On Looking: A Walker's Guide to the Art of Observation

On Looking: A Walker's Guide to the Art of Observation

From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Inside of a Dog, this â€œelegant and entertainingâ€ (The Boston Globe) explanation of how humans perceive their environments â€œdoes more than open our eyes...opens our hearts and minds, too, gently awakening us to a worldâ€”in fact, many worldsâ€”weâ€™ve been missingâ€ (USA TODAY).

Alexandra Horowitz shows us how to see the spectacle of the ordinaryâ€”to practice, as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle put it, â€œthe observation of trifles.â€ Structured around a series of eleven walks the author takes, mostly in her Manhattan neighborhood, On Looking features 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. Horowitz 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.

Page by page, Horowitz shows how much more there is to seeâ€”if only we would really look. Trained as a cognitive scientist, she discovers a feast of fascinating detail, all explained with her generous humor and self-deprecating tone. So turn off the phone and other electronic devices and be in the real worldâ€”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 universeâ€”where, indeed, there are worlds within worlds within worlds.
Country USA
Brand Scribner Book Company
Manufacturer Scribner
Binding Paperback
ItemPartNumber 9781439191262
ReleaseDate 2014-04-15
UnitCount 1
EANs 9781439191262

Country	USA
Brand	Scribner Book Company
Manufacturer	Scribner
Binding	Paperback
ItemPartNumber	9781439191262
ReleaseDate	2014-04-15
UnitCount	1
EANs	9781439191262

On Looking: A Walker's Guide to the Art of Observation

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