Inevitably, new spaces have the capacity to present one with a complicated series of obstacles. Arguably, one of the most significant challenges exists in relationship to orientation or navigation. Although we are all, undoubtedly, familiar, even confronted, with basic issues of navigation (navigating from one locale to another, to a new restuarant, etc.), it is easy to overlook the dramatic extent of orientation issues. The art of navigation is distinguished by a complex and graduated system.
Often, one begins navigating an area on the basis of rather meaningless or degraded information. If I make a right here, I can access I-94 from the WSU campus. Mapping websites such as google and mapquest both provide the degraded information necessary to successfully move from one area to another. In the arbitrary distance of 2.3 miles I should take I-75 south. Although these directions (ways of navigating) are significant in assisting one in traveling to a new job, a used book store, or an interesting restaurant, these directions are incredibly detached. Presumably, one does not feel an attachment to the 2.3 miles traveled or the side streets one encounters.
As time progresses, and one becomes more intimately acquainted with a particular locale or space, one trascends the various graduated levels of navigation. One’s experiences contribute to the associations that arise concerning particular streets, junctions, landmarks, rooms, etc. Experience necessitates a different sort of navigation. One still makes a right turn to get to I-94, yet that right turn gains significance from the associational framework that arises over time.
Similarly, the act of navigating this house has, undoubtedly, been a graduated experience. During the preliminary stages we developed particular mental constructs that helped us to remember what drawer the forks and knives were in, where the painter’s tape was located, what wall sockets had grounds, etc. As time progressed, areas of the house began to signify. That which we have collectively/individually experienced in the house, has contributed to the development of more complex, and, arguably, a more significant mode/means of navigating.
One learns different strategies for avoiding the congestion that frequently occurs around the kitchen table, and which rooms are most tolerable during the hottest summer days. Much of what occurs is beyond the simplicity of the physiological. I navigate away from the comfort of my room to the green couch, which is equally as comforting mentally. I am learning how to move more efficiently/effectively, while discovering the way in which a house becomes a home; the way in which rights and lefts become more significant that the reduced nature of mapquest directional cues. I learn how to navigate in relationship to inclination, mood, desire, etc. The navigational cues have become so entirely entwined. They are rapidly becoming less detached and less debased.
