This session, “Walking with Pictures,” was the foundation for our aesthetic blitz and was led by Dr. Carmina Sánchez-del-Valle and Dr. Trudi Lynn Smith.

The process (quoted from session hand-out):

“Participants receive images printed on postcard-sized cards, and writing/sketching tools. Some of the images are tourist images and iconic views of areas and landmarks of the Canyonlands National Park. Others depict life in the park, and may be difficult to re-locate. The images given to participants fall into two camps: some are the expected, the on-the-way phenomena, the non-odd actuality, the frozen moment, the historical. Others are stranger, unfamiliar, related by conventions other than spatial (i.e. naming). Participants will be asked to keep field notes – written or sketched or both – overlaid on the images provided, or like in a postcard on the back. The images are to be used to compare and contrast with the experience on the ground. Will we only see that which we know? Will we know that which we don’t see?”