This American Life: Mapping response

I think the strength of Dennis Wood's work lies in the idea of showing what it is like to live in an area.  The development of a series of maps for each sense allows for a body of work that seen as a whole develops one's idea of a neighborhood so they can almost feel like they have been there.  The uniqueness of each map also lends itself to wanting to see the next; as each map is something you have probably never seen.  This project would make an awesome coffee table atlas.

Jack Hitt's work is interesting because it is about being conscious of the unconscious.  The body tunes things out and Hitt exemplifies those things in a way that venerates them.  I like the idea of songs made to compliment monotonous noises.  I would never do this sort of thing though, as listening to all the little noises would drive me insane.  The idea of being the compliment to the appliance’s noise is also an interesting idea; it implies that the noise is the lead of the musical piece with everything formed around it.

The electronic nose is incredibly cool.  The idea of an electronic nasal map of the world is an interesting concept.  Although I feel like this was the weakest part of the series, it serves the purpose to question the idea of a computer map of the world.  People have historically done cartography and since people are not machines we cannot be as precise.  This works when things are physical objects, like when you have a laser measuring an area and creating a visualization of whatever.  Smell on the other hand can’t be super easily replicated thus the readout of “smells like pancakes” does not evoke the same things that the smell of pancakes would. 

The touch part was the weakest link in this series. This part was more a mapping of a person’s psyche, and even then a weak one at that. This was a story about a person’s hypochondria, which can be interesting but came off as a bit of a self-obsessed rant.  Another method for exploring the idea of a world through touch would have been better.  As an exploration of Deb Monroe’s psyche this felt a bit disorganized, the narrative lost my attention quite a few times simply because it felt as if she were just venting about her problem.  It came off as a cliché hypochondriac story.

Jonathan Gold’s story worked the most successfully for the idea of mapping.  While the other parts of this series explored the ideas of mapping an area through different sense, this piece actually succeeded in bringing you to areas.  The descriptions of the food, along with the audio from the locations allow the listener to actually transport himself or herself to a restaurant in L.A.

Overall the ideas brought up in this series successfully captured my attention as a feature piece.  While I wish there was a bit more attention applied to the actual mapping techniques and processes the majority of the pieces worked for me.