The Field Notes Workbook for Narrative Cartography is comprised of prompts that encourage awareness of one's sense perceptions, thoughts, emotions, embodied felt sense, and imagination to be recorded throughout a roaming excursion. The collected data is marked on an illustrated map of the area, weaving together the salient characteristics of the place and one’s subjective experience therein.

STEP  ONE :
​PLOT  POINTS

Guided by impulse, the participant pauses to scan and record the five senses, emotions, thoughts, and felt sense. This becomes a plot point in the story and will guide the written prose at a later stage.

STEP  TWO :
COGNITIVE   MAP

After multiple plot points have been collected, the participant sketches a cognitive map of the area traversed. ​A cognitive map is essentially a map from memory, and whatever is most important naturally stands out. 

STEP   THREE :
​NARRATIVE   CARTOGRAPHY

Narrative Cartography is the interweaving of story and map. By inviting the more-than-human world to co-author the narrative of life,
​we call upon perspectives beyond our own, ​and create an opportunity to see with new eyes. ​

 T H E     A R T     ​O F     S H M E E