AH518 CITY. MOVEMENT AND ARCHITECTURE: URBAN PROCESSIONS IN HISTORY
Course Content
The course is a thematic architectural history survey based on a collection of chronologically organized processions and parades. chosen from different geographical areas and cities. Some are performed in public streets and squares; others around sacred places like temples and churches. Some are meant to legitimate political power; others to manifest the presence and the dwelling of the sacred on earth. Some derive their power through repetition; others by overwhelming spectators. Each gives a visual list summarizing the particular content. Different locales where the events occurred are usually suggested by a path with fixed nodal points and by the crowd shifting from one to another as the sequence evolves. Thus. movement and sequential acts define the architecture of the procession. For each week. the students will read key essays in the assigned period. prepare written correspondences /graphic representations. and participate in class discussions. As final requirements. the students are required to practice methods of "thick description" and "thick-mapping" one particular procession by using textual. graphic. and/or digital representation tools.
