Three Sensory Walks in Venice:

A Walk from Marinaressa Garden to S Elena
Giardini della Marinaressa Levante to St. Elena

OCTOBER 2024

Exploring Venice through heightened observation and sound, transforming the walk into a "situational sculpture" that offers a unique, collective sensory experience

#1 Giardini della Marinaressa Levante to St. Elena
#2 Palazzo Moro to a garden overlooking the lagoon in Cannaregio
#3 Giardini della Marinaressa Levante for walk on La Certosa Island beginning with a Vaporetto ride

Small groups will gather and walk together with the artist. For the Sensory Walks each participant will carry, in a cloth sac, a paper listening horn and a viewing lens. We will explore the city in a new way by employing our senses, particularly by activating our observational and aural facilities in an acute and unusual manner, such that we will newly discover the city.  Walking together in this way is an act overlaid with many intentions which will unfold as we traverse Venice. Participants will each be part of a "situational sculpture" consisting of a dispersed experience. This calls upon each person experiencing it to remember, and mentally assemble all the parts in order to experience the whole.

Each horn may be considered a portal to a new way of experiencing aural and visual phenomena. The lenses allow for literal magnifications that reveal minute details of particular surfaces. After all, our ears and eyes provide a conduit from the outer world into the inner realm of each of us. In essence, each paper horn or lens may reveal a world that would ordinarily be invisible or inaudible.

By placing the small end of a horn to an ear, one may listen more closely to sounds produced by and within the city itself  -- human-made sounds, the wind as it rustles leaves and branches, and, especially water as we walk alongside the canals or the lagoon. To isolate, examine and curate visual phenomena one may utilize the large, or small circular aperture, at either end of the paper horn, to sight and frame an image. In this way the play of moving light and shadow may become as a miniature "film" or the brilliance of green mosses, a miniature abstract picture. Similarly, when viewing selected phenomena with the aid of a magnifying lens a new “picture” may emerge. The emphasis will be placed on increasing sensory perception through concentrating, focusing and isolating particular sounds and sights. The use of these small, prepared objects on walks places emphasis on the contemplation of a place and its special and spatial qualities. Walking with a small paper horn in hand creates a situation in which viewer/participants may take a journey to discover that which is available all the time, to anyone, but seldom noticed.

It takes time, patience and concentration to hear and see in a new way.  As each horn or lens makes its way into a variety of sound/landscapes; or is used as a visual sighting instrument, it becomes part of a larger sculptural experience. Each walk is different, not only affected by the weather and atmosphere, but each group of participants who will bring their own personalities and create a new ethos or blend. Some groups have children who bring their own sense of curiosity. Sometimes there are musicians or artists, folks of all ages, races and ethnicities walking, discovering together and sharing experiences.

Concentrating on small aural or visual fragments in the environment can alter our perception of place. Walking with a focus on sound, listening and close scrutiny of the immediate environment invites a slower pace and an attendant increase in sensory perception. When we engage in this kind of heightened perception, we find that it may filter into our daily lives. Listening and looking, as part of a geographical experience, creates a process of assembling sound and sight into a sensory map. This may contribute to a new and deeper experience and vision of our local landscapes when we return home.