Mapping the Senses
River Run
Queenstown, Maryland
Discovery of Place ART 448A
Walk 1: Sound Walk 2: Smell
Until now, this is how I always experienced my neighborhood, as "the road." Mapping it with my eyes, using sight as my guide, believing that I was fully aware…
As I close my eyes to map River Run with my senses, my nose and ears reveal the wonders of nature through the simple sounds and smells of daily life here. Living on the Eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay, our nation’s largest estuary, is a feast for all the senses.
Walking with my dog Butter along River Run, on the street I know visually like the back of my hand, mapping it through sound and smell opens up a new world to me. This familiar place has suddenly taken on a different meaning far beyond sight. It is as if an invisible world has opened itself to me, for me. How shocking it is how unaware I was to the layers of daily life around me.
Though difficult at first to detach from the powerful and rote sense of sight, I connected my emotions, history, and mind with the sounds and smells of my neighborhood. It kind of blew my mind. I discovered how the sounds and smells are intertwined. I smelled the rain, fresh and heavy, before I heard the raindrops pelting the leaves of the trees. I smelled the scent of honeysuckle in the air before I was close enough to hear the bees buzzing around the blossoms.
The smell of pine needles preceded the sounds of squirrels scurrying up the branches of the giant pine trees in the neighbor’s front yard. The hot tar scent of the asphalt on River Run permeated my nose before I became aware of my dog’s nails clicking along it louder than his heaving panting. I smelled the fire going in a neighbor’s fire pit, and as I got closer I heard the crackling and popping of the sticks and logs within it.
The river we all live along I realized has a smell so unique, along the banks, among the houses and on the road, it is a combination of the brackish water, crabs, rockfish, osprey, heron, phragmites, eagles, and its residents and the people. It is the smell of home for me. Its sounds are also unique, so easily recognizable: the osprey’s warning call, the reverberating dings of the ropes and bolts on the flagpoles on the docks, gate latches clanging, airplanes buzzing overhead on their way to BWI or to spray crops nearby, branches falling from the great old trees throughout the community, hanging chimes making music, neighbors always saying hello, lacrosse balls hitting the post of goals set up in many front yards, generators powering up and humming through the storms, waves lapping at the bulkhead, fishing boats motoring by, the cows lowing, the neighborhood dogs, Breezy, Willy, River, Jack, Blue, Sandy, Gunner, and Rosie barking along the way, the Amazon truck crunching up the gravel drive, and sprinklers clicking away. As I mapped the route a second time, the clouds gathered, I heard the rolling thunder, and heard the lightning crack in the distance. Time to pick up the pace and circle home. My eyes have forever ceased to solely dominate how I experience River Run.
Sounds Smells
Through Sound and Smell,
I am no longer looking at my surroundings,
I am encompassed by them.
How I Experience River Run Now:
Abstract Mapping of the Senses: Sound and Smell
Mapping the Sights and Smells Along The Road
River Run's Generators of Sights and Sounds
Hey Lane, I also mapped my neighborhood so I was able to see some similarities between our experiences. I also know my neighborhood like the back of my hand and turning off my sight was an incredibly unique way to have a new perspective of an otherwise overly familiar place. I also found it wild how interconnected sight, sound and smell all are, but I would have never noticed unless I purposely paid attention, as this assignment had us do. Finally, I really enjoyed all the photos you added, I feel they truly helped me immerse myself into your perspective of River Run. I was wondering how you created and altered the arial maps?
ReplyDeleteLane, nice work mapping the senses. I was curious if the rain smell where you are differs from the beautiful rain smell of the creosote bush in Tucson... A also love the Abstract Mapping of the Senses and your layered sensory map of the neighborhood. I'm curious if you experienced new things in your own backyard that you hadn't before this exercise? cheers,
ReplyDeleteHey Lane,
ReplyDeleteI am very interested in your abstract maps you created and would love to know more about that process. I too followed a path I knew well and was pleased with how much I discovered when I forgot about sight for a moment. Did you map sound and smell at the same time or separately?
I really like how you mapped the abstract senses. I agree with each one but I can't really explain why. Its almost like describing the feeling of a word or hearing your internal dialogue. For the flowers and waves it seemed the most obvious, like they are soft and flowy, but it is still challenging to describe.
ReplyDelete