about me!
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Project proposal:

My project begins with the basic premise that the colosseum cannot be understood simply as a structure that stands prominently in Rome, in the valley between the Esqueline and Palatine Hills. The colosseum is a structure that is implicated in a comlex web of interactions, pasts, and presents. Not only is the site-specific building itself a site of complexity, but it is further translated through various media, exploding the possible means of accessing and relating to the structure.

My project will take the form of a wiki forum in which I will explore the various relations and translations of the colosseum. Some of the major questions I will look to explore are:

• How have people related to the site-specific structure of the colosseum over time, and why have some periods been privileged over others?
• How has the material(ity) of the colosseum been broken up and distributed? How has this distribution functioned in the past? How does it function today? What do the human relations to this thing(!) tell us about the values of society (a la Law 2002)?
• How does the colosseum exert its own agency on the urban fabric of Rome?
• What are the ways in which we can access the colosseum from a distance, and how then are we able to engage with it? (libraries--books (genres), photographs (slides, prints); internet, maps, travelogues, tour books, etc)
• In what ways is the building translated into the contemporary fabric of our society? (architecture, fashion, film, etc)

As I produce this project, I too will be participating in the translation of the colosseum. By the very nature of this undertaking I will be further translating this building, performing a part in the complex relation between us and it.

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Posted at Nov 11/2007 06:36PM:
ray: RAY: Hey Keffie. I saw Simon and Garfunkel play the Colosseum in the summer of 2004. It was a free event sponsored by a huge Euro-Tele-Com. How utterly strange it was to see two huge things (structure and corporation) from utterly different times interacting.

Posted at Nov 28/2007 02:29PM:
Michelle: Hi Keffie, I don't know if you have seen this http://metamedia.stanford.edu/~mshanks/weblog/?p=270

Posted at Dec 12/2007 02:59PM:
Clarissa J Ceglio: Great presentation. Here's a clip you might find useful. It is of the two "gladiators" Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris in their famous showdown at the Colosseum (or, maybe, it was a set made to look like the Colosseum with real shots spliced in). And, as a bonus, it features a Colosseum cat! For martial artists and lovers of the art, this is an iconic piece of film. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnWO93kOXcw