The honors experience that I chose to partake in was enrolling in the honors seminar Music and Architecture.

This seminar was exactly how it sounds a seminar that combines the concepts of music and the many different genres it encompasses, and also the different styles of architecture. I took this seminar in the fall semester of 2013, during my 3rd and final year of college. The seminar was taught by Professor Terence Milligan, and because of his passion and knowledge about the subject I too became very interested in both the topic of music and architecture, and the comparison between the two constructs. I became aware of the similarities between two art forms. As a student and participant in this seminar I was asked to listen to many different types of music and observe the architecture of many buildings while on tours in the Cincinnati. As a class we took our learning experience outside the classroom when we toured exterior and interior of buildings. We wrote about the field trips we took and the music we listened to each week in our journal writings. I feel what made doing this so enjoyable was that we were allowed to write about anything we wanted whether it be a comparison of the music and architecture discussed that week or something we didnt like about the material or music that week. I really enjoyed evaluating different types of architecture as we looked at very old buildings, very modern buildings and buildings that had been added on to which are a combination of both. We were able to hear from professors outside of our normal field of study such as DAAPs architecture professors. I became knowledgeable about projects, and renovations that have taken place at UC. It was fun to learned what some of the buildings, that I spend time in everyday once looked like, and how far the campus we call home has come since the 50s and 60s I originally decided to engage in this seminar because I have played the piano since I was very young and the musical aspect of the seminar interested me. Architecture was something that I wasnt ever interested in but after taking this class I pay attention to architecture more on a daily basis and enjoy different types. My mom owns her own company and builds large scale homes and she told me a lot about what I would learn in regards to different ways you can build a house, what materials can be used on the inside and the outside and much more. I had expectations of what I would learn based on what my mom told me and what I learned and the depth of what I learned in regards to architecture far exceeded my expectations. I learned about the different materials that are used inside and how using different materials can lighten and break up the environment inside a building. I learned about lines and their stopping and starting points which can draw a persons attention to specific areas of the building. This experience connects to my prior experiences only within the musical aspect of the class, because I have always been musical. I am currently (spring semester 2014), taking private piano lessons from an instructor at the College Conservatory of music for class credit and have taken piano since I was in first grade. This seminar taught me about more diverse types of music and deepened my love of music. Even though I didnt play music in the class, I felt so connected with it while learning about the history of music and how it has changed over time. I have learned more about how to compare art forms that are very different in nature. It was interesting to learn how easily we can compare music and architecture. For example how the key changes in a song can be compared to the materials used to construct a building. When the different materials in a building meet it can symbolize a visual key change in architecture as well. I see the major changes in the art forms as merely visual in architecture and auditory in music.

I have chosen to use pictures as my artifacts for this honors experience. Some are taken in class and have been chosen because they are taken of structures built by myself and a classmate. The structure was made of clay building blocks which we used to construct things based on the type of architecture that we were learning about that week. For example when learning about ornate and detailed interiors of buildings we had a hands on exercise were we built something that emulated this type of design in our own buildings. Other pictures I have chosen are snapshots of the architecture that we saw and have been chosen because they represent the more realistic forms of art that we observed and based our constructions in class off of.