Sound and Scent in the Garden

Dumbarton Oaks Colloquia on the History of Landscape Architecture #38

by D. Fairchild Ruggles (Editor)

While we often approach gardens as things to be seen―thus engaging the rational, intellectual part of the human brain― Sound and Scent in the Garden explores the more elusive experiences of sound and smell. These senses are important dimensions of garden design and performance and often have a powerful effect on the human body, yet they may also be ephemeral and difficult to study.

The contributors to the volume explore the sensory experience of gardens specifically as places where people encounter landscape in a staged manner, as a result of intentional design. How do the senses shape the experience of those places? In what ways are plants, gardens, and landscapes produced so as to stimulate the senses? What evidence do we have of historical sensory experiences? What is lost when we forget to acknowledge the sensory environment of the past or simply overlook its traces?

The volume demonstrates a wide variety of approaches to apply to the study of sensory history and illuminates this important dimension of the experience of gardens―past and present, East and West.

362 pages, Hardcover

Published March 20, 2017