Mapping|This American Life Analysis

The purpose of listening to this audio recording was to obviously open up our senses. Learn to use not just our eyes, or just our ears, or just our nose, or just our hands, or just our tongue, but to merge them all. Keeping all of our senses open will allow us as individuals and as artists to experience the world in new ways, giving us new perspectives that once were hidden.

I found parts of this recording interesting as I had no idea of the world of maps beyond my own preconceived idea of what a map was. I myself am guilty of not going beyond the road map when thinking of what a map is and was absolutely astounded by the first act of the recording. As I just ended a road trip with my dad, I was so focused on the visual roadmap and nothing else. I had no idea that there were these people so interested in mapping every little detail of their neighborhoods and towns, not mapping for the sole purpose of just to get from one place to another, but to gain new insight of where they live; where certain things exist, how they exist amongst each other. The second act was also profound in that I am a musician and never opened my ears in this way. I have found myself in the past humming to the refrigerator but never expanded beyond that. I thought it was a weird thing I did personally. After listening, my mind was expanded. My ears were now more open. I went on to find the tonal mapping of my own kitchen and was astounded by what I heard.

Beyond these two acts, I didn’t find the rest of the recording that interesting, though I still understand its purpose. The electronic nose seemed a little pointless and seemed to vary away from the idea of mapping. The fourth act annoyed me as it was hard to pay attention to such a hypochondriac. I feel like the idea of mapping through touch can be expanded much more beyond than what was talked about. I wished they had interviewed a blind person to get their perspective of touch, as touch can indicate so many things. The last act didn’t make sense to me relative to that of mapping. It seemed like a food critic wanting to talk about what he enjoys and what he doesn’t. He is in the end using sight to travel to these places of taste; and only using taste to choose what he likes to and not likes to eat. Taste can map beyond this I feel, as it can map histories and cultures and experiences.
I will try to open up all my senses and gain new experiences, not necessarily those shared with the people in the recording, or those of you reading this, but new experiences of my own. I am glad to have been able to experience this audio recording and hope to use it in my life.