The Dott 07 Design Festival October 16-28 situated between the Sage and the Baltic. Website link Dott 07
Email us here for any further information about Mapping the Necklace at the Dott 07 festival.
Navigating the Park with sound
Submitted by Beth on Mon, 2007-02-05 12:49.
For many people visiting The Durham Necklace Park, walking around and experiencing the sights, sounds and smells of the riverside will hopefully be a pleasurable experience. But what if you lose one of those senses; can you still have the same pleasurable experience?
Recently I have been talking to the Society for the Blind and Partially Sighted in Durham to gain an understanding of the difficulties of navigating around the City, especially along the riverside. How can local people and visitors to Durham enjoy a visually beautiful city? The Durham Necklace Park cannot 'tick it's tick box' by placing Braille signs everywhere, as one it is not practical and two only 1% of people who have a sight disability can read it!
While meeting with the group, we talked about better ways that could translate the Park and map it in a format that would be appropriate for the majority of those with a sight disability. Some areas are easy to roam with tarmac surfaces but other areas can be opened up with audio descriptions and developing awareness to sections of the site.
One of the conclusions we came to was that there is not many examples in the UK that truly explored ways of interpreting a site such as the Durham Necklace Park in terms for those who are blind or partially sighted people.
Inspired by this, a group of guide dog and stick users aim to do a series of exploratory sessions in the Park and assess the possibilities! Updates to follow!
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Where The Wind Calls Trees By Name
From John Hillaby's account of boyhood in Yorkshire:
"I must have been about nine or ten before I developed an extraordinary passion for dredging things out of ponds. In those days wealth consisted of a jar of newts, a frog, a hedgehog or a few caterpillars in a glass-lined box. For a town-bred boy hunting prowess meant being able to catch sticklebacks, butterflies and, in the summer months, those vivid green tiger beetles which were treasure above emeralds. I went out on forays with the high priests of the local Natural History Society, collecting, trying to identify what I found.
Old Wilkinson, one of the best botanists in Yorkshire, was blind, a strange, knowledgeable man who could name any plant put into his hands by running his fingers over the stem and leaves. Sometimes he smelt them. He also possessed the unique ability of being able to identify trees by the noise they made. In a field on a breezy day he used to crane forward, listening intently, and then point unerringly to where he said he could hear a clump of oak or an ash, perhaps a hawthorn or a yew. He said anyone ought to be able to identify a Scots pine with their eyes closed and he knew the difference between other species, distinguishing them solely by the rustle of the wind in their leaves.
At school a little gnome of enthusiasm christened James Digby Firth, but known to everyone under the age of twelve as Bug Willie, taught us that beetles were the finest creations of God and threatened to thrash anyone who couldn't tell the difference between a weevil and a ferocious creature called the Devil's coach-horse." (John Hillaby, Journey Through Britain, 1968, p. 150)
Sound guides
Have you considered making blind people guides of those who can (usually) see? It might be fascinating to be taken around blindfolded - and taught to listen and appreciate noises that one would otherwise not notice.
John Thackara
From the Sensory Trust website
"Teams of four use a Sensory Mapping form to log sensory ‘hits’ and their positions on a sketch map. They can be moving through the park or be stationary. It’s important to note that for the most part this is not a subjective exercise: a rose smells like a rose, running water sounds like running water. The teams are not asked to make value judgements about the quality of the sensory hits, only to note them and their location. The value judgement section occurs when the teams are asked to describe any feelings they may have about a certain space: threatening, calming etc. At no point are you required to wear a kaftan." Sensory Mapping
Nice site
This is a nice site with purpose! I like this page
Sensory Design
Some simple postcards where by visitors to the Necklace Park could log what and where the sensory hits are!
Sound Planning!
From some of personal experiences of the blind group, those to be first blindfolded should be city planners and engineers! I am fascinated by the coping mechanisms a blind or partially sighted person have developed to overcome the day to day life schedule. For many sighted people, appreciating those skills will also enhance awareness of the issues encountered by those with a sight disability.
The group I spoke to and will meet with again in the Park, have many ideas we hope to develop and adapt! What you have suggested was certainly a possibility and our next exploratory walk will bring us to all our senses!
blogging on a theme
Hi Beth! It just so happens that my idea for a blogpost was also on an audio theme. So we have managed to start a trend on one topic! Does anyone else have something they'd like to say about sound?
birdsong map
I liked the idea of a 'birdsong' map, made up of recordings of birdsong at different places in the park, playing these back when the appropriate part of the map is clicked. This could also be done in 'real time', with sound streaming live to a website from microphones placed in the park. Another possibility is allowing users to select the time of day and season to hear how birdsong changes over time.