social life
London
What makes a boundary? How we circumnavigate London is often imagined through
its hard materiality of bricks and roads, staggered by open, green spaces and
meandering waterways. Yet the sensory experience of moving through the city
plays a significant role in how we percieve place, define neighbourhoods, and
establish routes and routines. In mid June, Social Life hosted a workshop as
part of the London Festival of Architecture, which aimed to explore how sight,
smell and sound impact our perceptions of boundaries. Our approach drew closely
from a toolkit developed by Saffron Woodcraft and Connie Smith at UCL's Insitute
for Global Prosperity - the 'Sensory Notation Toolkit' - which was created with
the intention for 'researchers to become alert to their different sense and how
these are stimulated by particular environments.' Workshop participants walked
with us on a short route around Elephand & Castle. At each stop we asked
participants to record their sensory stimulation on a scale of 1-5 for each of
the six sense: visual, aural, kinetic, thermal and chemical. We used a visual
sensory chart to capture the data to understand what the concurrent themes were
for each space and overall which space had the highest and lowest level of
sensory stimulation. Building on Social Life's earlier work on sensory
stimulation and psychgeography in our local area, our 2017 'Feeling of the
Place' project, the workshop aimed to look more closely at the relationship
between our sense and how this guides our perception of boundaries. The sensory
walk was an exercise on connecting sights, smells and sounds as elements of
boundary making and unmaking. Two boundaries were chosen for the exercise,
Strata Tower by Elephant and Castle roundabout and a pedestrial barrier in the
Newington Estate close to Peacock Yard where Social Life is based. Participants
were asked to stop on either side of the 'boundary' and record their sensory
stimulation. The stops differed dramatically. Whilst one was located in the
middle of a blooming community garden others were located right at the foot of
Strata Tower, surrounded by the hustle and bustle of urban life. They were
however only a short walk apart. The responses were fairly predictable.
Participants noted feeling unwelcome and feelings of unpleasantness in areas
that were less human scale and contained less greenery. Aural stimualtion -
negative or positive - scored highly for many participants with many connecting
unpleasant feelings with wind, loud noises and also temperature.
