. Mamiya, GARDNER’S ART THROUGH THE AGES, 12^th Edition, Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, Belmont, California, 2005.

Marvin Trachtenberg and Isabelle Hyman, ARCHITECTURE: From Prehistory to Post-Modernism, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1986.

Permalink: http://www.brookdalecc.edu/fac/tlc/fac/blogs/art-map/blog_post.php?id=19

Pont du Gard, Nimes

Permalink: http://www.brookdalecc.edu/fac/tlc/fac/blogs/art-map/blog_post.php?id=18

Using Google Docs to Create Our Maps

And here is a link to understand the Google Earth project and how Google Docs can use used:

Google Earth Spreadsheet Mapper Project Link

In my next entry, I'll explain how the spreadsheet is used to produce our Google Earth map file.

Stay tuned,

Dan

Permalink: http://www.brookdalecc.edu/fac/tlc/fac/blogs/art-map/blog_post.php?id=17

Adding Hagia Sophia

Permalink: http://www.brookdalecc.edu/fac/tlc/fac/blogs/art-map/blog_post.php?id=16

Pompeii

Ancient City of Pompeii

Pompeii, a busy port city of ancient Rome, was destroyed when Mount Vesuvius erupted August 24, 79 CE. “Many prosperous towns around the Bay of Naples, were buried in a single day (pg. 254, Kleiner and Mamiya).

Homes, gardens, bakeries, taverns, roads, the town center (The Forum of Pompeii) were destroyed and preserved by the sudden onslaught of massive quantities of ash which stopped people dead in their tracks. Consequently, centuries of excavations have revealed detailed accounts of life in this port city of Ancient Rome. 

Details as minute as ancient herb garden remains, bread and beer recipes, can be discerned today based on the preserved finds at Pompeii.

The rectilinear Forum of Pompeii was in the heart of the ancient city. It was constructed at the main intersection of the north-south streets (cardo) and the main east-west avenues (decumanus).

Major buildings that served the civic needs of Pompeii’s citizenry were located nearby (or directly adjacent to) The Forum. Still visible is the footprint of the Basilica of Pompeii, a longitudinal structure which opened into (and was perpendicular to) the Forum. Another structure, the Temple of Jupiter, is contained within the perimeter of the Forum of Pompeii. 

Source cited:

Fred S. Kleiner and Christin J. Mamiya, GARDNER’S ART THROUGH THE AGES, 12^th Edition, Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, Belmont, California, 2005.

Permalink: http://www.brookdalecc.edu/fac/tlc/fac/blogs/art-map/blog_post.php?id=15

Missed it by that much …

As you can see, Marie has been posting her placemark write-ups. As she develops the descriptions I add them to our Google Earth spreadsheet which then generates the new Google Earth map file. 

While incorporating the new text for a placemark, it gives me the opportunity to double check the longitude and latitude for the site. You see some of these examples of Western Architecture are pretty easy to locate in Google Earth. You can’t really miss the Coliseum in Rome or the Taj Mahal. Other sites are not as obvious when you first start trying to locate them.

Initially, Marie and I sat down together to try and find our first ten locations. We did some navigating in Google Earth. We also did searches to try and locate the longitude and latitudes for the sites. In some cases we took “best guesses”.   Sometimes our first guesses were right - others no so much. The Temples at Paestum is a great example.

Well a weekend or so ago, while working separately Marie and I both stumbled on the same “corrected” location for the Temples. The images below show the old versus the new location.

As we progress with the project, we are finding that sometimes determining the actual location is the hardest part. It may require a lot of research on the web, location of photos from books or online and patience navigating within Google Earth. Another item is that not all sections of the Google Earth maps have the same resolution. More remote areas don’t always have a lot of detail making the decision process more difficult.

We’ll keep refining our placemarks as we move forward. There’s still a couple that I’m suspicious of right now.

Permalink: http://www.brookdalecc.edu/fac/tlc/fac/blogs/art-map/blog_post.php?id=14

Egyptian information to add to Google Earth Website

Great Pyramids of Giza (Gizeh), were built over the course of about seventy-five years. Historians believe their shape was due to the worship of Re, the sun god. Their shapes  mirror the primordial mound on which the creator god appeared, bringing light into the world.

Originally clad in highly polished limestone and capped with gold at the tip, these monuments originally rivaled the sun in their brilliance.

The base of each pyramid was a perfect square, and the three were aligned on the diagonal. Four sides of each monument was oriented to cardinal points of compass. They were built for 4th Dynasty pharaohs Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure.

 Khufu’s, the first and largest, built ca. 2551-2528 BCE
 Length 775 feet
 The mass covers approx. 13 acres of land
 Height: originally 480 ft; currently 450 ft
 2.3 million blocks of stone, each weighing 2 ½ tons

Khafre’s pyramid (2520-2494 BCE) still has a few dozen casing stones on the cap. These are remnants of the original highly-finished limestone exterior. Khafre’s pyramid has been protected by a sandstone guardian sphinx, approximately 65’ tall and 240’ long.

Menkaure’s pyramid (2490-2472 BCE), is the third and the smallest of the three “great” pyramids.

Sources:
Kleiner and Mamiya, Gardner's Art Through the Ages, 12th Edition, Wadsworth, Belmont, California, 2005.

Trachtenberg and Hyman, Architecture: From Pre-history to Post-Modernism, 2nd Edition, Prentice Hall/Abrams, 1986.

Permalink: http://www.brookdalecc.edu/fac/tlc/fac/blogs/art-map/blog_post.php?id=13

Adding Text for The Temple of Hera I and II

Temple of Hera I (“Basilica”), Paestum, Italy, ca. 550 - 530 BCE

This prime architectural example of Early Doric style is, ironically, south of Naples in Italy rather than in Greece.

In antiquity, this (then-Greek) area was “Poseidonia,” and today is called Paestum. The Temple of Hera I is obviously in a ruined state: most of the entablature, the frieze, pediment, and all of the roof are gone. However, its peripteral colonnade is extant, measuring 80 x 170 feet. 

Temple of Hera II (“Poseidon”), Paestum, Italy, ca. 460 BCE

Also a Doric-style temple, the Temple of Hera II is an example of Early Classical  architecture. This is in part due to its proportional dynamic.  The design of this temple reflects that of the famous (but destroyed) Temple of Zeus at Olympia.  The plan of the Poseidon temple is similar to the mature pattern of 5^th-century BCE temples of mainland Greece.

Permalink: http://www.brookdalecc.edu/fac/tlc/fac/blogs/art-map/blog_post.php?id=10

Entering information on The White Temple, Uruk

White Temple, Uruk, Iraq, 3500-3000 BCE

The Sumerians are credited with developing Early Civilization with key inventions of writing (cuneiform), the wheel, and the plow.  There is evidence of a governmental structure, social hierarchy, and religious ritual. All of these developments indicate an elevation from the status of “Neolithic” to that of “Early Civilization.”

The premier Sumerian architectural example is the ziggurat, an artificial mountain of dirt on which its temples stood.

The outstanding preserved example of Sumerian temple architecture is the 5000 year old White Temple. Its ziggurat rose more than 40 feet above the plain. Its corners are oriented to the cardinal points of the compass.

The White Temple functioned as a place for a select-few.  Its central chamber or “cella” was a “waiting room” within which Sumerian priests would remain in wait for their gods to appear.

The Sumerians also produced great literature. Their most famous work, known from cuneiform texts inscribed into baked clay tablets, is the Epic of Gilgamesh, which pre-dates Homer’s Iliad and The Odyssey by 1,500 years.

Permalink: http://www.brookdalecc.edu/fac/tlc/fac/blogs/art-map/blog_post.php?id=9

Adding the Athenian Acropolis

Permalink: http://www.brookdalecc.edu/fac/tlc/fac/blogs/art-map/blog_post.php?id=8

Adding Persepolis information

Permalink: http://www.brookdalecc.edu/fac/tlc/fac/blogs/art-map/blog_post.php?id=7

We have our first demo!

Permalink: http://www.brookdalecc.edu/fac/tlc/fac/blogs/art-map/blog_post.php?id=6

Here's our current designs!

Permalink: http://www.brookdalecc.edu/fac/tlc/fac/blogs/art-map/blog_post.php?id=5

So what is Google Earth? And how can you use it?

 Mike Qaissaunee  shared a great example of using Google Earth that was just announced this week.  It seems Disney World sees the benefit of using this application.  Here's a link for details on this incredible new resource.

Permalink: http://www.brookdalecc.edu/fac/tlc/fac/blogs/art-map/blog_post.php?id=4

Our Project Takes Off!!!

Marie teaches both online and face-to-face classes developed a library of online mini-lectures for her courses such as ARTH 105, ARTH 106, ARTH 107, and ARTH 201 (History of Western Architecture). Geography has factored into the development of culture throughout world history.

Permalink: http://www.brookdalecc.edu/fac/tlc/fac/blogs/art-map/blog_post.php?id=1

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