On Looking: Eleven Walks With Expert Eyes (37 page)

diesel sounds:

Extrapolated from various sources, such as
Diesel Technology: Report of the Technology Panel of the Diesel Impacts Study Committee
(Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1982).

infrasonic sounds of the giraffe:

Research by E. Muggenthaler, in D. Feldman,
Why Do Pirates Love Parrots?
(New York: Harper, 2006).

lo-fi soundscape; “music is sounds”:

R. M. Schafer,
The Soundscape.

noises as “tumbled about in confusion”:

H. L. F. Helmholtz,
On the Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music,
trans. A. J. Ellis (London: Longmans Green and Co., 1875), p. 8.

interruptedness of sound:

Schwartz,
Making Noise,
p. 239.

fingernails on a chalkboard:

C. Reuter and M. Oehler, “Psychoacoustics of Chalkboard Squeaking,”
162nd Acoustical Society of America Meeting,
San Diego, California, 2011.

otoacoustic emissions:

D. T. Kemp, “Exploring Cochlear Status with Otoacoustic Emissions: The Potential for New Clinical Applications,” in M. S. Robinette and T. J. Glattke, eds.,
Otoacoustic Emissions: Clinical Applications
(New York: Thieme, 2002), pp. 1–47.

otoacoustic emission signatures:

M. Swabey, S. P. Beeby, A. Brown, and J. Chad, “Using Otoacoustic Emissions as a Biometric,”
Proceedings of the First International Conference on Biometric Authentication
(2004), pp. 600–606.

keynote sounds:

R. M. Schafer,
The Soundscape.

auditory restoration:

L. Riecke, F. Esposito, M. Bonte, and E. Formisano, “Hearing Illusory Sounds in Noise: The Timing of Sensory-Perceptual Transformations in Auditory Cortex,”
Neuron 64
(2009): 550–561.

on bats:

C. Moss and A. Surlykke, “Probing the Natural Scene by Echolocation in Bats,”
Frontiers of Behavioral Neuroscience 4
(2010): 1–16.

physical reactions to sound: Homer, David, et al.:

F. Gonzalez-Crussi,
The Five Senses
(San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1989), pp. 38–44.

self-similarity:

M. N. Geffen, J. Gervain, J. F. Werker, and M. O. Magnasco, “Auditory Perception of Self-Similarity in Water Sounds,”
Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience 5
(2011): 15; and W. J. Davies, “The Perception of Susurration: Envelopment in Indoor and Outdoor Spaces,”
18th International Congress on Acoustics, Kyoto,
2004.

firs sob and moan:

Or so wrote Thomas Hardy in
Under the Greenwood Tree or the Mellstock Quire: A Rural Painting of the Dutch School.

cricket pulse rate and temperature:

S. D. Martin, D. A. Gray, and W. H. Cade, “Fine-Scale Temperature Effects on Cricket Calling Song,”
Canadian Journal of Zoology 78
(2000): 706–712.

sounds as warfare:

U.S. Department of Defense Non-Lethal Weapons Program,
http://jnlwp.defense.gov
.

automatic doors in science fiction:

The director of
The Empire Strikes Back
did just this. M. Chion,
Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), p. 12.

henbane: “swift as quicksilver”:

W. Shakespeare,
Hamlet,
act I, scene V.

elephants . . . infrasounds are resilient to weakening:

K. McComb, D. Reby, L. Baker, et al., “Long-Distance Communication of Acoustic Cues to Social Identity in African Elephants,”
Animal Behaviour 65
(2003): 317–329.

medical effects of infrasound:

G. M. Foy,
Zero Decibels
(New York: Scribner, 2010), pp. 6–7.

breathing noises:

Chion,
Audio-Vision,
p. 36.

insides likely vibrated to this growl:

Foy,
Zero Decibels,
p. 35.

effects of children’s laughing and crying:

E. Seifritz et al., “Differential Sex-Independent Amygdala Response to Infant rying and Laughing in Parents Versus Nonparents,”
Biological Psychiatry 54
(2003): 1367–1375.

antinoise in London:

Schwartz,
Making Noise,
pp. 143ff.

noises of 500 BC, seventeenth-century London, and twentieth-century New York:

E. Thompson,
The Soundscape of Modernity: Architectural Acoustics and the Culture of Listening in America, 1900–1922
(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002).

not all air (or water) is alike:

J. W. Bradbury and S. L. Vehrencamp,
Principles of Animal Communication,
2nd ed. (Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates, 2011).

animal sound communication:

Ibid.

fin whales:

R. Payne and D. Webb, “Orientation by Means of Long Range Acoustic Signaling in Baleen Whales,”
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 188
(1971): 110–141.

humans’ noise interference underwater:

M. L. Melcon et al., “Blue Whales Respond to Anthropogenic Noise,”
PLoS One 7
(2012): e32681.

overtones:

D. J. Levitin,
This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession
(New York: Penguin, 2006).

diabolus in musica:

M. Kennedy,
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

“We others, who have long lost”:

K. Grahame,
The Wind in the Willows
(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1960), pp. 80–81.

on the dog nose:

G. S. Settles, D. A. Kester, and L. J. Dodson-Dreibelbis, “The External Aerodynamics of Canine Olfaction,” in F. G. Barth, J. A. C. Humphrey, and T. W. Secomb, eds.,
Sensors and Sensing in Biology and Engineering
(New York: Springer, 2002), pp. 323–336.

on receptors in the dog nose:

S. Firestein, “How the Olfactory System Makes Sense of Scents,”
Nature 413
(2001): 211–217. For more on perceiving smells, see also
http://bigthink.com/users/stuartfirestein
.

on dog sniffing:

B. A. Craven, E. G. Paterson, and G. S. Settles, “The Fluid Dynamics of Canine Olfaction: Unique Nasal Airflow Patterns as an Explanation of Macrosmia,”
Journal of the Royal Society Interface 7
(2010): 933–943.

nostril lateralization:

M. Siniscalchi, R. Sasso, A. M. Pepe, et al., “Sniffing with the Right Nostril: Lateralization of Response to Odour Stimuli by Dogs,”
Animal Behaviour 82
(2011): 399–404.

geodetic survey marks:

http://celebrating200years.noaa.gov/survey_marks/welcome.html#look
; and F. W. Koop, “Precise Leveling in New York City,” a report of the City of New York Board of Estimate and Apportionment, 1909–1914.

smells of disease:

M. Shirasu and K. Touhara, “The Scent of Disease: Volatile Organic Compounds of the Human Body Related to Disease,”
Journal of Biochemistry 150
(2011): 257–266; and “Odor as a Symptom of Disease,”
New York Medical Journal 69
(1899): 103.

tracking via footsteps:

P. G. Hepper and D. L. Wells, “How Many Footsteps Do Dogs Need to Determine the Direction of an Odour Trail?”
Chemical Senses 30
(2005): 291–298.

dog gaits:

C. M. Brown,
Dog Locomotion and Gait Analysis
(Wheat Ridge, CO: Hoflin Publishing, 1986).

sloppy tracks:

P. Rezendes,
Tracking and the Art of Seeing: How to Read Animal Tracks and Sign
(New York: HarperCollins, 1999).

horse tactile sensitivity:

C. A. Saslow, “Understanding the Perceptual World of Horses,”
Applied Animal Behaviour Science 78
(2002): 209–224.

Rembrandtian paintings:

This idea comes from James Elkins’s description of a Rembrandt portrait:
http://www.jameselkins.com/index.php?option=com_content&view= article&id=227
.

One of the pleasures of this project was simply that it allowed me to engage in long conversations with people while walking. Most of my fellow walkers were complete strangers, yet for some reason were willing to spend a few hours with me wandering along city streets in sometimes less than ideal weather. It was surprising that they were. A few even took trains long distances to do so. I am extraordinarily grateful: why did they do it? I’ll never know, but I’m tickled and in their debt. Many thanks to all the people with whom I walked, only some of whom are represented in these pages: Adrian Benepe, Bill Buchen, Andrew Dolkart, Charley Eiseman, Arlene Gordon, John Hadidian, Sidney Horenstein, Jonathan Jezequel, Maira Kalman, Fred Kent, Ellen Langer, Terry Leto, Bill Logan, Bennett Lorber, Benjamin Miller, Helen Mirra, Bill Oldham, Catryna and Whitney North Seymour, Paul Shaw, Fiona Shea, Ogden Horowitz Shea, Eliza Slavet, and Mark Woods (whose very approach to the city was partial inspiration for this book, and with whom I would walk anywhere). I am especially grateful to Maira Kalman for sharing with me not only on foot, but also through her fabulous illustrations, what she saw on the street.

I do not only thank, but also tickle the ears of Finnegan, Pumpernickel, and now Upton, for taking me walking around the block three times a day for thousands upon thousands of days.

Colin Harrison can date an antique map from twenty paces. He observes people in restaurants, on trains, on the street, and notes their mannerisms and when they cough. He has theories about the gummed spots on sidewalks. In other words, he is, clearly, the perfect reader of this book; how fortunate for me that he is also my editor. My only regret about the book’s completion is that we will not get to have three-hour-long conversations about it with regularity. I am ever appreciative. Thanks, too, to everyone at Scribner for following me down this block, especially Nan Graham, Susan Moldow, Roz Lippel, Kate Lloyd, Kelsey Smith, Jason Heuer, Lauren Lavelle, and Brian Belfiglio.

I am always happy to say that my agent is Kris Dahl. I am thankful for her wisdom, the utter lack of nonsense in her manner, and her boosterism. She and Laura Neely manage to be supportive while also getting me to change my course in a way that will make a book better.

Even before the walking began in earnest, many people contributed ideas or inspiration, including Alison Curry, John Herrold, Daniel Hurewitz, Oliver Sacks, Andy Tuck, Abraham Verghese, Catherine Wing, and especially my parents Elizabeth Hardin and Jay Horowitz, and my brother, Damon. My parents are often my first and best readers. My brother can kill a bad idea with an eyebrow-raise, but will kick and punch and help promote a good idea to the moon. Thanks for every one of them.

Ammon Shea is a great walker. Walking is pleasurable to me in the way that breathing is: it is a part of life, and at moments I especially savor it. Walking with Ammon can’t be beat. Sitting, he helped me snag slippery facts and turn a good phrase. I wrote this book with Ammon in mind, as I do most things. I goggle, bemused, at his picklesomeness. Much thanks, for all.

© VEGAR ABELSNES

Alexandra Horowitz is the author of the bestselling
Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know.
She teaches psychology, animal behavior, and canine cognition at Barnard College, Columbia University. In New York City, Alexandra walks with her husband, the writer Ammon Shea; her son; and two large, non-heeling dogs.