On looking : eleven walks with expert eyes

Format:

Book

Title:

On looking : eleven walks with expert eyes

Author:

Horowitz, Alexandra author

ISBN:

9781439191255

Edition:

First Scribner hardcover edition.

Publication:

New York : Scribner, 2013.

Physical Description:

vii, 308 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm

Contents:

Amateur eyes -- Inanimate city : the material of the landscape. Muchness ; Minerals and biomass ; Minding our Qs ; Into the fourth dimension -- Animate city : everything that won't stand still. Flipping things over ; The animals among us ; A nice place (to walk) ; The suggestiveness of thumb-nails -- Sensory city : things that hum, smell, or vibrate. Seeing/not seeing ; The sound of parallel parking ; A dog's-nose view ; Seeing it.

Summary:

On Looking begins with inattention. It is about attending to the joys of the unattended, the perceived 'ordinary.' Horowitz encourages us to rediscover the extraordinary things that we are missing in our ordinary activities. Even when engaged in the simplest of activities like taking a walk around the block, we pay so little attention to most of what is right before us that we are sleepwalkers in our own lives.

Subject(s):

Self-consciousness (Awareness)

Self-actualization (Psychology)

Perception.

Cognition.

Awareness.

Environmental psychology.

Consciousness.

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Monmouth Public Library	153.7 Horowitz, A. 2013	Searching... Unknown
Searching... McMinnville Public Library	153.7 Horowitz	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

From the author of the #1 New York Times giant bestseller Inside of a Dog comes an equally smart, delightful, and startling exploration of how we perceive our surroundings.

From the author of the giant #1 New York Times bestseller Inside of a Dog comes an equally smart, delightful, and startling exploration of how we perceive and discover our world.

Alexandra Horowitz's brilliant On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes shows us how to see the spectacle of the ordinary--to practice, as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle put it, "the observation of trifles." On Looking is structured around a series of eleven walks the author takes, mostly in her Manhattan neighborhood, with experts on a diverse range of subjects, including an urban sociologist, the well-known artist Maira Kalman, a geologist, a physician, and a sound designer. She also walks with a child and a dog to see the world as they perceive it. What they see, how they see it, and why most of us do not see the same things reveal the startling power of human attention and the cognitive aspects of what it means to be an expert observer.

As the million-plus readers of Inside of a Dog have discovered, Alexandra Horowitz is charmingly adept at explaining the mysteries of human perception. Trained as a cognitive scientist, she discovers a feast of fascinating detail, all explained with her generous humor and self-deprecating tone. On Looking presents the same engaging combination, this time in service to understanding how human beings encounter their daily worlds and each other.

Page by page, Horowitz shows how much more there is to see--if only we would really look. On Looking is nutrition for the considered life, serving as a provocative response to our relentlessly virtual consciousness. So turn off the phone and other electronic devices and be in the real world--where strangers communicate by geometry as they walk toward one another, where sounds reveal shadows, where posture can display humility, and the underside of a leaf unveils a Lilliputian universe--where, indeed, there are worlds within worlds within worlds.

Alexandra Horowitz's On Looking confirms her place as one of today's most illuminating observers of our infinitely complex world.

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Horowitz (Inside of a Dog) turns neighborhood walks into an exploration of how people interpret the world. Each walk pairs her with a different companion, each experience offering expertise in a wildly different arena, from the fractured geology of Horowitz's native Manhattan to a city block's surprisingly abundant insect life or how blind people experience the world. Some walks playfully dip into academic specialties, as when Dr. Bennett Lorber displays his Sherlock Holmes-like knack for diagnosing passersby, or when urban behaviorist Fred Kent shares his counterintuitive perspective as president of the Project for Public Spaces. Elsewhere, a sound engineer explains the "auditory restoration" phenomenon, in which the mind fills in unheard sounds, while a typographer examines fonts and lettering on signs and buildings, going so far as to distinguish between different forms of the letter "Q." Even when Horowitz leaves her home turf to venture to Philadelphia and to Springfield, Mass., or consults such dubious "experts" as her dog, Finnegan, and toddler son, her writing remains insightful. The quirks in how each individual processes the same picture provide readers with their own eyes refreshed, ready to take a good look around them. Agent: Kris Dahl, ICM. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Review

Round and round the blocks of New York City, Horowitz (Psychology, Animal Behavior, and Canine Cognition/Barnard Coll.; Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell and Know, 2010) takes readers on multiple walks, showing us what we fail to spot when we don't pay attention. Her young son sees green triangles, trucks and his own shadow, among other things. Others see the stone formed into buildings, the marks of thousands of insects and a rat preening its face. Horowitz combines her minute observations with history and science, bringing new connections to the sometimes-mundane sights and sounds of a city. Her horizons were expanded during her walk with artist Maira Kalman, who viewed a church as more than just a place for religion; "it was about music and company and freedom of allegiances." Through the eyes of the artist, "objects and people on our route became possibilities for interaction, rather than decoration or obstruction, as the urban pedestrian might define them." From the multitude of typefaces found in street signs, to the differences in sounds made by a shuttle bus or a city bus, to the animals that share the city streets and sewers, each walk enabled Horowitz to perceive the same environment in a fresh, new way. Simply by paying attention, the author's senses were opened to experiences she would have otherwise completely missed. By reading her engaging stories, readers can learn to see their own environments, whether city or country, and open their minds to the exciting world that surrounds them. There is no right or wrong way to do this; one just must be open to the possibilities and be willing to try. An enjoyable closer look at what most people miss when walking through a city.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

It is charming to take a walk with Horowitz. Engaging, amusing, and relatable, the psychology professor guides readers through 11 urban walks in the company of various experts. Beyond simply looking, this is about what makes up the world around us and the foundations of human perception. Horowitz brings the same attention to the human brain as she brought to our canine companions in Inside of a Dog (2010). She makes cognitive functioning eminently understandable by unraveling the role expectation plays in limiting what we see. The experts she walks with, from scientists to a toddler and a dog, reveal the underpinnings of a wide range of urban phenomena, such as the uncanny ability of rats to avoid traps. The descriptions of the walks are detailed but not overlong, with just enough information to give a taste of a geologist's or typographer's expertise. Even when relying only on your own inexpert eyes, you will look at the world with more attention after reading these fascinating essays, though it's likely you still won't be able to find millennia-old worm tracks or recognize the fishlike behavior of pedestrians.--Thoreson, Bridget Copyright 2010 Booklist