Street tree photo series. Grouped by challenges with how street tree plantings have been designed.

Grouped by design opportunities: signs of care about street trees

Birth and death of street trees

Redesign/ideation: creating space for trees

Redesign/ideation: a process for street tree life cycles alongside humans

Further iterations and refinements could be made by categorizing street trees by street type (commercial, residential, arterial, highway etc.) to compare which types of challenges and opportunities are present on different types of streets. Looking at the attributes of the trees associated with cracked pavement could also be explored (species, rooting depth, age, mature size).

Summary of what I learned in the course: Sense-walking and the cube method give you a framework for making sense of the world around you. Sense-walking also helps to develop empathy as a designer, and to further understand the experiences of people with diverse sensory abilities. Sketching + engaging the senses together engage both analytical and intuitive thinking.

In class exercise: Documenting taste experience at Granville Island Market

At home: documenting taste experience of a raw yellow onion – a dissonant experience. Also comparable to the Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky.

Experience of eating a cooked yellow onion – a harmonious experience.

Drinking object – drafts

Lemonade drinking object – final design. The lemon scent diffuser makes it seem like there is always lemonade in the top, and the straw makes it seem like there is always lemonade in the bottom – a condition which would make it seem like the cup is always full.

In class exercise: documenting smells in English Bay and Stanley Park

site 1

site 2

site 3

Smell notes: a smell walk through the back alleys of Dunbar on a cold, rainy afternoon. The sources of things I smelled are placed on a spectrum based on the strength of memory in the mind’s eye that was experienced when smelling each item. I compared smell-memory to vision since it is hard to describe without relating it to another sense.  General observations: the experience of smell and memory are highly personal. Also, it was difficult to access memories or emotions or associations with a lot smells – but particularly with the smells of artificial things. The strongest memories for me involved natural materials, plants and food.

Documentation of four smells experienced in Camosun Bog on a warm, dry, sunny afternoon. “Concoctions” of word associations are used to describe each smell. The smells were much stronger on the warm dry walk than on the cold rainy walk.

In-class exercise: visualizing backyard sounds

Attempt #2: This version adds context and spatializes the sounds drawn in the previous version to show where the sounds are coming from in relation to the observer. I also drew myself to show my scale in relation to the distant and near sounds. Tuning In: sounds at Spanish Banks beach. I created sound recordings at 9 different locations on Spanish Banks Beach on Friday at 7pm after a heavy rainfall. It was dark and low tide, and there was some brief drizzling while I was there.

Context map showing major transportation routes/locations contributing to noise pollution heard on site.

This video shows spectrograms displaying sound frequency (pitch) in Hz over time for each of the 9 audio recordings in sequence. Colours represent amplitude (loudness) in dB.

Windplay: exploring sound and movement with wind. I taped together sheets of iridescent cellophane to a carboard tube to catch the wind. The material is extremely sensitive to even the slightest breeze.  Both the large scale wave-form movement of the whole sheet and the small scale movements of little creases within the sheet contributed to the sound. When tested outside, the sheet movement showed how wind intensity and direction changed over time. When tested inside afterwards using a fan at full blast, the movements were much faster and much louder and resembled water. The fact that the material catches different colors in the light when it moves made me more in tune to the little movements (and also the sounds from the little crinkles) which further enhanced my experience of the sound.

Analysis of how the body moves when using an indoor staircase at home.

Imagining the staircase as an instrument and the body as the musician. Questions that came up: What sounds does it make? Does it change when you move fast or slow? What does a harmonious staircase feel or sound like? How would this change between staircases that are designed differently?

Regarding inclusive design: someone elderly or with an injury or disability might need to move more slowly. A left-handed person might want a railing on the left when going down for balance.