There is conflict and struggle between the basic precepts of the nature of that which is Biome. On the one hand, we within the group are striving to define a role within the City for interacting with and meshing with nature, and on the other, seek to reject the concept of Nature vs. Woman/Man/City/Urban. The common ground of course is that when one sees Homo sapien sapiens as part of nature, then the urban landscape becomes part of nature by association. Unfortunately, while this view expands the concept of what it is to be human, the next step of connecting with a more primal state is forgotten. By taking the concept of Seeing Beyond Sight out of the City and into the forest i have attempted to address the importance of social systems to our behavior as humans, and how heavily we have come to rely on it.

My first attempt started with an ill-advised plan to move from my house, through a sandpit, and then via roadways back to the start. This failed quite quickly when i became lost in a copse of small trees. Rethinking my plight, i decided that for such a solitary journey through a vastly complex environment with nothing in particular to guide me, i would need something more simple. I move out to a rocky outcrop in the forest that i know fairly well, near a brook, and decided that i would attempt to make it home through the forest without sight.

This started with a downhill climb to the brook edge. Once i found the brook by tapping my guiding stick until i heard ice over the rather loud flowing of water, i slowly moved over to the other side of the brook (i apparently managed to hit an area in which the ice covered the whole brook and was strong enough to support me...if i prayed to some god i'd probably have to thank her/him).

Then began a game of attempting to head along the stream for what i guessed to be long enough by feel and the sound of the brook. This involved a lot of running into trees, pushing through branches, and backtracking when an area proved to be too thick. At times i was forced to stop and remove my hat as the effort took quite a lot of energy and overheated me. At one point i slipped and brought my forearm down on some protruding woody appendage.

As i turned away from the brook and headed up the slope of the small valley in which it was housed, i lost my only consistent audible marker and was forced to begin guessing which way to go. Knowing that i lived essentially at the top somewhere i followed the terrain to my advantage. I heard cars on the distant road from here on out, and tried to use those as some guidance. At one point the bristly conifers gave way to the smooth with rough bumps bark of birch trees. Knowing the area well was vital, as i knew this copse must have been located in vaguely the right direction. The stand of hemlock(discovered by feel, smell, and taste) i ran into after was a bit troubling, as i thought that the hemlock trees were all in the other direction, but as i went on the foliage became more sparse, which i took as a good sign. Finally i ran into smaller trees interspersed with abundant thorny plants and i knew i had come to the clearing in which my house stands.

Overall it took between an hour and an hour and a half. From one site to the other couldn't really even be a mile. I discovered that what is typically considered the "natural world" is fairly devoid of helpful markers. One must intimately know the terrain, and the species distribution of certain plant types is vital. At one point i even became very confused and nervous when my guiding stick produced a strange noise from something up ahead and above. It took me a minute to realize the strange noise was produced by a curl of bark hanging from a tree, the space between acting as a resonator. Including the intra-species interaction to the human system seems to be very important to being able to make one's way in the world without sight. I fear that if i actually were without my sight, i would simply starve to death somewhere in the bitter cold. The loss of such an important sense puts one in a delicate situation, and i have a new appreciation for that now.