Assisi, Cappella Sistina & “Ecce femina”
Posted by cvetka on 27 November, 2009
Giuliana Perco – Cvetka Nacht
Two more virtual trips. On a Sunday. Each over 90 minutes long. With two different groups of students. I was *so* tired afterwards!
I wanted to make up for the time lost, at least in terms of the virtual trips to SL sims I wanted my students to see. So I brought them to San Francesco’s Basilica in virtual Assisi, to Vassar College’s virtual Sistine Chapel, and, finally, to something completely different, but still related to art: the exhibit “Ecce femina” created by Lisa Tebaldi.
Whenever I have brought students to SL, both Assisi Basilica and Vassar’s Sistine Chapel have been sure hits. Whether students have or have not visited either place in RL, they are aware of their existence, some might have seen pictures of the frescoes. Sometimes, they have even visited the real churches in the past and can make comparisons. This time was no different. With the exception of one student who hated SL even before creating an account, and who still hates it and considers all activities there as a waste of time, students of both groups liked both sims, and how couldn’t they?
While looking at Giotto’s paintings, we talked a little about San Francesco. Most of the students knew who he was, one even told everybody the story of the Gubbio’s wolf (though the sequence of the events was a bit confused), but none knew that San Francesco’s “Cantico delle creature” is the first documented example of poetry in Italian. Therefore, we read the poem in class two days later and discussed a bit about its meaning and of how the language changed since the Middle Ages.
After wandering through the lower Basilica, climbing down to the crypt, then up to the upper Basilica and finally happily flying for a close up of Michelangelo’s “Giudizio universale”, it was time for the last leg of our trip.
Finally, we went to Geo island to visit “Ecce femina”. I did not tell students anything about the exhibit beforehand, but, once there, I let them walk around on their own through the three floors of the exhibit.
Unfortunately, there was a strange, repetitive, and disquieting music (like a lullaby) in the background and after a little while the students began to complain, turning off the streaming media did not help, so I had to tell them to turn off the volume. The music went away, but that also meant that we could not talk in voice! I was a bit puzzled, the music had not been there when I had visited the island before….
When I came back to the island with the second group of students, the same thing happened, but luckily I managed to find the source of the music (a revolving heart shaped sculpture: if touched, it could begin to play) and was able to turn it off.
A view of “Ecce femina” through SarahElizabeth’s avatar’s perspective.
SarahElizabeth has the absolutely cutest avatar of the whole group 
What is “Ecce femina”? It’s an exhibit comprising pictures, texts, and prim sculptures focusing on the representation of the woman across the centuries and in different media; it also photographs the still current and sad situation of many women around the world.
After the visit, as homework, my students had to come back to the exhibit, peruse it better (we were at the very end of our time in SL when we got there, in both trips) and write a blog about their thoughts on it.
PS: I’m getting sloppy in my class descriptions, but I am also very tired. Teaching in SL has really been a chore this semester, nothing to do with the fun I had during the previous term. I am seriously thinking that it might be better for me not to pursue teaching in SL next semester, given the amount of work it requires and the already huge teaching duties in RL that I have lined up. The problem is that if I do not use SL in the spring, I will have to wait till January 2011 to get back to it with a class and it might be way too long…..
