Different landscapes and scenes mean different things to all of us, some people see noise and crime when they think of an urban landscape whereas others might see the excitement of the hustle and bustle. Landscapes and scenery can bring about a range of different emotions, memories and feelings and what’s really interesting is that we can all react differently to the same image.
Peaceful and calm or solitary and scary?
We’ve recently developed a multi-sensory activity based around landscapes to get people talking, thinking, tapping into memories and telling stories.
Setting up
Prepare three images of three different landscapes; for example – coastal, country lane and urban park. You could use magazines, newspapers or print something from the internet.
To accompany these images, find some objects that provide visual clues for each landscape; for example – shells for coastal image, cut flowers for urban park, small car toy for country lane. Try and incorporate items that smell, are interesting to touch or even play some sounds from a tablet or your phone.
Collect plants that can be found in each landscape (try and do this as close to the day as possible; if it’s not possible, then collect plants and press them to dry rather than leave them to dry slowly and shrivel out of shape)
Running the activity
Using images of three different landscapes, participants are asked to decide which plants and objects are associated with each landscape. The group should get as hands on as possible with each object to decide which image it best goes with, perhaps it is all three or none at all, there are no wrong answers.
