Walking the carriage roads Frederic Church created, one becomes enchanted—not only with the experience of the surrounding beauty, but also with the notion that in the twenty first century one is having a parallel experience with the most influential early American Painter from The Hudson River School of Art, by literally walking in his footsteps. What did he see then? What do we see now? What did he hear then? What do we hear now? What if Church’s experiences have much in common with our own, despite our disparate timelines, sexes, ages, etc. What if we are sharing in a timeless human experience of belonging with nature?
In Wayfinding: Imaging History with (Our)story artist Dawn Breeze asks everyone to be the artist and to share their story of place by creating the content of a living map of shared personal experiences in nature. Breeze asks the participant to pause at some point during their walk on Crown Hill Carriage Road and note their sensory experience either digitally or with old fashioned pencil and paper. These responses are collected and uploaded to this mapping project.
The process of this art project is not dissimilar to social media sites like twitter or instagram, where people hashtag themselves with selfies in front of the Eiffel tower—announcing their place amongst things. The difference is in the nuanced intention. It asks participants to look inward while looking outward, and to use technology not as a replacement for navigating in nature, but instead as a tool to notice their experience with nature and relocate themselves there. The co-created mapping project will serve as living document of a social odyssey remembering our collective place in the wild beauty of nature.
