Final Project Proposal

When we were assigned to come up with an "improbable" monument, I couldn't stop think about outer space. The moon is something that every single person on Earth can view and enjoy, so why not make a monument on the moon. Once I decided I wanted to put a monument on the moon, I wanted to think of some significant event that took place there, which lead me to the first man on the moon, Mr. Neil Armstrong. Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that landed the first humans on the Moon. Americans, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, were those first humans on July 20, 1969. Armstrong became the first to step onto the lunar surface six hours later on July 21. This major event coined the phrase "one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind. " 

My idea for this project is for everyone to be a "man on the moon." So many people say they would love the opportunity to go to outterspace and/or go to the moon. Through this monument, people can do just that; virtually. This monument would be interactive with anyone who would like to be involved. It's open to the public, not only in the U.S., but anywhere in the world that is able/willing to participate. The moon is universal, it shouldn't just be dedicated to one country. 

 

The way I image this monument working is anyone and everyone could have a simple flag of their country. With this flag the person can write their name, draw something, be creative with the flag itself. Then, somehow, we would be able to go place the flags on the moon. Through Google Earth people would then be able to view their flags actually placed on the moon. This way, they are "virtually" on the moon. It's like taking you're very own steps on the moon, just not literally. 

Virtual Placemaking in Google Earth

For this exercise I chose to map out some of my favorite places I've been to in St. Louis. St. Louis is a major part of my life since my brother lived there since I was eight years old. I included photos with every place mark that I chose from the past two summers combined. I started at the St. Louis Arch including images of my friends and I as well as multiple different perspective views from below and also above. After the Arch the tour goes to Bailey's Range, a restaurant in downtown St. Louis. Right after Bailey's Range, the tour takes you to the City Museum. The City Museum is an incredibly unique museum in that it's not a museum at all, but a massive playground. I included an image of me and my best friend on the roof of this museum where you can ride a huge Farris Wheel. While on the roof you can see all of downtown St. Louis, which you can see in the background of the photo I have with the tour. Inside the museum there is a fun art center, which is just one small section of the inside portion, but of course it's my favorite part. I have a photo included for this part as well. Next, the tour takes us to the Wax Museum where I have a ridiculous photo of me imitating a dinosaur wax sculpture. After the Wax Museum, I included the Art Museum where I have photos of my boyfriend viewing an amazing image drawn by Chuck Close and also my brother and sister-in-law viewing some Van Gogh paintings.  This next place is one of my absolute favorite spots in St. Louis, Sculpture Park. This is a unique park where there are massive sculptures placed all throughout the park. I show a photo of a massive sculpture with my boyfriend standing next to it to show scale. This park is the perfect location to have artsy-farsty events. I have a photo of a fun food truck event we went to at the park this past summer. The last place I have on the tour is the Missouri Botanical Gardens. I took my nephew here multiple times this past summer when I was his nanny. It's just a really fun place to go for all ages.


Here are some screen shots to show the places on the map and also the images that I included in the tour on Google Earth:

Seeing the Past in Present Tense

This is the first reading that I actually really enjoyed and feel like I got a lot out of. The main monument that I found the most interesting was the Monument Against Fascism, War and Violence - and for Peace and Human Rights. I liked that people could interact with the monument by signing their name on the monument itself. I also thought it was interesting how over time it slowly descended under ground. While I really like the concept behind this monument, it was disappointing to find out that it was a forgotten monument. When the author of this article went to find this monument, they had to ask multiple people in the town where the monument was since it was already underground. The people of the town didn't even know where it was and some didn't know what they were talking about. I couldn't figure out if that was the point of this monument was to put the fascism, war and violence behind them and in a way "forget", or if it was just an unmemorable monument all together.