Michael Shanks - site 2006: Tara Laidlaw

Hi. I'm Tara. I live in Synergy and have eight roommates this quarter. I play polo, I dance, and I drink lots of tea. I don't have a major, but it'll probably have something to do with anthropology and/or archaeology.

I'm very reachable at tlaidlaw@stanford.edu.

These days, most of my free time is eaten up by polo. My official title is "Horse Manager In Training," but that really means "personal slave to Megan Rowe." It's really quite good, though, despite ankle-deep mud and finnicky ponies. Plus, I get really cool-looking bruises at practice. I also spend a lot of time dancing. Just recently I've gotten in to social dance - swing, tango, salsa, zydeco... you name it, I'll try it. Previously, I was a ballerina. I have about 13 years' worth of classical training under my belt, but due to an ankle injury I'm no longer serious about it. I'll occasionally drop in on a class here or there, but for the most part I've moved on to less ankle-intensive forms of dance.

This quarter, I've taken a (rather unexpected) turn towards the AnthSci department, complemented by two classes in the Classics department - both taught by Michael Shanks. I'm enjoying the quarter immensely (perhaps helped by the swing dance and rock climbing classes), and I'm bummed that it's only ten weeks long.

Archaeography:

Intercollegiate Polo: A Detail(ed) Study - An archaeography project with Megan Rowe.

Preliminary Shots of Stanford Polo Club

The Material Culture of Professional Polo

Writing about photographs:

Uploaded Image

"Evoking the Village" from http://archaeography.com/photoblog/archives/2006/01/evoking_the_village_29.shtml

This image deals quite well with depth despite a limited number of tones on the grayscale. With just a handful of values, the image falls into several distinct planes: the tree in the foreground; the tree on the right; the building. The diminishing sharpness creates the same sense of depth, ranging from the detailed branch in the first plane to a fuzzy, hazy horizon in the background. Finally, the composition is imperative to the photo's success with depth. Had the tree in the foreground been left out of the frame, the rest would fade into a single, indistinguishable plane; the house's position just off-center makes it seem almost incidental, not the main point in the photograph but instead a chance building on a road.

Overall, the photo evokes a sense of mystery and perhaps even sadness - a little home, disappearing into the fog, barely visible even at a fairly close distance. The photo's depth makes it feel as though the viewer could walk straight into the frame and approach the house; its composition places the viewer under the saftey of the large tree in the foreground.

Some things to think about: This photograph looks as though it was taken in black and white. But sometimes mist and fog makes colors dull and blur - it seems as though this could have been how the landscape really looked. But what would the photograph have looked like if it had been taken in color? How would that have changed the depth perception? The slightly creepy aura? The sense of old, tired, incidental? How would the village have been evoked differently? Would it have been evoked successfully? Or did the limitations of black and white change the evocation significantly?

Eight Great Archaeological Sites:

brainstorming site

2006 Dunstanburgh Info Exchange

Approaching Dunstanburgh: A Storyteller's Perspective

The legends of King Arthur as a way of exploring Dunstanburgh

Accessing the castle through a series of visitors

Take a tour of Dunstanburgh

My pages in the Dunstanburgh project:

A curious connection between my two projects:

The walls of Dunstanburgh Castle contain about 11 acres, which is approximately the same as a full-sized polo field. Imagine: a polo game inside the castle...

For your enjoyment (and my website-building practice):

The View From The Porch

Paradise, more commonly known as Kirkwood