Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Assignment 2 : Kelsey Simpson

The Highland Lodge main website caters to a specific audience of travelers trying to escape from the banality or stress of everyday life, promoting a sort of remedy found in nature. Unlike many retreats or resorts, the Highland Lodge itself is not itself a destination as much as the site is. 

People come here to do this so they can post it on Instagram: 



  Crawford Notch itself has a history and reputation for its beauty. Famously, many landscapes by the Hudson River Valley and other artists of the period found inspiration in the raw nature, as one here done by Thomas Cole.
File:A View of the Mountain Pass Called the Notch of the White Mountans (Crawford Notch)-1839-Thomas Cole.jpg

Art wise, nature here is depicted as monumental, beautiful, and raw, a distinction that was very different to how many European and Western cultures viewed and depicted nature from their literature to their paitnings to nature as either a thing to be cultivated or ordered or something wild, possibly evil, and therefore to be avoided. 


speaking of wood. . .
Wood Waves


Historically wood has been a primary building material for many, for its accessibility, cost efficiency, durability, and flexibility, all factors still relevant in its use today. From a bit of researching across the web of various woodworkers groups and guilds, most had a decent page devoted to additional resources and help links for other woodworking sites, many interrelated with one another, giving the impression that wood workers are really in a tight knit community constantly reaching out to one another and constantly open to new innovation. Michael Green starts to really poetically talk about the sensual properties of wood and its likeness to a human fingerprint, each one unique.  Here’s a link to his TED talk on why we should be build wooden skyscrapers, a pretty crazy idea. I think he's right though, there's a certain sensual sensation, maybe from it's touch or it's smell, or a personal memory, associated with wood which makes it so engaging.

http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_green_why_we_should_build_wooden_skyscrapers.html

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