Online Greenlight Review - Space & Environment - Invisible Cities

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Comments

  1. tutorphil9 October 2014 at 12:38

    OGR 09/10/2014

    Hi Chelsea,

    Things are still a bit indecisive in terms of your mission statement; it appears that your Diomira is a floating, Chinese, steampunk pirate city... I wonder could or should it be all these things? I wonder too, that in a novel that already has a 'cloud city' as part of its collection, if Diomira should somehow be re-branded as a floating city - what's the logic there as derived from Calvino's text?

    I think you need to develop your ideas a bit further in terms of your rationale for the design and presentation of your city; you've established that it is 'romantic', but you've also established that it needn't be Paris or Venice in terms of its physical appearance. You mention steampunk - but why? Has this anything to do with Calvino's city? Steampunk tends to connote complexities of mechanism and a sort of industrial feel - fine perhaps if you dealing with another of Calvino's worlds - but Diomira?

    If you're looking for that sense of romance and incipient adventure, but you're not interested in the European vibe, perhaps you need to think more in terms of Turkish/Persian/Hindu/Islamic imagery?
    Diomira is a city of bronze gods - maybe look to non-European cultures that have a lot of Gods: for example:

    http://www.sanatansociety.org/hindu_gods_and_goddesses.htm#.VDZyehb8RUQ

    Diomira is also a city of domes:

    http://www.glowmagazine.me/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/taj-mahal-at-sunset.jpg
    http://www.hotels-and-beach-resorts.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Blue-Mosque-Interior-Ceilings.jpg

    My broad point is your visual concept is currently too promiscuous - it's everything and nowhere.

    Go back to the extract, essentialise its characteristics and derive your visual concept from within the information, as opposed to smothering it with ideas that are from 'outside' the text (i.e, steampunk and pirates...).

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  2. tutorphil12 October 2014 at 14:44

    Hi there,

    It's really important that first years a) follow the group blog as a matter of habit and b) follow the blogs of year 2 and year 3 students, because we know that, by doing so, year 1 students develop more quickly and get more organised. You might have done all this already, but I know there are those who have not, and I'm keen to get everyone up to speed.

    If you haven't done so already, you need to add these to your Blogger reading list, by clicking on the 'ADD' button on your dashboard, pasting in the URLs and then 'following pubically'.

    Group Blog (You must be following this/checking this feed daily at least).

    http://ucarochester-cgartsandanimation.blogspot.co.uk

    Year 2

    http://www.rjfenton.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://rubynewland.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://candice-hiufu.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://joshaldis.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://heidigrover.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://hannah-milliner.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://anthonyjfaulkner.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://adamrichardstone.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://megan--doyle.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://ashley-nwachukwu.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://sukhighai.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://dannyrollings.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://ayunie-adiana.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://scottdturner.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://liviwilmore.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://msliksa.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://tomaboothby.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://samcannoncgart.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://gemmatitch.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://rwinventions.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://scarlettfreeman.blogspot.co.uk/

    Year 3

    http://peta-gayebrown.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://kinblob.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://meganhowett.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://a-animator.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://georgenwosisi.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://samantha-niemczyk.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://stevenpayneuca.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://vikkirh.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://alexnedmonds.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://shannonkmason.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://jakejbryant.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://george-hind.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://emily-clarkson.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://kymmumford.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://nadiayadallee.blogspot.co.uk/

    ReplyDelete

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