Dec1
Dec1
Senses Quilt
My final project is completely interactive: it’s supposed to be smelled, touched, tasted, heard, and seen. Everything on the quilt is supposed to have a specific texture, taste, smell, and sound. Also to add another sense, the quilt can also relate to the temperature sense. My quilt is made of found objects on the line. Luckily, the line passes through repo which is where a lot of the odd findings were collected. I did purchase the white fabric to make a quilt with and act as a canvas for all the objects, otherwise everything was collected. It is stuffed with pine needles, leaves and other soft natural things.
Nov16
Proposals
Nov10
Exploring Senses Continued…
Taste:
I was very brave for this sense. I told myself at the beginning of this semester that I would not go around licking things to explore this line. But now I sit here and realize that there is no other way to taste the line, than actually tasting it. The question was, what do I do with the information? I decided to research in depth the definition of taste. I learned about taste buds and the tongue then stumbled across something that I found very interesting. There are five different tastes that we have: bitterness, saltiness, sourness, sweetness and umami. Umami is the savory taste that we sometimes get with meats. I decided that this would be the basis of my collection. I would go around and collect things that I thought tasted good then divid them into groups of how they tasted. I tasted the first leaf and pole and decided against this idea. I then took these objects and added on to touch.
Touch:
There are so many different textures on the line that touch plays a huge role in our exploration. I thought about how many different types of textures and what I could do with them. I decided to collect small pieces of texture and organize them in order from softest to toughest, not paying attention to where they came from or what they were made of.
Nov10
Exploring Senses
When I first thought about the word ‘senses’, I thought of the obvious five: smell, taste, touch, hearing and sight. However after researching for a while I realized there are actually five more senses that we never really think about and even more that are designated for organs like a sense to control respiratory rate. I decided to explore the eight most important senses and do an activity that really works on that individual sense. Then I recorded my thoughts and what I noticed while I was doing the exploration.
Sight:
When we think about the line or go exploring, it seems like the sense we use the most is sight. We are constantly looking for something different and creative to discover for our explorations, but I wanted to do something new with sight. I began to think about the lack of sight and what it would be like to walk the line blind-folded. I tested this out and made a few discoveries. When we stop using one sense, we have to rely more on other senses to make up for it. While I was blind folded I had to rely on my sense of touch to travel on the line.
Hearing
Since I cannot physically collect sounds without the right equipment, I decided to collect the memories of the sounds. I went along the line and wrote down the different sounds that I heard. This was similar to what I did before with overhearing peoples conversations however I’m hearing sounds, not conversations. I brought my notebook with me and tried to describe the different sounds that I heard.
Balance (equilibrioception):
I figured out that this is not one of my best senses; I’m not always the most coordinated. I decided to explore the line while recording different situations that involved balancing.
Sense of time:
Along the line there are many different things that show the sense of time. These especially interested me because it was like a scavenger hunt and once I found a couple, I realized that there were many more like it.
Running Water
Stop Light
Trees Grow and Change Over Time
Leaves Fall
Floors Get Worn Down
Pushpin Holes
Concrete Walls Get Dirty Over Time
Direction (magnetoception):
When working on the line, it is always difficult to stay on the right path. You have to constantly check the map and remember to make sure you’re going the right direction, or maybe this is just in my case. I decided to collect signs that give directions. Since I didn’t want to break the law, I had to document by photography.
Nov4
Senses
I thought I had a pretty good idea of what the word ‘senses’ meant, however after looking it up I realized that I only knew a small portion. I decided to look through pictures and dictionaries to see what other people have defined ‘senses’ as. I looked at dictionary.com, a thesaurus and Britannic to see what the average definition was, and I was very surprised by how many different definitions there were.
Dictionary.com:
1.any of the faculties, as sight, hearing, smell, taste, or touch, by which humans and animals perceive stimuli originating from outside or inside the body.
2.these faculties collectively.
3.their operation or function; sensation.
4.a feeling or perception produced through the organs of touch, taste, etc., or resulting from a particular condition of some part of the body: to have a sense of cold.
5.a faculty or function of the mind analogous to sensation: the moral sense.
6.any special capacity for perception, estimation, appreciation, etc.: a sense of humor.
7.Usually, senses. clear and sound mental faculties; sanity: Have you taken leave of your senses?
8.a more or less vague perception or impression: a sense of security.
9.a mental discernment, realization, or recognition; acuteness: a just sense of the worth of a thing.
10.the recognition of something as incumbent or fitting: a sense of duty.
11.sound practical intelligence: He has no sense.
12.something that is sensible or reasonable: to talk sense.
13.the meaning or gist of something: You missed the sense of his statement.
14.the value or worth of something; merit: There’s no sense in worrying about the past.
15.the meaning of a word or phrase in a specific context, especially as isolated in a dictionary or glossary; the semantic element in a word or group of words.
16.an opinion or judgment formed or held, especially by an assemblage or body of persons: the sense of a meeting.
17.Genetics. a DNA sequence that is capable of coding for an amino acid (distinguished from nonsense).
18.Mathematics. one of two opposite directions in which a vector may point.
19. to perceive (something) by the senses; become aware of.
20.to grasp the meaning of; understand.
21.(of certain mechanical devices) to detect physical phenomena, as light, temperature, radioactivity, etc., mechanically, electrically, or photoelectrically.
22.Computers. to read (punched holes, tape, data, etc.) mechanically, electrically, or photoelectrically.
come to one’s senses, to regain one’s good judgment or realistic point of view; become reasonable.
24.in a sense, according to one explanation or view; to a certain extent: In a sense it may have been the only possible solution.
25.make sense, to be reasonable or comprehensible: His attitude doesn’t make sense.
Origin: 1350–1400; (noun) Middle English < Latin sēnsus sensation, feeling, understanding, equivalent to sent(īre) to feel + -tus suffix of v. action, with tt > s; (v.) derivative of the noun
Related forms
half-sensed, adjective
un·sensed, adjective
un·sens·ing, adjective
Can be confused: cents, scents, sense (see synonym note at the current entry).
Synonyms 4. Sense, sensation refer to consciousness of stimulus or of a perception as pleasant or unpleasant. A sense is an awareness or recognition of something; the stimulus may be subjective and the entire process may be mental or intellectual: a sense of failure. A sensation is an impression derived from an objective (external) stimulus through any of the sense organs: a sensation of heat. It is also a general, indefinite physical or emotional feeling: a sensation of weariness. 5. awareness, apprehension. 7. rationality. 9. estimation, appreciation. 13. signification, import, denotation, connotation, interpretation. See meaning. 16. feeling, sentiment. 19. discern, appreciate, recognize.
senses, also called sensory reception or sense perception, means by which animals detect and respond to stimuli in their internal and external environments. The senses of animals are most usefully described in terms of the kind of physical energy, or modality, involved. There are four main modalities: the light senses (photoreception; i.e., vision), the mechanical senses (mechanoreception; i.e., touch, balance, and hearing), the chemical senses (chemoreception; i.e., taste and smell), and the electric sense (electroreception) of certain fish. In addition to these external senses there are also internal senses that use the same modalities. For example, there are proprioceptors, which are mechanical sensors that measure the lengths of muscles and positions of joints, and there are interoceptors that monitor blood pressure. Similarly, there are chemoreceptors that monitor blood CO2 (carbon dioxide) and pH levels, as well as a variety of receptors that respond at the cellular level to the presence of hormones and metabolites.
| Main Entry: | sense |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | point, meaning |
| Synonyms: | acceptation, advantage, bottom line, burden,core, definition, denotatiton, drift, gist, good,heart, implication, import, intendment,interpretation, logic, matter, meat andpotatoes, meat*, message, name of thegame, nature of the beast, nitty-gritty,nuance, nub, nuts and bolts, punch line,purport, purpose, reason, short, significance,significancy, signification, stuff, substance,thrust, understanding, upshot, use, value,worth |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | sense |
| Part of Speech: | verb |
| Definition: | become aware of |
| Synonyms: | anticipate, apperceive, appreciate,apprehend, be with it, believe, catch, catchon, catch the drift, consider, credit, deem,dig*, discern, divine, feel, feel in bones, feelin gut, get the drift, get the idea, get theimpression, get the picture, get vibes, grasp,have a feeling, have a hunch, hold, know,notice, observe, perceive, pick up, read,realize, savvy*, suspect, take in, think,understand |
| Antonyms: | be numb, be unaware, overlook |
Nov3
Exploring the Line: An Unexpected Surprise
Walking through McMahon building with a few peers and I, we came across a strange surprise. When we walked down the hallway, we found a snake on the floor. After much talk over whether it was real or not, we decided to touch it. It was alive and real. I asked one of the professors if they were going to do anything about it and they said no. Then they gave me a container to capture it with and I decided to set it free in the woods. A VERY unexpected surprise on the line!
Nov3
Exploring the Line: Following Other Observers
At the beginning of this project, I’m sure that the question on everyone’s mind was “How are other people looking at the line?”. I decided to explore this question by following or traveling with other people who had a specific style of discovering. I walked the line with five different people, watched them explore, and asked them directly how they observe the line.
“I walk the line with fresh eyes and in the present”. -Mike
“I walk the line by being a part of the line”. -Willow
I ran into Liam while he was energetically discovering the line. He said he observes the line by, “leaning forward so I don’t fall backwards”. Laughing at this, he explains that he had some difficulty climbing the steep hills.
Katherine saw the line as a hike and she was determined to find something interesting. When I asked her how she discovers the line, she said she is “Looking for every opportunity to collect or document”.
I asked Schuyler how she discovered the line and she told me that, “I discover it by laughing on it, talking in funny accents, and taking pictures. I also discover it by allowing it to tell me what it has to say.” Once she said this I realized that she was completely right. I walked with her on the entire line and noticed how big her imagination was and how curious she can be. She was adventurous and ready to try new things.
Nov2
Exploring the Line: Poems With Graffiti
Whether inside the buildings, or outside on walls and buildings, graffiti is everywhere along the line. I decided to record some of the words that were on stairwells, bathroom stalls, walls and basically anywhere I could find it on the line. I found some interesting images and took pictures of them as well. I realized that I could take the graffiti and make a poem.
There are no amateurs when it comes to art,
it ain’t me babe,
open your eyes.
Give me a name and a date for me to learn together,
every artist was first an amateur.
Gotta keep your head up.
Spin me like a record,
baby right round.
You are unique.
I suggest we harvest.
Please don’t take him,
even though you can.
Do I dare?
Do I dare?
Disturb the universe?
Nov2
Exploring the Line: Eavesdropping
The most interesting and probably the most time consuming exploration is listening to peoples conversations and writing them down. This was difficult because I had to listen to people’s conversations without them noticing that I was. It was also hard because I had to quickly listen to people’s conversation as they walked by. By far, the best conversation I heard was a woman talking to her friend saying, “He was ignoring me all night and then he was totally flirting with that girl”. The room fell silent, and her friend proceeded to say, “Don’t worry, no one can hear us”.
