We place memory in the landscape, and the landscape remembers. The site on the Emerald Necklace remembers the bridle path that once was, through its topography and short street steps. It has memory of the people that visited, through the small changes on the surface like footprints on the path and carvings on a tree. The users of the site place their memories in this location. The landscape itself can revive memories in the user through sight and senses. The sound of crickets in the phragmites and the visual calm of the water can call up, for example, memories of a previous meaningful encounter with nature.
Placing an intervention on this site is done with the intention of initiating memory. The intervention will reveal the physical memory of the existing site. It will allow user manipulation in order to leave a physical memory of their visit, and finally it will bring the user off the path and into a sensory experience which may bring up a memory, or create an event that will change their perception and memory of the landscape.
Emerald Necklace, Boston MA. Fall 2014.