Mapping Senses (walk1)

I took a stroll down an alley starting in the Sam Hughes neighborhood. It is apparent the amount of attention paid to the visual aesthetics of the neighborhood from the road but I wondered how apparent it would be, or wouldn’t be, in its alleys; I wondered how the alleys would reflect the neighborhood. There were many aesthetic areas, some broken down, some glammed up like on the road.

My first walk, I focused on hearing. The most predominate noise was the sound of my footsteps on the gravel, the moving pebbles and rocks under the weight of my body. The birds had a pulsating chirp, seemingly random with the rise and decline of their noise. The whoot of an owl was also mixed in with the chirping. I heard the wind pushing through the branches and leaves of trees and the lizards shuffling around the bushes startled by my loud steps. I heard the hum of traffic passing in the distance and planes and jets in the sky.

My mode of attention the second time around was sight. I paid particular attention to the cracks in the road and the shadows of the trees. There is something fascinating about the movement of trees’ shadows on a windy day that I can’t quite nail on the head. There were areas that seemed a bit less taken care of with piles used wood scraps and boards, graffiti or untamed plants. There were many bright colored walls and doors in what seemed to be more well-kept yards, but were of less interest to me compared to the paint peeled walls and the rusting fences.

On the third walk, my attention was on touch. I could feel the ground go from a solid, concrete surface and break down into rocks, gravel and sand. As the ground became more sandy, my step was softer. I could feel the individual rocks and the cracks from the disturbed ground through the soles of my Vans. I felt the wind hit my moistened body from the hot weather, breezing through my hair and cooling me off ever so slightly.