WHERE AM I?

How do you get from here to there? Where is there? Psychologist Colin Ellard demonstrates that navigating through space is both complex and utterly fascinating. Beginning with the neurological and muscular coordination involved in the simple act of reaching for an object, he then investigates our interaction with space -- how near and distant landmarks, for example, are used differently in navigation. From the complex behaviour of insects to the epic journeys of sea turtles, from the subtle knowledge of the environment demonstrated by such famed navigators as the Inuit and South Pacific sailors to the conceptual worlds of cyberspace, Where Am I? reveals just how deeply our unique relationship with space defines what it means to be human.

But Ellard also takes his argument a step further to show that the uniquely human ability to visualize and partition space has led to an increasing disconnection from the natural world. Architects and city planners, he suggests, need to consider human behaviour when constructing human environments, and we all need to recognize that we are part of, not isolated from, the space around us. Where Am I? is an absorbing, compulsively readable study of the power of space in our lives.