Firstly a public service announcement, this is not a review. It is more akin to thinking aloud about what I got out of Wayfinding by Michael Bond. In the book Michael Bond explores how the act of wayfinding and spatial awareness helps to connect us to surroundings by creating cognitive maps. He puts forward how the creation, and also lack thereof, cognitive maps changes the way in which we think and our behaviour.
The book begins with the first wayfinders in early human history, how children explore the world, then moves to how the brain through a biological lens keeps track of where we are, how we navigate differently and how getting truly lost both physically and mentally can impact our behaviours. Despite my description so far, this is not a dense theoretical book. I did get a little lost in the depths of the biomedical description of the different types of cells and their locations in our brain that let us know where we are and which way we might be facing. In saying that it was still wildly fascinating.
“The brain’s spatial system seems to use maps not just to represent space, but organise knowledge of different types. It is just as good as helping us navigate our inner worlds as our outers ones” p.83
“Attention is at the heart of wayfinding, but it also serves a greater purpose: it connects us to the space around us and tethers us to reality” p.152
“Cognitive maps are atlases of feelings as much as geometry: they capture emotional as well as spatial information.” p169.
Through this book I came to understand a little more about how I move through spaces and why I am drawn to walking and exploring. Each time I relocate to a new city I am drawn to walk the streets. I have come to realise that walking helps me build a map of the place: what connects to what, how the place “works” and also to help me not get lost physically, but also internally. Walking allows me find my place. Wayfinding has already impacted on realisations that my daily walking and exploring informs my arts practice. It has intensified my belief that precious objects, namely jewellery, can act as souvenirs. They can become an aides-memoire of beloved people, special events and especially particular places.
Wayfinding: The Art and Science of How We Find and Lose Our Way. Micheal Bond, 2020, Picador: London.
