14 research outputs found

    L’acqua: risorsa e minaccia. La gestione delle risorse idriche e delle inondazioni in Europa (XIV-XIX secolo)

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    [Italiano]: Ogni civiltà ha sviluppato saperi e tecniche per gestire e sfruttare l’acqua, elemento essenziale per la vita umana, ma anche per difendersi dalle minacce che possono derivare dalla convivenza con essa. In età preindustriale, la necessità di gestire un bene così prezioso ha condotto allo sviluppo di tecnologie, alla costruzione d’infrastrutture, alla creazione di magistrature apposite, ma ha anche alimentato conflitti tra soggetti che pretendevano un accesso privilegiato o esclusivo alle risorse idriche. Inoltre, i rischi derivanti dalla prossimità di corsi d’acqua o di bacini lacustri hanno spesso indotto le società a sviluppare tecniche e pratiche di prevenzione. Questo spettro di problemi ù al centro dei saggi raccolti in questo volume, che studiano varie città medie e grandi dell’Europa centro-occidentale – dalla Valle del Reno alla Penisola iberica, da Parigi a Palermo – tra il XIV e il XIX secolo./[English]:Every civilization has developed different forms of knowledge and techniques to manage and exploit water, an essential element for human life, but also to defend itself from the threats that can derive from it. In preindustrial times, the need to manage such a precious commodity led to the development of different technologies, the construction of infrastructures, the creation of special judiciaries, but it also fuelled conflicts between subjects who claimed privileged or exclusive access to water resources. In addition, the risks posed by the proximity of waterways or lake basins often led societies to develop prevention techniques and practices. This range of issues is at the heart of the essays collected in this volume, which examine various medium and large cities located in Central Western Europe - from the Rhine Valley to the Iberian Peninsula, from Paris to Palermo - between the fourteenth and the nineteenth centuries

    Renaissance Fun: The machines behind the scenes

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    Renaissance Fun is about the technology of Renaissance entertainments in stage machinery and theatrical special effects; in gardens and fountains; and in the automata and self-playing musical instruments that were installed in garden grottoes. How did the machines behind these shows work? How exactly were chariots filled with singers let down onto the stage? How were flaming dragons made to fly across the sky? How were seas created on stage? How did mechanical birds imitate real birdsong? What was ‘artificial music’, three centuries before Edison and the phonograph? How could pipe organs be driven and made to play themselves by waterpower alone? And who were the architects, engineers, and craftsmen who created these wonders? All these questions are answered. At the end of the book we visit the lost ‘garden of marvels’ at Pratolino with its many grottoes, automata and water jokes; and we attend the performance of Mercury and Mars in Parma in 1628, with its spectacular stage effects and its music by Claudio Monteverdi – one of the places where opera was born. Renaissance Fun is offered as an entertainment in itself. But behind the show is a more serious scholarly argument, centred on the enormous influence of two ancient writers on these subjects, Vitruvius and Hero. Vitruvius’s Ten Books on Architecture were widely studied by Renaissance theatre designers. Hero of Alexandria wrote the Pneumatics, a collection of designs for surprising and entertaining devices that were the models for sixteenth and seventeenth century automata. A second book by Hero On Automata-Making – much less well known, then and now – describes two miniature theatres that presented plays without human intervention. One of these, it is argued, provided the model for the type of proscenium theatre introduced from the mid-sixteenth century, the generic design which is still built today. As the influence of Vitruvius waned, the influence of Hero grew

    Renaissance Fun

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    Renaissance Fun is about the technology of Renaissance entertainments in stage machinery and theatrical special effects; in gardens and fountains; and in the automata and self-playing musical instruments that were installed in garden grottoes. How did the machines behind these shows work? How exactly were chariots filled with singers let down onto the stage? How were flaming dragons made to fly across the sky? How were seas created on stage? How did mechanical birds imitate real birdsong? What was ‘artificial music’, three centuries before Edison and the phonograph? How could pipe organs be driven and made to play themselves by waterpower alone? And who were the architects, engineers, and craftsmen who created these wonders? All these questions are answered. At the end of the book we visit the lost ‘garden of marvels’ at Pratolino with its many grottoes, automata and water jokes; and we attend the performance of Mercury and Mars in Parma in 1628, with its spectacular stage effects and its music by Claudio Monteverdi – one of the places where opera was born. Renaissance Fun is offered as an entertainment in itself. But behind the show is a more serious scholarly argument, centred on the enormous influence of two ancient writers on these subjects, Vitruvius and Hero. Vitruvius’s Ten Books on Architecture were widely studied by Renaissance theatre designers. Hero of Alexandria wrote the Pneumatics, a collection of designs for surprising and entertaining devices that were the models for sixteenth and seventeenth century automata. A second book by Hero On Automata-Making – much less well known, then and now – describes two miniature theatres that presented plays without human intervention. One of these, it is argued, provided the model for the type of proscenium theatre introduced from the mid-sixteenth century, the generic design which is still built today. As the influence of Vitruvius waned, the influence of Hero grew

    “Cool and tasty waters”: managing Naples’s water supply, c. 1500–c. 1750

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    Although Naples was one of Europe’s largest cities (after London and Paris), studies of the management of its water supply during the early modern period are sorely lacking, despite growing interest in the subject at both an Italian and European level. Naples was perhaps unique in relying on a vast and tortuous underground network of reservoirs, cisterns, channels and conduits, accessed by well shafts, all fed by an ancient aqueduct. The present study outlines and evaluates the Neapolitan water supply as it existed in the period, analysing the archival records of the municipal tribunal responsible for the city’s infrastructure, the ‘Tribunale della Fortificazione, Acqua e Mattonata’, and its various ‘Appuntamenti’ (proposals), ‘Conclusioni’ (decisions) and edicts. This is interwoven with reference to pertinent printed accounts, from contemporary guide books to medical regimens and health manuals. We examine both water quantity, in terms of availability and accessibility (by looking at the structure and its management, and the technicians responsible for its maintenance) and water quality (by looking at contemporary attitudes and perceptions). In the process we are able to question the widespread view of early modern Naples as chaotic and uncontrolled, governed by a weak public authority, as well as widely held assumptions about the “inertia” of the pre-modern hydro-social system more generally

    Art as integral part of architectural space

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    Thesis (M.S.V.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1993.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 93-97).To integrate art with architecture is the intention of every architect. However, many times other requirements overwhelm artistic potential. There are numerous good, simple examples in the history of architecture where solutions to a variety of often functional requirements have produced exceptional artistic expressions, which in tum have inspired contemporary architectural practice. Pre-industrial architecture not only responded to natural conditions in the environment; it employed all the senses as well ·. in its design of living environments. Today, unfortunately, we rarely find that architects pay attention to sound, smell, water, natural cycles, or, almost unimaginable, to time. Our technology encourages us to separate ourselves from nature. However, this same technology can help us to reintegrate ourselves with nature by designing better living environments. This thesis is, therefore, my way of rethinking design principles that shape the contemporary urban environment and often give it such a cold, formal image. My own philosophy of design is given in the introduction. The rest of the thesis is basically the supportive material, which further illuminates the ideas presented in the introduction. The first part discusses some general trends in contemporary society in order to place my own view of design within a broader context, while the second part lists numerous examples from the history of architecture and art to illustrate and further my philosophy. At the end, in the appendix, I present one of my own projects, the Interactive Water Curtain, to concretely show some of the implications of my aesthetics. Through this work I hope to illustrate the richness of various traditional architectural practices that take advantage of sound, water, time (celestial movement), fragrances, and even living creatures in designing places. I hope this will stimulate creative thinking about using not just visual effects in the design of our living environment, but employing acoustic, olfactory, astronomical, ecological, and kinesthetic design in order to create sensually richer and more pleasant environments where people can live in harmony with nature and other living creatures.by Marta Vahtar.M.S.V.S

    University Leader - December 10, 1991

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    Winona Daily News

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    https://openriver.winona.edu/winonadailynews/2316/thumbnail.jp

    The Buccaneer (1956)

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    The Buccaneer (1956), a yearbook published by the students of East Tennessee State University, known then as East Tennessee State College.https://dc.etsu.edu/yearbooks/1038/thumbnail.jp

    Daily Eastern News: January 12, 1955

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    https://thekeep.eiu.edu/den_1955_jan/1000/thumbnail.jp

    Daily Eastern News: January 12, 1955

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    https://thekeep.eiu.edu/den_1955_jan/1000/thumbnail.jp
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