The Project

Two and a half weeks ago, I arrived in Rome to begin an eight-week research project. When asked, I would tell people that this project was about "urban histories" of cities in the Roman Empire, and that it was somehow connected to a senior thesis I wanted to write about the humanization of landscape. This explanation satisfied most people; some, however, would press me with further questions. At this point I would usually beg off from answering, as I was unable to say anything more specific: I did not, in all honesty, know what I was going to do when I got here. Occasionally, though, I would take the opposite approach, and begin listing all the directions in which my research might go: mapping the legacy of Roman urban planning; theorizing a phenomenology of towns; translating city experiences into experimental artistic or written forms; studying architecture; hiking. The list went on. All I could say for sure was that I would be traveling; even the list of destinations was not secure. (Below is my most recent estimate.)

My projected destinations, to be reached with a combination of trains, planes, and ferries. Places already visited are in blue.

Only yesterday did I come to understand what is really at the heart of all the possible directions for my project; they are bound together by the idea of cities as human landscapes, by the tension between "the natural" and "the humanized" (or as some would say, the artificial). That the city is a humanization of a landscape is, I think, deeply ingrained in the Roman idea of town (though that is not to say that they "invented" this idea). More on this some other time. The message is that I have stopped worrying about "my topic," and am instead following different paths every day, with the knowledge that somewhere, they do all converge—like paths in a forest that collect at a clearing. (See, it's all about landscape.)

Since this realization is only one day old, this blog is also only one day old, and for that reason not much can be expected of either of them yet. In general, this site is meant to act as a sort of record of my experiences, "discoveries," and thoughts. My research method is largely based on walking and writing, attempting to both read and interpret post-Roman cities in light of their histories, geography, physical presence, and "meaning," as well as to experience how these cities are inhabited and activated by human presence. Ideally, each post on this blog will be a sort of mirror, imaging one aspect of these considerations, often with respect to a particular town.

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Hope you enjoy.