Sense Walk

Date: January 29, 2021
Time: 1: 50 p.m.- 2:50 p.m.
Duration: 1 hour

The sense walk took place on a very cold and sunny winter day. I first walked into and through the woods, and finally arrived at a waterfall that is beside the major path that cuts through the park. At this point, I stopped walking and began focusing on my senses. The feeling of the warm sun on my icy face felt blissful. It was soothing, relaxing, and nourish ing. I also loved the sound of the waterfall. I found it extremely relaxing and nourishing. The most striking sense to observe was sound. When I closed my eye to listen, the soundscape of the city was fully alive and present within the park. The tree functioned as visually barriers that block out the city in the park, but their were no barriers for sound. This was all the more true in the winter, when the trees are bare. Also, I could smell, taste, or feel anything other than ice and cold. Below is a list of the senses I observed during this walk.

Sound: School bells, birds, wind, people speaking Russian, French and Chinese.
The city in background: Engines, Hums, Doppler Effect, Hammering, and a school bell
Flowing water = heavenly, relaxing = Nourishing
How much city soundscape is infiltrating the surroundings in the park

Touch: The sun is warm, comfortable, heavenly and nourishing.
The wind stings, poke. I have frozen hands, and a runny nose.
Pattern of snow on my feet, light on my eye balls when I close my eye, wetness of snow, foot track and Ski tracks
Snow: Today the snow is crunchy and hard. Snow feels and sounds different in different temperatures.

Taste/Smell: Snot, booger, ice and snow. I feel the cold in my nose and mouth.

Sight: I see skiers. One skilled skier passed by me. I see many different kinds of paths. There are paths for walkers and different kinds of skiing. This include wider paths, and narrow trails for classic cross-country skiing.
I didn't see many animals.

Overall observations

My body produces a lot of sensations in the winter - snot, steam, heat, and the crushing of snow.
In terms of the soundscape, there is no barrier between park and the city. The sounds of the city are alive and living in the park.
The hardest part of the sense walk was settling my mind to be present. It's a very challenging thing to not think, and inside be settled and quiet enough to observe and continue observing one's surroundings.

Themes

These notes I took during the first sense walk became the basis of the major theme and sensory keywords that I continued to develop for the proceeding walks.

Sound Walk

Date: Feb 8, 2021
Time: 1: 30 p.m.- 2:40 p.m.
Duration: 1 hour 10 minute

This was another very cold and sunny day. These are lovely days for walks. I turned on the audio recorder and began recording in the woods. I then walked out to the main path, followed this path to the metro, then walked on the street next to the park, and back into the woods. Then I headed towards the parking lot where I had parked my car. This was a noisy walk in my headphone. The most predominant sound was the wind. It was a windy day, and I lacked the proper wind protection for my recording so getting a clean recording proved challenging. Also, there were tons of construction sounds. The area around the metro and street was particularly noisy with lots of heavy vehicles passing through. There were some quieter sounds too. I heard the faint sound of tree branches being pushed around by the wind. This is a much more subtle sound in the winter than summer. There were a few birds and crows too. There were also sounds coming from my body - breathing, and movement. I compiled and edited the sounds I recorded during this walk into the composition below.

Photo Walk

Date: February 18, 2021
Time: 9: 15 a.m.- 11:00 a.m.
Duration: 1 hour 45 minutes

This was another beautiful cold winter day. During this walk, I sought out images that would represent the following keywords: Icy, life, machine, stillness, movement, and nourishing. These keyword described the main things that I had seen, heard and felt during my previous walks. I've edited these photographs with the goal of highlighting and heightening these various sensory stimuli that are present in the images.

During this walk, I kept thinking about the temporality of sound and photos, and how, in photography, patterns in the snow capture time and movement. These patterns evoke movements and, by extension, the sounds of these movements. Below, one can see traces of the wind, squirrels, machines, skiers, and walkers. The last image is a mashup of skiers and walkers going off their main tracks.

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