This is a page from Keri Smith’s excellent book How to be an Explorer of the World: Portable Life Museum. The activities here really spark a childlike curiosity about what’s around us; Smith’s angle connects artists and scientists in their efforts to observe, collect, analyze, compare, and notice patterns. Here’s an example of the explorations she suggests:
How to Wander Aimlessly (p. 149)
1. Pick a day and time.
2. Pack a bag.
3. Start heading in any direction. Act only on instinct.
4. Do the opposite of what you think you should.
5. If you start to think you are wasting your time then you are doing it correctly.
6. Keep going. Pay attention to the details. Lose all sense of time and place.
How often do you let yourself get lost? When do you become completely absorbed in your surroundings, like the creek by your childhood home or the park down the street?
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This is a good tactic if you’re ever in Venice. Getting lost deliberately is a lot of fun and uber-informative. No matter how hard you try, though, you end up back at Piazza San Marco’s…
Yay! I’ll have to try that!