Journal 1
Mapping with 2 senses
Megan Scherer
Walk 1: Visual Senses (following colors)
it also could be seen as smells due to photographing flowers
During my first walk I wanted to allow myself to get to know my new neighborhood a little bit better. I also know that this neighborhood is filled with retired old folks who love to garden, do yard work, or spend as much time as they can outside during the summer months. That is what pushed me to follow the flowers on my walk. Whenever I'd find a flower I would stop to photograph it, stand and look for another flower from that spot, and continue on with my flower hunt. The reason I chose to follow flowers is due to their color and their smells. I felt like just visually immersing myself in this walk wasn't enough, so that's why I smelled each one, just to tack on more senses I don't find myself using that often. This is a visual map of where I walked, my route, and you can see that I was spending most of my time in front of houses with planted flowers, not the golf courses. I also thought it was very interesting that everyone kept their flowers in front of their houses, and left the backyard/garage barren of landscaping, and especially flowers.
conversations, interrupting sounds, wind chimes
Going back on this same path later on, I knew that I had to challenge myself with another sense. I thought hearing would fit well, due to the kids on bikes, hired landscapers, and nice older folks taking their daily walks. The issue is, that it was harder to do. Every time I heard a sound that pulled my attention I'd walk to it, photograph it, then wait for a new sound to take over. This causes a lot of pauses and focus to sift through the average sounds of this neighborhood. Average sounds being Wind, birds, and rustling of trees, yes these are all great sounds, but I wanted to push past the every day sounds. Luckily every 5 minutes or so I'd be able to find a new sound to hunt down. Wind Chimes were the easiest sounds to fill my ears at a distance, as well as landscapers. I was surprised by the kids riding bikes, a golf ball being hit, hearing a golf cart almost run me over, as well as my keys hitting my legs every time I walked. Overall, I was able to gather a sense of space due to sound.
Megan I enjoyed your Mapping Senses post. We always notice how flowers look but never stop to smell them like you did on your walk. I also enjoyed how you paid close attention to the sounds and went to find where it was coming from and photographed it. Your walk was a good example of noticing the sense of smell and hearing.
ReplyDeleteHi Megan, the way you photographed both of your walks was very well done and helped me gain a detailed understanding of your surroundings. For your second walk, I thought that it was a good idea that you followed sounds that weren't average and allowed the new sounds to guide you. That seems like a lovely way to explore a space, and I think if you included a few snippets of the sounds you encountered it could push your documentation even further.
ReplyDeleteHello Megan, I really loved how you used visuals for sound and a description rather than an audio recording of each thing. I think it's really unique to see pictures of what the sound is, and also knowing what sense you are going to do because of knowing your neighborhood so well is also very interesting and well-planned. I think what would make it better is maybe adding audio links as well with the images to hear more of those sounds when you're walking, and be immersed not just visually but also with sound. Hopefully, this helps!
ReplyDeleteHi Megan! It’s nice to see a change from Tucson, it’s really nice to see how many different colored flowers you were able to find in close surroundings. I enjoy Stop 9 - 11 a bit , particularly how the light hits the flower in stop 9. I also appreciate your approach in searching for more than the every day sounds, I enjoyed your images, they’re beautifully green. Photographing wind chimes was a nice detail as it shows your appreciation towards small details like it.
ReplyDeleteMegan, I really liked your idea using the visual sense. I really enjoyed looking at the photos you included! So beautiful, and I like how the images all come together nicely with the lighting. To me, the series of pictures of the flowers and the images of the sound examples visually depict a story. I feel as if I need no context, and I can see, hear, and feel everything with each moment. It is an interesting experience as the viewer to see the images! I also appreciate how nicely organized your blog is. Great job.
ReplyDelete