Walking as a Research Method in Art & Design

WALKING: A RESEARCH METHOD IN ART AND DESIGN

PUBLISHED BY KABK LECTORATE DESIGN

CONTENTS / KEYWORDS A Affect 170, 171 Agriculture 34 Algorithms 120 Alone 128, 176 Animals 90 Anthropocene 14, 15, 16, 17, 34 Architecture 95, 120, 200 Archive 16 Assignment 58, 214 Atmosphere 165 Awareness 35 B Behaviour 120 Body 14, 16, 19, 59, 120, 188, 200, 208 Bog 126, 127, 128 Borders 58, 63, 90, 93, 95

C Ceremony 143 Chair 150, 151 Challenge 213 City 76, 78, 79, 143, 145, 150, 151, 156, 214 Climate change 15 Climate crisis 14, 15, 16 Collecting 150 Colonialism 164 Community 128 Compass 106 Continuity 95 Creativity 194, 195 Creek 46, 47, 62 Crowd 120 Curating 14, 17

E Earth 127, 128, 188 Embodied research 13, 14, 16 Engaging 9, 14, 16, 19, 164 Environment 14, 34, 46, 143, 144, 164 Expedition 142 Experiencing 135, 164, 169 Exploring 34, 63, 127

D Data 150, 165 Dental floss 145 Describing 170 Dinner 17, 106, 107, 108 Direction 92, 94, 164, 200 Discovery 62 Distance 103, 142, 145, 200 Distilling 142 Drawing 8, 63, 200

G Global South 15, 164

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F Field 58, 63, 164 Footprint 157 Forest 90, 208

H Heritage 127 Hill 108 History 128, 142 I Imagemaking 120 Inhabitants 151 Intervention 46 Interviewing 93 Investigating 170, 200

J Journal 106 L Land 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 103 Landscape 14, 34, 35, 156, 188, 238, 240 Listening 164, 165 Lonely 164 Loop 156, 157 Lynx 92 M Mapping 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 92, 93, 94, 95 Marathon 143, 144 Material 150 Memory 127, 127, 128 Migrating 164 Minutiae 164 Mountain 91, 92, 95 Movement 120, 200 N Narrative 150 Notes 144, 214 Noticing 34, 93 O Observing 47, 176 Obstacle 200, 240 Occupation 156 Outputs 18, 19

P Pace 156, 159, 194, 200 Parameter 77, 78, 79, 150, 238 Participants 14, 17, 18, 77, 78, 80 Path 92, 93, 170 People 46, 58, 59, 60, 62, 90, 91, 95, 176 Performing 208 Philosophy 194 Photography 20, 34, 35, 214 Planetary 15 Playfulness 15 Practice 126, 127, 128, 170 Private space 76, 77 Psychogeography 150, 164 Public space 46, 58, 60, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 90, 91, 92, 120, 200

S Senses 14, 19, 188 Shelter 108, 109 Shoes 156, 188 Silence 77 Sounds 164 Space 188, 194 Speculating 145 Stranger 151 Street 214 Students 63, 195, 208, 238

R Rambling 102, 106, 107, 109 Refuge 91, 92, 93 Rhythm 159, 194 Route 150, 188, 200 Rucksack 106 Rules 214

W Waders 60 Water 20, 46, 47, 59, 60, 61, 79 Weather 18 Workshop 62, 77, 79 Writing 126, 127, 128, 142, 143, 150, 151, 159, 208

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T Talking 35 Techniques 194 Therapeutic 176 Thinking 156, 159, 176, 194 Tools 61, 208 Transport 188 Trespassing 59, 102, 106, 150, 151

IT SEEMS POSSIBLE TO GIVE A PRELIMINARY DEFINITION OF WALKING AS A SPACE OF ENUNCIATION… MICHEL DE CERTEAU (1925 – 1986), PHILOSOPHER

De Certeau, Michel. 1984. The Practice of Everyday Life. Tr. Steven Randall.

Berkeley: University of California Press.

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INTRODUCTION

KABK ART AND DESIGN RESEARCH PRACTICES With this initiative, we aim to identify and share a range of research methods practiced at the Royal Academy of Art (KABK), The Hague that use the tools, approaches, and capacities of art and design to create and surface new knowledge. These include digital methods, prototyping, mapping, probing, drawing, archiving, and sensing.

Each featured research method is unpacked in various ways; via a studio video interview with practitioner-tutors; an exhibition in the KABINETS display space; a lecture, conversation or demonstration of the method; a printed publication containing Q & As, essays, and contributions by KABK students, tutors, and researchers; and an online platform for information exchange.

Our focus has been on revealing the particular interpretations of the method found within the extended KABK learning community. The program is also meant to provide inspiration and departure points, or prompts, for anyone interested in how research is conducted in and through the practices of art and design.

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WALKING AS A RESEARCH METHOD IN ART AND DESIGN Already a familiar and well-theorized qualitative research methodology in the social sciences, especially geography, in recent years the act of walking has been adopted and adapted by those engaging in research in and through the arts. Here at KABK, many tutors and students engage with walking in their research practice, both as a way to explore their inner, mental landscapes and also to observe, or immerse themselves in the social and physical aspects of their surroundings, be they urban, rural, digital or imagined, or those indeterminate spaces in between.

Whether they wander, stroll, dĂŠrive, crusade, trespass, or consciously follow the coordinates of a map; whether they bring with them a camera, audio recorder, facial recognition software, pen and paper, or nothing at all; walking can provide designers and artists with ways to think and make in solitude, to talk and exchange with others, or to simply co-exist with non-human companions.

Walking means being present, bearing witness and putting one’s body into the research process and into the world. It can result in blisters, getting wet or thirsty, feeling exhilarated, bored or exhausted. But, after all these, it can mean becoming connected to something greater at a deep rhythmic human level. It can cause us to question our habitual selves and familiar surroundings on a profound level, and also to engage with and address more desperate planetary issues such as forced migration and environmental degradation, an approach which ultimately should provide the measure and beat for all our reflection and research practices.

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WHEN DID OUR WALK BEGIN? WHEN WILL IT EVER END? TIM INGOLD AND JO LEE VERGUNST, ANTHROPOLOGISTS

Ingold, Tim, and Jo Lee Vergunst. 2008. Introduction.

Ways of Walking: Ethnography and Practice on Foot. Aldershot: Ashgate.

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KEYWORDS ANTHROPOCENE ARCHIVE BODY CLIMATE CHANGE COLONIALISM CRISIS CURATION DINNER EMBODIED RESEARCH

GLOBAL SOUTH LANDSCAPE PARTICIPANTS PLANETARY PLAYFULNESS OUTPUTS SENSES WEATHER

AN ANTHROPOCENE JOURNEY: WALKING AS EMBODIED RESEARCH CHRISTIAN ERNSTEN, NICK SHEPHERD AND DIRK-JAN VISSER

In 2015 Nick Shepherd, Christian Ernsten and Dirk-Jan Visser held their first Walking Seminar as an impromptu event on Table Mountain in South Africa. The project has grown significantly since then and spread to Berlin and the Netherlands, but the motivation remains the same: to bring together scholars, activists, curators and practitioners for a short period of time to walk, talk and share ideas and work in what the organizers refer to as ‘an emergent Anthropocene landscape’.

ANNA TSING

‘WALKING IS THE SPEED FOR NOTICING – AND FOR THINKING’.

Each seminar takes the form of a walk with a group of invited participants in a particular environment. At the core of the seminars is the practice and craft of walking, both as a form of embodied research and as a way of engaging with the new and emergent landscapes of the Anthropocene. We have an interest in the notions of body as archive, landscape as archive, performance as archive and also in what it means to think through the body and its senses. Paying attention to the materiality of sites and remains, we are interested in the layering of memory and experience as palimpsest and as stratigraphy.

Conceptually speaking, the walking seminars are intimately linked to the Anthropocene. The climate crisis gives us a strong mandate to pursue innovative transdisciplinary research methods and to break with conventional distinctions between culture and nature, mind and body, intellect and imagination.

In his essay ‘The Climate of History’, the postcolonial historian Dipesh Chakrabarty makes a startling admission:

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AS THE CRISIS GATHERED MOMENTUM IN THE LAST FEW YEARS, I REALIZED THAT ALL MY READINGS IN THEORIES OF GLOBALIZATION, MARXIST ANALYSIS OF CAPITAL, SUBALTERN STUDIES, AND POSTCOLONIAL CRITICISM OVER THE LAST TWENTY-FIVE YEARS, WHILE ENORMOUSLY USEFUL IN STUDYING GLOBALIZATION, HAD NOT REALLY PREPARED ME FOR MAKING SENSE OF THIS PLANETARY CONJUNCTURE IN WHICH HUMANITY FINDS ITSELF TODAY. THE DISCONCERTING FACT OF THE ANTHROPOCENE IS THAT WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER, BUT SOME ARE MORE ‘IN IT’ THAN OTHERS. It is likely that poorer and more marginalized individuals and communities in the Global South will bear a disproportionately large share of the burden of climate change.

The Anthropocene threatens to recapitulate the planetary injustices of colonialism and imperialism. It becomes vital to link the discourse around global environmental change to the discourse around social and economic justice, just as it becomes vital to locate the roots of the contemporary situation – which, after all, is the crisis of a certain kind of modernity and globalization – in historical processes of racism, colonialism, and imperialism. Colonialism was not just about the conquest of people and territories; it was also about the conquest of the natural worlds, opened up by a strategy of geographical exploration and colonial conquest.

An ironic contradiction between content and form characterizes much of the discourse around the Anthropocene; the radical implications of climate change are discussed using familiar and tired old formats such as jetting around the world to conferences and workshops, sitting in hotels and convention centres, setting up talk-shops that explore ideas at arm’s length.

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To situate oneself in the Anthropocene is to write from the midst of a crisis. The nature of this crisis demands bold and unconventional responses, including from scholars and creative practitioners.

FOR US, WALKING PROVIDES A WAY TO APPROACH THE CHALLENGES OF EMBODIED RESEARCH IN THE ANTHROPOCENE. Rebecca Solnit has noted ‘walking’s peculiar utility for thinkers’. She writes: WALKING ITSELF IS THE INTENTIONAL ACT CLOSEST TO THE UNWILLED RHYTHMS OF THE BODY, TO BREATHING AND THE BEATING OF THE HEART. IT STRIKES A DELICATE BALANCE BETWEEN WORKING AND IDLING, BEING AND DOING. IT IS A BODILY LABOR THAT PRODUCES NOTHING BUT THOUGHTS, EXPERIENCES, ARRIVALS [...] WALKING, IDEALLY, IS A STATE IN WHICH THE MIND, THE BODY, AND THE WORLD ARE ALIGNED, AS THOUGH THEY WERE THREE CHARACTERS FINALLY IN CONVERSATION TOGETHER, THREE NOTES MAKING A CHORD. WALKING ALLOWS US TO BE IN OUR BODIES AND IN THE WORLD WITHOUT BEING MADE BUSY

BY THEM. IT LEAVES US FREE TO THINK WITHOUT BEING WHOLLY LOST IN OUR THOUGHTS. We like the fact that walking involves physical effort, and that it provokes curiosity. For us, THERE IS SOMETHING RESPECTFUL ABOUT WALKING AS A WAY OF ENGAGING LANDSCAPES AND SOCIALITIES, SOMETHING EFFORTFUL AND UP-CLOSE – very different from the kind of god’s-eye perspective of conventional modes of scholarship, which the Colombian philosopher Santiago Castro-Gomez has referred to as the ‘hubris of the zero-point’. Walking discourages this kind 16

of hubris, placing you firmly in a particular place and time, halfway up a mountain with 10 kilometres to go before dinner.

One of the intentions of the walking seminars is to flatten out the hierarchies between theory and practice, and between scholarly and creative practices. We favour hybrid collab­ orations involving, for example, an architect, a philosopher and a choreographer, in thinking about the micro-politics of collecting water from a particular city spring. We also favour a model of quick publication, whereby work is produced in multiple formats inside and outside the formal academic apparatus. We have tried various formulations in thinking about the work (or craft) of putting together a walking seminar.

We ‘stage’ or ‘curate’ these occasions, which feel like a kind of intervention, and performative in a relaxed and unselfcon­ scious way. Through time, we have developed certain practices and protocols, a kind of ‘how to’ of walking seminars. We invite participants with the theme in mind, and share literature and reading lists. We also invite a range of experts in their fields to drop in and tell us about their particular research, activism, or passion. Some of our protocols speak to group dynamics and relationships. As conveners or curators we work hard to create a framework for each walking seminar, inviting interesting participants and putting in place the logistics – warm beds, good food, viable routes. But beyond that we tend to leave things alone to allow for the group to find its own logic and way of working. The group is its own resource, with each individual bringing amazing subject knowledges, rich bodies of experience and incredible skills. It becomes important to open the spaces and occasions that allow these to be shared. Another guiding idea is that the walking seminars are co-curated by all the participants, meaning that everyone shares responsibility for the outcome. Often these outcomes 17

are subtle and difficult to define: a change in affect, or a deep change in feeling about a topic.

Creating flat hierarchies among scholars, creative artists and activists sometimes means working against established modes of engagement. We have experimented with banning theory (which often becomes a self-conscious performance of a certain kind of expertise: name-dropping, or using the five or ten keywords currently in vogue). We have also experimented with navigating without maps, with only a hazy idea of the road ahead. OFTEN THE WEATHER IS UNPREDICTABLE: HIGH WINDS, HARSH SUN, SUDDEN STORMS. FEELING LOST, IMPROVISING, MAKING A PLAN: ALL OF THIS FEELS LIKE GOOD TRAINING AS WE JOURNEY DEEPER INTO THE ANTHROPOCENE. Often the seminars become playful as choreographers improvise movement exercises within the group, photographers play with different exposures, and scholars turn to poetry. In fact, thinking about the relationship between seriousness and playfulness, and about the uses of playfulness as a resource through which to approach serious topics, becomes a conceptual point of departure. FOCUSING ON METHODOLOGY IS AN UNEXPECTEDLY RICH WAY OF COLLABORATING ACROSS DISCIPLINES. We love learning new ways of working.

Sometimes our starting instruction to the group is: ‘Tell us how you would make sense of this issue or phenomenon, working from your own discipline or practice. Teach us how you work’.

We are often asked, especially by funders: What are the outputs and outcomes of the walking seminars? We ask participants to make a commitment to collaborate and to produce work in multiple formats. So, at one level, the outputs can be measured in standard-format academic articles, photographic 18

essays, creative nonfiction, poetry, musical compositions, project proposals, performance proposals and scripts, collab­ orative grant applications, work published for the media, public talks and lectures, conference presentations, and so on. At another level, though, the outcomes are more subtle and difficult to calibrate, and possibly more transformative.

Bringing people together for a week in an environment of shared challenge, thoughtfulness, and creativity creates a hothouse atmosphere that can generate new ideas, new perspectives, new collaborations. Engaging the body, the senses, and affect aligns ideas with deep feelings and profound commitments. As anthropologist Anna Tsing has remarked, ‘The Walking Seminar suggests just how much we need walking to imagine alternatives to the intertwined human and nonhuman catastrophes of the Anthropocene’.

This essay is an adaptation of the introduction of Shepherd, Nick, Christian Ernsten, and Dirk-Jan Visser. 2019. The Walking Seminar: Embodied Research in Emergent Anthropocene Landscapes. Amsterdam: ON AIR Press.

REFERENCES Shepherd, Nick and Christiaan Ernsten. 2016. ‘Reasoning, Emotioning, Dreaming: Introduction to the 2015 Cape Town Curatorial Residency’. Postamble 10 ( 1 ): 1 – 6.

Chakrabarty, Dipesh. 2009.

‘The Climate of History: Four Theses’.

Critical Inquiry 35: 197 – 222.

Mignolo, Walter. 2013. ‘Geopolitics of Sensing and Knowing: On (De)coloniality, Border Thinking, and Epistemic Disobedience’.

Confero: Essays on Education, Philosophy and Politics. 1 ( 1 ): 129 – 150.

Solnit, Rebecca. 2000. Wanderlust: A History of Walking. New York: Penguin.

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WATER WALKS While walking you get thirsty. The rain can make you cold.

Rivers, seas and lakes determine your route. The canals, dams, pumps and tubes that you encounter are linked to lived worlds.

Water and walks are intrinsically connected. Water serves biodiversity and cultural diversity, a central part of human and animal environments. Water creates and takes land.

Taken during walking seminars, these photographs by Dirk-Jan Visser visualize the role of water in diverse landscapes – in South Africa, along the Geul river in Limburg, and in North Groningen.

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Dirk-Jan Visser, Water canalisation system in the Cederberg, Water Walks, May 2019.

Dirk-Jan Visser, The Klitserbeek stream near Epen, Water Walks, July 2020.

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Dirk-Jan Visser, Salt marsh streams in the Waddensea, Water Walks, September 2019.

Dirk-Jan Visser, A dried-up stream and burned fynbos fields, Water Walks, March 2018.

Dirk-Jan Visser, Nature conservation wetlands ‘t Roegwold, Water Walks, February 2020.

Dirk-Jan Visser, Water ditch at the pumping station Spijksterpompen in the Eems, Water Walks, December 2019.

Dirk-Jan Visser, Water distribution tubes in the Cederberg, Water Walks, May 2019.

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KEYWORDS AGRICULTURE ANTHROPOCENE AWARENESS DOCUMENTING

ENGAGING LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY TALKING

THE BALANCE OF A LANDSCAPE DIRK-JAN VISSER TUTOR, PHOTOGRAPHY BA, KABK AND MEMBER OF KABK RESEARCH GROUP 2020

The landscape seen from the front porch of my farmhouse in the Noordpolder is a 3500-hectare polder in the Dutch province of Groningen, located north of Pieterburen, Warffum and Usquert, bordering with the Waddenzee. The polder was created in 1811 after the construction of the Noorderdijk over the edge of the salt marsh and is primarily used for agriculture.

The former sea dyke, now called Middendijk still exists and lies like a green ribbon in an agricultural monoculture. My garden is bordering this former sea dyke, the Middendijk.

For the past ten years, as a part-time inhabitant here, I have experienced the earthquakes and record temperatures, the drought and the impoverishment of biodiversity that have affected this region. By exploring this changing landscape on foot, I learned to look at it in different ways. It became clear to me how vulnerable this below-sea-level landscape is, and how much there is at stake regarding its flora and fauna.

Australian philosopher Val Plumwood states: ‘there are two central tasks for the “ecological humanities”. One is to resituate the human within the environment, the second to resituate nonhumans within cultural and ethical domains’. This research wants to encourage deeper scrutiny of the impact of humans on the landscape and enhance discourse about humanity as part of a larger living system. By combining the practice of photography, and walking as research method, in combination with stakeholder analysis, it is hoped that the outcome of this research will be a model that can be used as a model to safeguard all interests – both human as well nonhuman – in different Anthropocene landscapes.

I use walking as a research method. Anthropologist Anna Tsing writes that ‘walking is the speed to notice and to think’.

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By experiencing a landscape on foot, all my senses are appealed to. I become aware of how my physical experience influences my aesthetic experience. More than a rational arrangement of the landscape based on a car ride, or on Google Maps, the rhythm of walking creates an awareness of the framework within which I interpret. Walking makes me aware of my relationship with the landscape. Sharing these perceptions, observations and experience with a fellow wanderer provides a different way of understanding and another kind of conver­ sation than you would have during a traditional interview setting, for example.

My walks take place along the same specific route on the Middendijk. I walk and talk with different stakeholders, representatives of the non-human world (birds, insects, animals, soil, water) and with individuals representing the position of the human parties (farmers, tourists, residents).

I take photographs during the walks and within this research I am experimenting with layering and collaging them to try to understand and map the interests of the different stakeholders and different perspectives such as time, place and themes.

Through this I hope to create a visual biography of the Noordpolder in which the stakeholder analysis will be visualized as evidence, as a remnant, but also as a window on the future.

REFERENCES Ernsten, C. and D. -J. Visser and M. Minkema. 2020. Voorland Groningen. Wandelingen door het antropoceen. (Rotterdam: nai010 Publishers).

Plumwood, Val. 2002. Environmental Culture: The Ecological Crisis of Reason (London & New York: Routledge).

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Dirk-Jan Visser, Birds, The Balance of a Landscape, 2020.

Dirk-Jan Visser, Farmer, The Balance of a Landscape, 2020.

Dirk-Jan Visser, Insects, The Balance of a Landscape, 2020.

THE RHYTHM OF WALKING GENERATES A KIND OF RHYTHM OF THINKING, AND THE PASSAGE THROUGH A LANDSCAPE ECHOES OR STIMULATES THE PASSAGE THROUGH A SERIES OF THOUGHTS.

THIS CREATES AN ODD CONSONANCE BETWEEN INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL PASSAGE, ONE THAT SUGGESTS THAT THE MIND IS ALSO A LANDSCAPE OF SORTS AND THAT WALKING IS ONE WAY TO TRAVERSE IT. REBECCA SOLNIT, WRITER, HISTORIAN, ACTIVIST

Solnit, Rebecca. 2000. Wanderlust: A History of Walking.

New York: Viking.

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KEYWORDS CREEK ENVIRONMENT DISCOVERY INTERVENTION OBSERVING

PEOPLE PUBLIC SPACE WADERS WATER

CREEK WALKS SAGA, 2 8 KRIJN CHRISTIAANSEN AND CATHELIJNE MONTENS TUTORS, FIELD RESEARCH, BA INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE AND FURNITURE DESIGN, KABK

Through their art and design practice KCCM (Krijn Christiaansen and Cathelijne Montens) explore the ways public spaces and landscapes are made, used, lived in, transformed and shaped by people. Their attention is directed not only to the physical forms of the environment, but also encompasses the stories, myths, habits and gestures that suffuse it. Christiaansen and Montens’ research and interventions have taken them beyond their native Netherlands to Serbia, Romania, Indonesia, Morocco and Japan.

In this speculative urban planning project in Saga City, Japan, KCCM sought to reactivate the city’s extensive system of ancient waterways and find points of entry and connection for local communities. They conducted 24 walks along the creeks, covering a cross-section of the city to generate a deeper understanding of the characteristics and uses of the creek network. They waded through water, videoing their progress from a frog’s-eye-perspective, excavating debris from the creek beds and making rubbings and taking photographs of structures on the creek banks. In this way, they collected a broad range of images, impressions, objects, memories and stories, which resulted in photographs, texts, performative interventions and proposals for future use of the creeks.

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NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS NEAR THE TAFUSE RIVER, THE CREEK STILL HAS A RATHER NATURAL FLOW, LEAVING MORE SPACE FOR VEGETATION DEPTH 50 CM, SANDY BED AND STRONG CURRENT TOWARDS THE STATION, ROADS FOLLOW THE CREEKS AND THE HOUSES TURN THEIR BACK TO THE RIVER. DEPTH 50 CM, SANDY BED AND NORMAL CURRENT IN THE VICINITY OF SHRINES AND TEMPLES, THE CREEKS ARE WIDER. IS THIS THE ORIGINAL WIDTH AND ARE THE OTHER STRETCHES NARROWER DUE TO PRIVATISATION? DEPTH 75 CM, MUDDY BED AND LOW CURRENT THE STATION AREA IS COVERED IN CONCRETE AND ASPHALT. THERE IS NO PLACE FOR NATURAL RAINWATER ABSORPTION THROUGH PARKS OR OTHER GREENERY. DEPTH 75 CM, SANDY/STONY BED AND NORMAL CURRENT THE WATER RESERVOIR FOR THE FORMER TEXTILE FACTORY IS VERY DEEP. THE QUAY LOOKS ORIGINAL. DEPTH 130 CM, MUDDY WATER RESERVOIR AND LOW CURRENT JUST A BLOCK FURTHER, A HUGE APARTMENT COMPLEX IS COMPLETELY DISCONNECTED FROM THE CREEKS. DEPTH 120 CM, SANDY/MUDDY BED AND LOW CURRENT THE CREEK RUNS PARALLEL TO THE NAGASAKI SUGAR ROAD. WHEN A SHRINE APPEARS, THERE IS AN ABUNDANCE OF GREEN. DEPTH 20 CM, SANDY BED AND NORMAL CURRENT 47

KCCM, Conversation with a visitor of the Holland House gallery about objects found in the creek, Saga Creek Walks, 2018.

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KCCM, Appropriation of creek banks for private activities, Saga Creek Walks, 2018.

KCCM, Walking in the creeks, Saga Creek Walks, 2018.

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KCCM, Creek as a place for play, Saga Creek Walks, 2018.

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KCCM, Equipment used during the creek walks, Saga Creek Walks, 2018.

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KCCM, Sheep-shearing playground, made for shearing sheep during the annual sheep shearing festival, Paden Banen project, 2017.

KCCM, Sheep-shearing playground in use as a playground, Paden Banen project, 2017.

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KCCM, Bees building honeycomb and thus creating a wax model to cast the signposts, Paden Banen project, 2017.

KCCM, Signpost cast in aluminum for Paden Banen project, Paden Banen project, 2017.

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KEYWORDS ASSIGNMENT BODY BORDERS CREEK INTERVIEWING INTUITION

STUDENTS TOOLS TRESPASSING WADERS WATER WORKSHOP

WALKING AS A RESEARCH METHOD, Q & A WITH...

KRIJN CHRISTIAANSEN AND CATHELIJNE MONTENS TUTORS, FIELD RESEARCH, BA INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE AND FURNITURE DESIGN, KABK

ALICE TWEMLOW

How do you use research in your design work?

CATHELIJNE MONTENS

We always start a project by doing research, which allows us to position ourselves in relation to the question that is being asked in an assignment. To question the question! This usually means going out in the field, encountering people, making models. In this way we start to better understand what our commissioning client is asking us, or not asking us. In that sense we need research to find our own starting point.

We have just finished a project in a nature reserve in the south of the Netherlands. Our clients asked us to create gates to emphasise that they were entering the area. We were wondering whether that should be the way to go, so we walked there and encountered people that were already professionally using this area, like shepherds and beekeepers, and through them we found other ways to create entrances to the area that weren’t as literal as a gate. That’s an example of how we use research to reformulate the question that is being asked to us.

ALICE TWEMLOW

Why and how do you use walking as a research method?

CATHELIJNE MONTENS

I THINK WALKING IS BY FAR THE MOST IMPORTANT METHOD WE USE. We often come up with a plan or strategy of how, or where, to walk in a certain area. Our work is related to public space and to landscapes and so to explore a new area, we often try to find the border by walking it.

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KRIJN CHRISTIAANSEN

Sometimes we don’t take roads in consideration. That’s the nice thing about walking, you can create your own path and also trespass. By trespassing we encounter people and find out things about the area or about property or ownership of space that we wouldn’t do otherwise.

ALICE TWEMLOW

So that’s some of the things that walking offers as a method – chance encounters and new perspectives on the landscape that you are so interested in. What other things does it offer you as designers?

CATHELIJNE MONTENS

It offers a different pace and rhythm. When you walk you can decide when and where to stop and how long to stop for.

We also need to relate to the area of our research in a physical way; we literally put our bodies in that area – OUR BODIES BECOME OUR RESEARCH METHOD. ALICE TWEMLOW

Tell me more about how you used walking as part of your research process for your project in Saga, Japan.

CATHELIJNE MONTENS

Saga is the capital city of a prefecture in the South of Japan where there is a very big network of waterways built to divert water from the river that runs from the mountains to the Ariake sea. It was developed as an irrigation system and used as a transportation system. Inhabitants used the water for their kitchens and gardens. When roads were constructed in the city the waterways were no longer needed for transport and often became completely hidden under roads and bridges.

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We wanted to see if we could literally enter those waterways, to rediscover them by foot, and see the city from their perspective.

ALICE TWEMLOW

What was it like to use walking as a method in Saga?

KRIJN CHRISTIAANSEN

IT WAS 40 DEGREES AND WE WERE WEARING WADERS SO IT WAS VERY WARM! The staff of Holland House, who invited us for the project, were a bit nervous about the reactions of the locals and really wanted to respect everyone’s privacy.

In the Netherlands the waterways are more public, they are government owned and maintained, often bordered by footpaths and we even pay taxes for our water system.

Although the waterways in Saga are also government owned, the people that live next to them maintain the quay walls.

So, for them it felt a bit like we were walking in their gardens.

CATHELIJNE MONTENS

We didn’t encounter that many people, actually. A few times a dog came to see what we were doing but there were not so many people.

ALICE TWEMLOW

Sort of undiscovered space in the city...

CATHELIJNE MONTENS

That’s what it felt like.

ALICE TWEMLOW

Did you take any equipment with you when you were walking?

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CATHELIJNE MONTENS

We wanted to document what we saw. We bought a traditional Japanese wooden washing bucket, installed an action camera in it and then placed it on the surface of water ahead of us, so it filmed what we were facing.

ALICE TWEMLOW

Almost like looking at the city from a frog’s eye view?

CATHELIJNE MONTENS

Yes, exactly. In fact, there is a mythical creature called ‘Kappa’ who is a sort of water creature used as a mascot of Saga, it takes an important place in the city. So it’s actually a Kappa’s eye view.

KRIJN CHRISTIAANSEN

We also carried bags with us to collect things we found. It was mainly garbage such as packages of facial cream and natural objects like plants or dragonflies but also, since there is a porcelain industry close to the city, some quite rare and old shards of ceramics.

ALICE TWEMLOW

Were you looking for particular things when you set out?

CATHELIJNE MONTENS

We started out intuitively but became more focused on looking for particular objects after we discovered that found objects were a good tool to initiate conversations about the waterways.

KRIJN CHRISTIAANSEN

OUR BEST FIND WAS A POPULAR ACTION FIGURE FROM THE 80’S, it’s a collector’s item now. Through conversations 61

with locals we found out this toy was probably left in the creek in the 80’s. Back then, they were still quite clean and used as playgrounds. It reminded people about how they used to go to the creeks to catch dragonflies.

ALICE TWEMLOW

Did this discovery result in any project outcomes?

CATHELIJNE MONTENS

Yes. We were neighbours of an organisation that offered daytime activities for children, so we collaborated with them to see if people could re-learn to play in the creeks again. We did a workshop with the children to build toy sailing ships, which we then took sailing on the creeks.

ALICE TWEMLOW

What were the ships made from?

CATHELIJNE MONTENS

You never know where these things end up so we didn’t want to work with any plastics. For the boats we used very thin wood veneer (the kind that’s used for food packaging, especially octopus balls, which Japanese people eat at the fair like we eat French fries) which we waterproofed with beeswax, and the sails were made out of Japanese rice paper, which they use for sliding doors and screens.

ALICE TWEMLOW

Do you use walking as a method for teaching research to students at the KABK?

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KRIJN CHRISTIAANSEN

Yes, in our course called Field Research we introduce students to different research methods so they can find out which ones work best for them. Maybe someone likes to walk; and some­ body else likes drawing. I think it’s important to develop your own research method. We collaborate with Ernie Mellegers, who is a theory teacher, and oversees the more theoretical research, and we guide the empirical research.

CATHELIJNE MONTENS

At the moment we are doing a field research course about gardens. The first given exercise was to walk around the garden to define the border between garden and surrounding space.

Last year one of our graduate students did a project about Westduinpark. She went there to walk, exploring the variety of species and plants that are growing there. This formed the core of her project and material to work with and is a nice example of how walking was a part of the development of the project.

PROMPT THE PACE OF WALKING IS SLOW. IT MAKES YOU LONG FOR NEW HORIZONS. BUT IT TAKES TIME BEFORE YOU REACH THE HORIZON. SO, YOU START OBSERVING, IN ORDER NOT TO GET BORED.

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Still from video interview with KCCM at their studio in Noordwijkerhout, the Netherlands, 2019.

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Video still showing the daily walking routes in Saga, Japan, 2019.

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Video still displaying a selection of objects found in the creeks, 2019.

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Miniature sailing ship kit by KCCM for a workshop with school children, 2019.

Alice Twemlow conducting the video interview, 2019.

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Krijn Christiaansen and Cathelijne Montens in conversation with Alice Twemlow, 2019.

Cathelijne Montens showing a rubbing from a quay wall in Saga, Japan, 2019.

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TWO OR THREE HOURS’ WALKING WILL CARRY ME TO AS STRANGE A COUNTRY AS I EXPECT EVER TO SEE. A SINGLE FARMHOUSE WHICH I HAD NOT SEEN BEFORE IS SOMETIMES AS GOOD AS THE DOMINIONS OF THE KING OF DAHOMEY.

THERE IS IN FACT A SORT OF HARMONY DISCOVERABLE BETWEEN THE CAPABILITIES OF THE LANDSCAPE WITHIN A CIRCLE OF TEN MILES’ RADIUS, OR THE LIMITS OF AN AFTERNOON WALK, AND THE THREESCORE YEARS AND TEN OF HUMAN LIFE. IT WILL NEVER BECOME QUITE FAMILIAR TO YOU. HENRY DAVID THOREAU (1817 – 1862), ESSAYIST, POET, PHILOSOPHER

Thoreau, Henry David. 1862. ‘Walking’, The Atlantic.

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KEYWORDS CITY DRAWING MAPPING PARAMETERS PARTICIPANTS

PRIVATE SPACE PUBLIC SPACE RADICAL SILENCE WORKSHOP

SEARCHING FOR PUBLICNESS: ABOUT INVENTORY WALKS AND DOT MAPS WIM CUYVERS FORESTIER, FORMER ARCHITECT, AND EDUCATOR

WIM CUYVERS IS AN ARCHITECT, EDUCATOR, AND WRITER, WITH A PARTICULAR INTEREST IN INFORMAL PUBLIC SPACE. HE HAS BEEN TEACHING WALKING SINCE 1995 BY TAKING ART AND DESIGN STUDENTS (INCLUDING KRIJN CHRISTIAANSEN) FROM SCHOOLS SUCH AS DESIGN ACADEMY EINDHOVEN AND ECOLE NATIONALE SUPERIEURE D’ARCHITECTURE DE PARIS-MALAQUAIS TO CITIES SUCH AS SARAJEVO, BELGRADE, TIRANA, KINSHASA, BRAZZAVILLE, RIO DE JANEIRO, AND ATHENS. SINCE 2009 HE HAS WORKED AS A FORESTIER AT LE MONTAVOIES IN THE FRENCH JURA. IN THIS ESSAY, HE REFLECTS ON HIS APPROACH TO TEACHING, WALKING, AND GAINING UNDERSTANDING OF, AND RESPECT FOR, WHAT HE CALLS ‘SPACES WITH A HIGH DEGREE OF PUBLICNESS’.

Pure public space and pure private space do not exist. We cannot even hope that we might be able to imagine, to invent or to design them. What I’m searching for, then, are spaces with a high degree of publicness. These are also the best spaces for education. At least as long as we can accept education as a time of exception, beyond economic concerns and professional or vocational training.

The only preparation for an exploration of public space in a city is to search for an ‘underlying map’. Be aware of the limitations of each map before you choose the one that will serve. What is included and what is excluded by the map? For example: very often city maps are conceived for tourists, and exclude big parts of the city where there are no commercial tourist attractions.

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Divide the underlying map in equal parts. You could fold the map the same number of times as there are participants in the workshop: each participant will have to walk all streets of the part of the map that he or she gets. For a bigger area it can be useful to divide the map in parts by tracing lines, for example lines from north to south, or radial lines from the centre to the outside of the map. The participants in the workshop should walk as close as possible to these lines.

Ask the participants as they walk to make an inventory of the occurrence of certain predefined elements (parameters or indicators). There are two kinds of parameters: those that indicate space with a high degree of publicness and those that indicate control and extreme privateness. A few examples of the first case are: homeless people (might be differentiated by places where they beg and places where they sleep), informal trade, outside cash machines, graffiti, prostitution, drug dealing, informal settlements, abandoned buildings, outside benches, informal sex meeting places, and informal garbage deposits. Some examples of the second type: control cameras, police cabins, and private guards.

Give numbers to the different parameters. Ask participants to draw in their notebooks little maps, fast and sketchy, small parts of the bigger map they have to walk.

Include moments where nobody speaks (that doesn’t necessarily mean moments of silence) in the program and the protocol.

As they see parameters during their walks they systematically write these down on the little sketch maps in their notebook (indicating them with a dot and a number). They can make little annotations so they will easily recognise them when 77

going through their notes, later on. Often it is better not to write things down immediately, but to only do so a few blocks further on, somewhere where you are alone, at ease.

The only thing you’re after with the walks, and the dot maps, is understanding of, and respect for, the publicness in space.

The intention is not to sneak up on people during actions of transgression. Traces are much more interesting for this kind of work than the actual people using these places. Traces are stepping stones toward publicness.

In the evening after the walks, participants copy their dots onto sheets of tracing paper which they layer over the underlying map.

The basic principle of the dot maps is that there is only one element, one parameter, recorded on each map with a dot.

One map might show where homeless people were seen, another map where informal settlements were seen and still another map for cash machines. There are no other references – no rivers, no roads, no important buildings, no lakes. But, of course, there’s always the underlying map that can give, if needed, some reference.

Very often participants will realise that they missed some parameters, which seem to be pertinent for the area that they’re working on. They will always feel frustrated about that; at the same time, it reveals something about the city or the area that they were working in.

When all the walks are done, when the collective map is ready, something strange happens: the city unfolds itself in front of the eyes of all the participants. Just like when you have iron 78

filings on a sheet of paper with a magnet under and concen­ trations or dispersions appear, these maps show us that some cities, mainly old, crystallized cities seem to expulse publicness in a centrifugal way, while new, urgently emerging cities often seem to concentrate publicness in a centripetal way. In cities after a trauma (war, civil war, abrupt change of political regime etc.) the brutal privatisation of space shows in a concave mirror the continuing reduction of publicness in space of western cities.

TO TAKE Daily walks: – small backpack – water bottle – walking shoes – raincoat – notebook – pencils – camera – umbrella

Whole workshop: – r oll of transparent polyester (waterproof and dimensionally stable) tracing paper – eraser – pencils – pencil sharpener – tape

NOT TO TAKE – mobile phone The kind of walking we do – where we inventory the parameters of publicness of a city – is hard to define. It’s very different from walking as a sport; it’s not hiking. Equally it is not the sauntering or ‘moving gently’ of a flaneur. It’s different from the walk that one might make in the middle of a working day, to get some fresh air. With rambling there’s usually the connotation of pleasure and it would not be true to say that the inventory 79

walks are for pleasure. I can’t even use the word ‘wandering’, although I like it more (probably because it’s so close to wondering, in the sense of questioning), but wandering is always done in a relaxed way, and I would lie if I would call these inventory walks relaxed. One cannot call it an expedition; what we do is way too banal. IT’S NOT A CRUSADE: THERE’S NOTHING TO CONQUER, NOTHING TO FIGHT AND THE PARTICIPANTS ARE NOT CONVINCED ABOUT ANY GOD. To err is closer in spirit. But, since the participants are asked to follow a line drawn on a map or are asked to walk all the streets of a map, it’s not about originality or creativity.

The American writer and philosopher of nature Henry David Thoreau believed that: ‘You must be born into the family of the Walkers. Ambulator nascitur, non fit’. I can’t believe that. Students don’t need a special and rare talent to be able to walk. On the contrary, walking is the perfect state in which to learn.

Inventory walks are reinforced confrontations with reality; a concentration of attention on the world, but also on oneself.

This kind of walking is a way to be in the present, without any project or any projection, which is what real studying is.

Probably the most important thing that can be ‘learned’ from this inventory work in these places is that you experience your own essential and existential need and that this can be found at any place with a high degree of publicness and that this experience builds up with each experience of a place with a high degree of publicness.

Thoreau also wrote: ‘You may go round the world, by the Old Marlborough Road’. And this I can believe.

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On the inventory walks, we’re looking for very ordinary things.

We’re not searching for entertainment, tourist attractions or distraction. THERE’S NO GOAL IN OUR WALKS, NOTHING TO DISCOVER. WE’RE JUST WALKING. FOR A LONG TIME. It’s essential that the walks be long. We look for the parameters, look at the map every once in a while, and write down what we see. In the end there’s this strange addictive mix of disgust and contentment (yes at the same time). I think that it’s insight.

During these walks the world unveils itself. You might think: ‘So, this way of walking is a method’. It’s definitely not that. What happens to you when you make these walks is completely out of control and there’s no guarantee at all. Walking around on rubbish dumps, shuffling along dusty roads is not profitable.

Real walking has, like real education, nothing to do with profit: it impacts.

Through reading the publicness in space, and by realizing that they are able to read the publicness in space, students get more and more convinced that they can speak through space, that right next to the world of buying and selling there are moments of true communication, communication through space (not through language).

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Example of an ‘underlying map’ used in a Inventory Walks Workshop, Bucharest, Wim Cuyvers and others, 2006.

Example of North-South guidelines used for an Inventory Walk in Bucharest, Wim Cuyvers and others, 2006.

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Example of a set of actual walked paths, Wim Cuyvers and others, 2006.

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Example of dot technique used in an Inventory Walks Workshop, to identify instances of the parameter ‘streetventures’ in public space, Wim Cuyvers and others, 2006.

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Example of dot technique used in an Inventory Walks Workshop, to identify instances of the parameter ‘guards’ in public space, Wim Cuyvers and others, 2006.

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KEYWORDS ANIMALS ARCHITECTURE BORDERS CONTINUITY FOREST INTERVIEWING LAND LYNX

MAPPING MOUNTAIN NOTICING PATH PEOPLE PUBLIC SPACE REFUGE

THE LAY OF THE LAND, Q & A WITH...

WIM CUYVERS FORESTIER, FORMER ARCHITECT, AND EDUCATOR

ALICE TWEMLOW

Tell me about being a forestier.

WIM CUYVERS

In 2007 I bought a large piece of forested land in a mountainous area about 50 kilometres from Geneva, very close to the small town of Saint-Claude, near the Swiss border. Soon after the purchase, I came across the profession of forestier which, from that moment on, was what I had to be.

ALICE TWEMLOW

What is the land like?

WIM CUYVERS

It’s 27 hectares of really quite wild forest. Part of it is mono­ cultural, trees which were replanted in areas that used to be open farmland. I’m reopening some of these areas to create a more differentiated ecological system. The two horses that I’m working with are helping to keep the land open. Animals prefer to live where open land and forest meet. Also, the views that appear once the land is opened encourage walkers to come.

People don’t like to walk for hours on end in a closed forest.

Particularly older people in the neighbourhood have told me how happy they are that I have re-opened up so much space.

ALICE TWEMLOW

So, even though the land is open to the public, you officially own this land, is that correct?

WIM CUYVERS

Yes. For a long time I’ve been concerned about public or semipublic aspects of space, so it seems like a ridiculous idea to buy land to create more space for the public. But since 90

the government was not taking care of public space, I felt that I should do something myself.

ALICE TWEMLOW

I see how this plays on your interests in the blurring of public and private spaces. Are there specifically designated areas for the public or is the entire land open to them?

WIM CUYVERS

Everybody is completely free to walk anywhere they like on the land. There are also two buildings, two old farmhouses. One of these farms I transformed into un refuge de passage gardé.

It’s a kind of shelter which is open to the public, where a gardien takes care of the space, and where someone can legally stay overnight. Although it’s government-approved, it’s the only ‘public-receiving building’ that is not accessible by French legislation. In other words, it’s public but not policed. I like that idea. The other structure is completely informal and open all year for anyone to walk in to, with a huge table and place for four people to sleep. But for me, the land is much more important than the refuge and the other ‘abandoned’ building: they really serve as models of how to think about the land.

ALICE TWEMLOW

It sounds like the land has taken on a sort of personality.

WIM CUYVERS

Yes. Part of the land is called Mont a Voix (the mountain with a voice) which I decided to use to rename the whole land.

For me this name meant that I didn’t have to speak anymore, as it is the mountain who speaks. Only years later I realized that there is another significance in French – as well as voix, it could also be voie or voies, meaning a small path or paths.

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This fits even better because then even the mountain becomes silent. The paths invite so much more than simply a voice.

And so I called the Refuge itself as ‘Le Montavoix’ (The Mountain with (a) Voice(s)), and the whole land as ‘Montavoies’ (Mountain with Paths).

I’m rediscovering paths that were used long time ago by the people that lived in the old farms. These paths disappeared when a bigger path was built, when the farms were abandoned, and pine trees were planted in the prairies. These paths are really quite old – some of them I can see on the Napoleonic cadastral map of 1812 – and so are really a part of the landscape.

Now walkers come and use this re-opened network of old paths very informally. There are no posted directions, but sometimes I give an invitation to walk in a particular direction. There is a really beautiful path I only discovered after ten years working on the land. When I first cleared it, it remained unused, but as soon as I made three small steps, people started to use it.

Also, this area has a high number of lynx, which are very rare.

You don’t often see them, and are more likely to see their footprints in the snow. They cover a lot of land, and shit at crossroads to use as a marker when they return. AFTER THREE DAYS OF MAKING THE SMALL STEPS AT THE BEGINNING OF THE PATHS, I FOUND A LYNX SHIT! This illustrates an aspect of what I am interested in about public space. It is precisely what is left of our animal-selves.

ALICE TWEMLOW

I love the idea of these paths being followed because of suggestions, or little indicators. How do you find out how people use the land? Do you talk to them in the Refuge or do you observe them, or what?

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WIM CUYVERS

When people stay overnight, of course we talk when we eat together. But we talk about things in general. I don’t trust the interview as a research method; content gets too directed by the interviewer. I also really never encouraged my students to interview people to find out what they think. I DON’T SET OUT TO OBSERVE LIKE A SCIENTIST, I JUST NOTICE THINGS. For example, I regularly find toilet paper by a pile of firewood I stacked at the side of a path. People will use it as a point to stop on their walk, to take a breath or two and go to the toilet.

On one hand it’s disgusting that they don’t want to go 200 meters further away from the path, but on the other hand it is also very natural. They do it there because they can be a bit out of sight – protected and comforted by this little human installation of firewood. It is precisely the un-natural, the ‘man-made’ quality of the pile of firewood that gives them confidence in a way.

ALICE TWEMLOW

I know that you had a mapping practice as an architect.

Are you interested in mapping your own land?

WIM CUYVERS

I have drawn maps of the land since the beginning. Although I had been working with maps for a long time before, it took me years to find the borders of the land. In the end it was very logical – I found that it’s often rifts and folds in the land that indicate the limits between properties. After eventually finding the border I started mapping, and now they are getting better all the time. But MAKING A MAP IS AN ONGOING PROCESS; I CAN’T IMAGINE BEING ABLE TO MAKE THE FINAL MAP. At the moment I’m working on a map where we measure 93

between each tree with a diameter of more than 30 centi­ metres, which will probably total about 27,000 trees. To be able to make this map I measure from tree to tree, so at the end all of these trees are connected by vectors (a quantity having direction as well as magnitude, especially as determining the position of one point in space relative to another). It’ll end up as a cloud of dots. From each of the 27,000 points you will have the altitude and its position and so you will be able to see every little valley and slope. There will be quite a lot of information, but from the beginning the map has no external references. You can’t see how it is oriented towards a city or where there is a big road. It just references the land itself.

ALICE TWEMLOW

Presumably you need to update it all the time as the trees grow?

WIM CUYVERS

Right. They’re growing but also falling down. It’s funny to have a map of a changing situation.

ALICE TWEMLOW

Do student groups come to visit the land?

WIM CUYVERS

Some come with their own teachers and already have an idea of what they want to do, but sometimes I lead the workshops.

For instance, a group of students came when we were still trying to find the land’s border. I asked them to try to search for it by walking. I asked them to continuously draw where they had been during the 10 days they were there. On the final day, we looked at all the maps that they had made. It was immediately clear that they had all just been moving in very

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small circles around the refuge building. They were all completely amazed by how little of the land they had walked!

ALICE TWEMLOW

What remains of the architect in your new role as a forestier?

Have you redefined yourself?

WIM CUYVERS

I don’t have an architect’s office anymore and I am not allowed to make a building or to ask for a building permit. Many people are curious about my dramatic life change. Of course working in an office all day is different from walking and working on the mountain, but there are still similarities. My way of thinking is exactly the same. To me there’s a continuity; so I don’t see it as a rupture. Everything I do is related to architecture. I consider the work that I’m doing on this land as pure architecture.

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Wim Cuyvers, map showing ‘Talwegs’ and ‘Lignes de Crête’: ‘Crest lines and Thalwegs’, Le Montavoies, 2019.

Wim Cuyvers, Map of the paths, Le Montavoix, 2017.

Wim Cuyvers, Paths, open areas, contour lines and buildings, Le Montavoix, 2019.

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Wim Cuyvers, Le Montavoix, 2019.

Wim Cuyvers, Le Montavoies and it’s environment, Le Montavoix, 2015.

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AT PRESENT, IN THIS VICINITY, THE BEST PART OF THE LAND IS NOT PRIVATE PROPERTY; THE LANDSCAPE IS NOT OWNED, AND THE WALKER ENJOYS COMPARATIVE FREEDOM. BUT POSSIBLY THE DAY WILL COME WHEN IT WILL BE PARTITIONED OFF INTO SO-CALLED PLEASUREGROUNDS, IN WHICH A FEW WILL TAKE A NARROW AND EXCLUSIVE PLEASURE ONLY – WHEN FENCES SHALL BE MULTIPLIED, AND MANTRAPS AND OTHER ENGINES INVENTED TO CONFINE MEN TO THE PUBLIC ROAD,

AND WALKING OVER THE SURFACE OF GOD’S EARTH SHALL BE CONSTRUED TO MEAN TRESPASSING ON SOME GENTLEMAN’S GROUNDS. TO ENJOY A THING EXCLUSIVELY IS COMMONLY TO EXCLUDE YOURSELF FROM THE TRUE ENJOYMENT OF IT. LET US IMPROVE OUR OPPOR­ TUNITIES, THEN, BEFORE THE EVIL DAYS COME. HENRY DAVID THOREAU (1817 – 1862), ESSAYIST, POET, PHILOSOPHER

Thoreau, Henry David. ‘Walking’, The Atlantic, 1862.

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KEYWORDS COMPASS HILL JOURNAL LAND

RAMBLING RUCKSACK SHELTER TRESPASSING

MASS TRESPASS ON KINDER SCOUT PEAK DISTRICT, UNITED KINGDOM ON APRIL 24, 1932

On April 24, 1932 there was a public mass trespass on Kinder Scout, the highest point in the Peak District. It was made by members of the Lancashire branch of the Communist-inspired British Workers’ Sport Federation who were increasingly frustrated by the lack of progress made by the official ramblers’ federations towards the Right to Roam.

About 400 ramblers set off from Bowden Bridge quarry and about halfway up William Clough, the trespassers scrambled up towards the Kinder Scout plateau and came face-to-face with the Duke of Devonshire’s gamekeepers.

In the ensuing scuffle, one keeper was slightly hurt, but the ramblers pressed on to the plateau where they were greeted by a group of Sheffield-based trespassers who had set off that same morning, crossing Kinder from Edale. After exchanging congratulations, the two groups joyously retraced their steps, the Sheffield trespassers back to Edale and the Manchester contingent to Hayfield.

Upon their return to the village, six of the ramblers were arrested and taken to the Hayfield Lock-up. They were charged at New Mills Police Court with unlawful assembly and breach of the peace.

All six subsequently pleaded not guilty and were remanded to be tried at Derby Assizes – 60 miles from the ramblers’ homes – in July 1932. Five of the six were found guilty and jailed for between two and six months.

The arrest and subsequent imprisonment of the trespassers unleashed a wave of public sympathy, which served to strengthen the ramblers’ cause, and ultimately led 102

to the establishment of the National Parks in 1949, the development of the Pennine Way and many other long distance footpaths, and to securing walkers’ rights over open country and common land in the C. R. O. W. Act of 2000.

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The Kinder Scout Mass Trespass Group, 1932.

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LESLIE WILLIAM HURLEY (1906 – 1983) Les Hurley worked in a Sheffield steel factory. He was a keen rambler and trespassed on Kinder Scout almost every weekend throughout the 1920s with members of his Sheffield rambling group, ‘The Bloodhound Club’. He participated in the Mass Trespass of 1932 when he was 25, along with his brother Lol who was 23. He campaigned actively for public access to the countryside until the end of his life.

EXTRACTS FROM HIS RAMBLING DIARY 1928 TUESDAY 18TH FEBRUARY

Bought New Burgon Norwegian Rucksack, a new compass & cord shorts.

Whitsuntide Party of six set off on the 2.30 pm bus for Bakewell.

From Bakewell we walked over the fields to Cover Haddon for an early tea there. Dropped down into Lathkilldale & up into Cale Dale and over Middleton Common to Hartington (change our clothes) put up for night at Devonshire Arms.

After breakfast Lol joined us and we set off to Hulme End & the Manifold Valley. At Beeston Tor we had dinner. After­wards we caught the train (North Staff Light Railway) down the Hamps Valley to Waterhouses where we caught a connection to Leek.

From Leek we walked over fields to Rudyard where we found lodging for the night (changed and went boating on the lake) (very fine scenery).

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Next morning we set off up the lake through beautiful woods to Cliffe Hall & Park at the head of the lake. A few miles further we entered the Dane Valley coming into Back Dane & Back Forest where we had dinner (maybe it was Midleygate) in the afternoon we push on up the Dane which was now becoming Moors in place of the woods to Dane Colliery where we left the Dane valley & at Dane bower took a path across the Moors to the Cat and the Fiddle Inn, from the to Moss Ho, at the upper end of Goyles Moss & Valley over to Burbage and into Buxton for tea.

(Lol & Bob walk to Castleton & train home). (The rest of us dressed up & went to the dance at Town Hall).

After breakfast George & Pops go on to Castleton. Lew, Erol & I go off down Ashwood Dale go over fields from Lovers Leap and on to Cowdale (most beautiful) sat on the CookooRocks on across fields by Priests Way into Back Dale & start of Horseshoe Dale down Deep Dale (went in Churn Hole) to Chee Dale.

Passed Chee Tor (had dinner in Chee Dale) into Millar’s Dale climbed out of Millar’s Dale & from top could see Monks Dale & Tideswell Dale from there we went down High Dale to Bushfield into Taddington Dale (fine view from top) along Taddington into Monsal Dale up to Monsal Head for tea.

From Monsal Head over fields to Great Longstone on to Rowland over Deep Rake to Rough side into Combs Dale to Froggatt along the river to Grindleford & home.

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Beautiful weather all the time. A great ramble. Pops, George, Lol, Bob, Erol (Myself leader Les & Erol). Including about 20 miles in conveyance we went approx 96 miles.

SUNDAY 3RD JUNE

Train to Hathersage. Swimming in the Derwent at Leadmill Bridge walked up to Highlow Brook for dinner.

Slept all afternoon on the moors near Bretton Clough.

Walked back to Hathersage for tea.

Very hot day.

Party of four. Lew, George, Pops & I. Too hot to walk far.

SUNDAY 26TH AUGUST

Pops & I take three girls from Grindleford along the river to Froggatt on to Caver along to Combs Dale along Dale and up to the Great Rake for dinner.

In the afternoon we set off back over fields to Moon Hill and Stoney Middleton and over field towards Grindleford when it came on to rain and we had to shelter in a deserted farm there was no water so we caught some rain water in the kettle and boiled our tea on a Primus stove.

It was still raining after tea so we set off to Grindleford and were just about drowned when we got there but enjoyed it.

SUNDAY 25TH NOVEMBER

6.38 am train to Hazelhead.

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Very terrible weather blowing a gale and teaming with rain.

Was were wet through before we got to Lawns Clough, boots were full with cross roaring torrents. Up Lawns Clough to the cabin where we had food & hot coffee.

In the face of a great wind we climbed up to Barrow Stones where took shelter but the storm came on worse. We could not hear and hardly see for sleet & wind as we set off for Bleaklow Stones, so being the general opinion we gave up and came down West End, the Dams were flooding over the walls in great falls, we changed at Derwent. And when we had reached Ashopton, Pops & I climbed Win Hill. We were blown about terrible. The other three reached Castleton first by going round.

Sid led. There was Max, Mim, Albert, Bunny, Reg, Tom, Pops & I. SATURDAY 8TH DECEMBER

Pops & I took bus to Huddersfield. Archie was on it. Caught bus from there to Marsden. Put up at Blake Lea (very fine place).

Went down at 11.30 pm to meet the rest as we were twenty minutes from the station. The party was then six – Max, Mim, Reg, Sid, Pops & I. As blizzard had gone to another place to stop.

Set off next morning at 8 o’clock, (the lady of the house telling us Jimmie Evans has slept there the night before his last ramble; he died from lack of food in Fairbrook).

We were in Marsden at 8.15 am and set off up Weesenden Valley, the snow was thick and the mist heaving and what we could see of the dams, they were mostly frozen. At the Isle of Skye we were behind time, setting off across the moors. We climbed on to Black Hill. This being very hard as we could see no lance 109

marks on Black Hill, our clothes and hats froze the hair on our legs and faces had ice on it.

We found our way to the top of Crowden Little Brook where in the cabin we had some food. We were there fifteen minutes.

Going down the Clough Archie caught us up. He set off at 8.30 am and had not stopped for food. We cross the valley at Crowden and climbed Wild Boar Clough. The waterfalls were all frozen from the top.

We crossed to Wain Stones where Archie stopped for food.

We kept on into the Culvat. Had the rest of our food in Thomsons hollow. Up over Feather Bed down into Ashop Clough and commenced to climb the Naze of Fairbrooke.

At a quarter to four it was going dark and Mim started with muscle trouble. It took twenty minutes for Sid & I to get her up and we had difficulty in seeing the stake at Grindsbrook but Pops discovered it at ‘Potter Chapel’.

At four we served out a jack of rum between us. It put fresh life into us all and revived Mim. We just got going down the other side when it became dead black. The lads left us going up Hollins Cross. Sid & I stopped helping Mim as she was going very slow and to make matters worse it came on to blow & snow but we at last got into Castleton at 6.30.

Sid Robinson led very well.

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Image from Leslie Hurley’s Rambling Diary, 1928.

Image from Leslie Hurley’s Rambling Diary, 1928.

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MY FOOTSTEPS MAKE THE MARK. MY LEGS CARRY ME ACROSS THE COUNTRY. IT’S LIKE A WAY OF MEASURING THE WORLD. I LOVE THAT CONNECTION TO MY OWN BODY. IT’S ME TO THE WORLD. RICHARD LONG, ARTIST

Long, Richard. 2012. Interview by Higgins, Charlotte.

The Guardian, June 15 2012.

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KEYWORDS ALGORITHMS ARCHITECTURE BODY BEHAVIOUR CROWD

DATA IMAGEMAKING MOVEMENT PUBLIC SPACE

ALLOTHEN ALLOS. EACH MAN IN A DIFFERENT PLACE MARCIN LIMINOWICZ STUDENT, MA NON LINEAR NARRATIVE, KABK

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Marcin Limonowicz, Abnormal Behaviour, Allothen Allos. Each Man In A Different Place, 2020.

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Marcin Limonowicz, Abnormal Behaviour, Allothen Allos.

Each Man In A Different Place, 2020.

Marcin Limonowicz, Very High Density, Allothen Allos.

Each Man In A Different Place, 2020.

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Marcin Limonowicz, Interaction Force, Allothen Allos.

Each Man In A Different Place, 2020.

Marcin Limonowicz, Normal Behaviour, Allothen Allos.

Each Man In A Different Place, 2020.

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An interactive photo archive that shows reenacted crowd movements in public space. Marcin Liminowicz explains step by step how crowd analysis software operates using computer vision techniques, in order to detect deviant behaviour of individuals. His work explores how machine algorithms detecting mass motion are often trained by looking at movement of prison inmates and crowds of sport spectators.

After studying different recognition patterns from which cameras learn to detect crowd behaviour as well as how the source images were made, he used similar methods in an attempt to ‘fill’ a series of different frames of public space. The process of ‘filling’ while walking was dictated by two main factors: architecture and the camera perspective.

‘How can you think about a single body as a crowd within a given space? How can you walk in this imaginary situation?

How can movement be reproduced within a still frame?

In the context of my project the act of walking is identical to the process of imagemaking; walking as the very source of creation’.

PROMPT BRING YOUR BODY TO THE RESEARCH

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Screenshot of Marcin Limonowicz, Normal Behaviour, Allothen Allos.

Each Man In A Different Place, 2020.

Screenshot of Marcin Limonowicz, Normal Behaviour, Allothen Allos.

Each Man In A Different Place, 2020.

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AFTER THE RAINS, THE AIR SMELLS FRESH WITH OZONE, SAP, AND LEAF LITTER, AND MY SENSES ARE ALIVE WITH CURIOSITY. ANNA TSING, ANTHROPOLOGIST

Tsing, Anna. 2012. ‘Unruly Edges: Mushrooms as Companion Species’.

Environmental Humanities, volume 1 (November): 141 – 154.

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KEYWORDS ALONE BOG COMMUNITY HERITAGE HISTORY

MEMORY PRACTICE TALKING WRITING

BOG WALKING REBECCA DUNNE ALUMNA, MA ARTISTIC RESEARCH, KABK

AFTER A WALK ON THE BOG, THE EVIDENCE ON THE SOLE OF MY SHOE IS EITHER DUST OR MUCK. THE DUST SCATTERS AND SPRINKLES, IT FLITS INTO THE EARS AND NOSE AND CREVICES. IT TINGLES AND SCATTERS. BUT IN IRELAND, MORE OFTEN THAN NOT, IT IS MUCK. THE WET, SOAKED CLAY CLINGS AND TRAMPLES, IT MAKES NO APOLOGY. IT HOLDS YOU DOWN IF YOU WALK IN A VERY WET PATCH AND THE SMELL IS THE PURE EARTHEN DREAM THAT NEVER GETS TIRED. IT IS NOT STILL – THE RENEWAL IS JUST SLOW – AND IT IS NEVER SILENT – THE WIND IS ALWAYS PRESENT. I KNOW I CAN START HERE AND GO FROM HERE. Finding myself in The Netherlands for my masters degree, I got to know the new area I was living in by walking around it. Writing was already a long-established part of my daily routine, but I began to bring it more consciously into my practice, attempting to make sense of the place I was in through the memories and stories of the place I related to most – where I was from.

I DON’T REMEMBER THE FIRST TIME I WAS ON THE BOG, BECAUSE BEFORE THE AGE OF ELEVEN WE LIVED IN THE TOWN, BUT I CAN REMEMBER THE FIRST TIME I WAS STRUCK BY IT. I REMEMBER IT WASN’T THE AREA OF THE BOG MY PARENTS LIVE BESIDE NOW AND WHICH I HAVE THE STRONGEST CONNECTION TO, BUT IT WAS ABOUT A TEN MINUTE DRIVE AWAY, DOWN THE LANE WHERE MY PATERNAL GRANDMOTHER LIVED AND WHERE MY FATHER GREW UP. IT WAS ONE OF MY OLDER COUSINS WHO TOOK SOME OF US YOUNGER ONES OUT FOR A WALK, AND IT WAS SUMMER TIME; THE GORSE BUSHES WERE IN FULL BLOOM, WITH YELLOW 126

FLOWERS SMELLING OF COCONUT. I WAS ENCHANTED

BY THE FLOWERS AND BY THIS MYSTERIOUS LURE OF ‘THE BOG’ WHICH MY AUNTS AND UNCLES, MY PARENTS, AND SOME OF MY COUSINS WHO LIVED IN THE COUNTRYSIDE TALKED ABOUT SO OFTEN. I WAS LESS ENCHANTED BY THE REALITY OF THE BOG WHEN WE ‘GOT THERE’. IT WAS FLAT, DARK AND UGLY TO MY EYE, AND THERE WAS NO GREAT SPECTACLE. WE ‘ARRIVED’ AND KEPT WALKING; NO GRAND VIEW OF ANYTHING BUT BROWN, BLACK, AND GREY EARTH. THE TREES BETWEEN THE BANKS OF THE PEAT AND THE BUSHES ON THE EDGE OF THE BOG PROVIDED MORE OPPORTUNITY FOR HIDING AND EXPLORING, AND I FELT DISAPPOINTED THAT I DIDN’T LOVE THIS PLACE THE WAY MY MOTHER HAD TOLD ME SHE LOVED IT WHEN SHE WAS A CHILD, BRINGING HER FATHER HIS LUNCH AND WORKING WITH HIM AT TIMES. I MIGHT HAVE BEEN EIGHT OR NINE, AND I WANTED HARRY POTTER MOUNTAINS AND MYSTERY. LIVING IN THE EAST MIDLANDS OF IRELAND, THE HIGHEST POINT IN THE COUNTY IS A HILL THAT IS EASILY CLIMBED IN HALF AN HOUR. THIS WOULD NOT BE A PLACE FOR ME TO STAY, I DECIDED. My methodology is reading, writing, field trips and walking, collective readings and shared experiences and my own artistic practice. Conversations and interviews, anecdotes, memories and stories have also provided the basis for much of the research.

The forms of writing I experiment with and through are an attempt to do justice to the many voices, stories, memories and traditions that exist and which I have encountered in my research and practice. I wish to represent the polyvocality of these connections and in this heritage, and to demonstrate 127

the complex, multi-layered experiences and arguments surrounding the land in Ireland.

The ever-changing story of the bog is as tense and fragile as it is strong and grounded. Each layer and law, and story and symbol, that comes from the bog is taken into the store of history, sinks in, and compresses into the landscape. The material presence of the bog is evidence of what has gone and its destruction shows that there is no way back. The heavy, heady, sodden earth knows its value and its place. We can stand or sink, preserve or deny, or do both. For a place of stagnant water will not stay the same, and when we walk on this holding-earth, we are doing the work, compressing and flattening.

The central act of walking and shared experiences of it became a focus of the writing, as well as the specific stories, memories, and anecdotes that were either exchanged with my fellow walker(s), or recalled, if I was walking alone. The sense of a shared experience and of community that can be found when walking and talking opened up a perspective of my practice whereby I investigated a more pointed sharing of experiences, storytelling, and collective readings (initially during group sessions in the masters programme) of writings I was generating.

Excerpts from Dunne, Rebecca. 2020.

‘The Slow Burn / Critical Mass’, MA diss., KABK.

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Rebecca Dunne, Bog of Allen, Ireland, 2010 – 2018.

Rebecca Dunne, Bog of Allen, Ireland, 2010 – 2018.

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Rebecca Dunne, Bog of Allen, Ireland, 2010 – 2018.

AND THE EXPLANATION IS ONCE AGAIN STROLLOLOGICAL. LUCIUS BURCKHARDT (1925 – 2003), SOCIOLOGIST

Burckhardt, Lucius. 1996. ‘Strollogical Observations on Perception of the Environment and the Tasks Facing Our Generation’. Written for an exhibition planned by Herzog & de Meuron for Centre Pompidou.

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KEYWORDS CEREMONY CITY DENTAL FLOSS DISTANCE DISTILLING ENVIRONMENT EXPEDITION

EXPERIENCING JOURNAL MARATHON NOTES SPECULATING WRITING

ON MONT BLANC, METRES, MARATHONS, Q & A WITH… VIBEKE MASCINI TUTOR, FINE ARTS, AND MEMBER RESEARCH GROUP 2020, KABK

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Vibeke Maschini, Bay Ridge Brooklyn, New York, day after the Marathon walk, Marathon, 2015.

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Vibeke Maschini, Queensboro Bridge New York, day after the Marathon walk, Marathon, 2015.

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Vibeke Maschini, Finish Floor, Central Park, Manhattan New York, day after the Marathon walk, Marathon, 2015.

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ALICE TWEMLOW

Can you tell me when you began to explore using walking as a method and how you use it in your practice?

VIBEKE MASCINI

It started after doing research about the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures, an intergovernmental institution near Paris that helps to define international measuring units. I began to think about this universal reference to a factual world in relation to more experience-based understanding. Often the facts that these units of mass and time describe are very far away from what we actually experience, but sometimes, the two approaches might overlap.

I consider walking and units to be connected like this. The way in which a metre was originally defined was based on a sevenyear walking expedition made in the 1790s by two French astronomers, Mechain and Delambre, who used triangulation measurements. The French Republic then declared that the size of a metre would be one 10-millionth of the distance from the North Pole to the equator.

In terms of translating this interest into my practice, I LOOK TO WRITING – AS BOTH A COMPANION TO, AND AS A WAY OF DISTILLING, THE ACT OF WALKING. I began to read a lot of journals related to walking written by people throughout history. Some of the older ones in particular are incredible.

For example, Horace Bénédict-de Saussure’s account of climbing Mont Blanc in the 1780s, makes you think about the significance of climbing a mountain that was up to that point considered unclimbable. It was a such a radical gesture.

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ALICE TWEMLOW

Have you yourself experimented with writing in relation to walking?

VIBEKE MASCINI

Yes. Firstly, there’s a practicality to writing whilst walking. You can easily bring a notepad and pen with you on a walk. I also don’t feel the urge to make visual documentations, for instance through the framing of a photograph. I find the pace of writing and attention required to focus on the non-visual much more suitable to the experience of walking. Images offer an immediate and full description of an environment, whereas when you read text you experience things as they unfold. I find writing a very appealing way in which to unravel an experience.

ALICE TWEMLOW

Could you give me an example of any other projects of yours that involve walking?

VIBEKE MASCINI

One project came about through chance after arriving in New York the day after the New York Marathon had taken place.

I was in Central Park where there were all of these traces of the spectacle of mass movement that had taken place the day before. I liked the idea of the ceremony of that journey by foot that has taken place throughout history, and how it relates to other marathons all over the world.

I was very stressed at the time and had a real longing to just move around this curious city, so I decided to walk the marathon route. Without being part of the official event or feeling any pressure to complete it as quickly as possible, I took my time over a few days. The end point was quite hilarious because 143

normally when you finish a marathon there are banners and celebration, but of course it wasn’t like that for me! As a leashed dog passed me by, in the middle of Central Park, I finished a marathon without anyone even noticing it.

I made notes of fragments of experiences and observations during the walk, but I never used them for anything. I couldn’t decide what to focus on or what the afterlife of the walk should be, so the project never took on a physical manifestation.

IT IS HARD TO DISTILL A WALK INTO A TANGIBLE OUTCOME IF YOU WANT TO HAVE A WALK THAT EXISTS IN AND OF ITSELF. ALICE TWEMLOW

How does the act of walking compare to working in a studio or library?

VIBEKE MASCINI

Walking opens up possibilities of observation and an awareness of your external environment. IT’S PRECISELY BECAUSE YOU’RE NOT IN THE STUDIO OR IN THE LIBRARY THAT YOU ARE ABLE TO LOOK THROUGH DIFFERENT LENSES. ALICE TWEMLOW

What do you think are the particular qualities about the way artists engage with the act of walking in comparison to, say, geographers?

VIBEKE MASCINI

It’s interesting to appropriate a tool used in science and geography and use it in new ways. Researchers from different disciplines might collect the same information but, unlike geographers, I think that many artists prefer to embrace speculation rather than to uncover answers. In my practice 144

at least, I don’t intend to make works that are perfectly logical equations.

ALICE TWEMLOW

Do you introduce the students you teach to walking as a method?

VIBEKE MASCINI

In 2017 as guest tutor at the Academy of Architecture in Amsterdam I designed a course around the idea of measurement units in relation to the body, and how to make sense of space and volume based on your own physical dimensions.

Walking is human size by default, and so I invited the students to move around the city consciously relating to their walking.

We undertook a group walk that was navigated by following the trajectory of a stone thrown by each of the participants in turn. The distance of ‘a stone’s throw’ depended on the upper body strength of each individual thrower. In another walk students were paired up, given a box of dental floss and instructed to move around the city however they liked, so long as the entire length of waxed string was unrolled to define the distance between them. It was a way to physically relate to the space around us, as well as to relate to dental floss!

I THINK NONE OF US HAVE BEEN ABLE TO FLOSS AGAIN WITHOUT FEELING LIKE WE’RE USING THE DISTANCE OF A STREET TILE OR A CORNER OF A CURB TO PICK SOMETHING FROM OUR TEETH.

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THIS IS THE DISTINCTION THAT GOVERNS MODERN URBAN LIFE, THAT BETWEEN WALKER AND VOYEUR, AND IT IS ONE WHICH EMPHASISES THE DEMOCRATIC IMPORTANCE OF THE STREET-LEVEL PERSPECTIVE TO BE GAINED FROM WALKING THE CITY AND RECONNECTING WITH INDIVIDUAL LIFE.

THIS IS THE RETURN TO THE STREET PROMOTED

BY THE SITUATIONISTS WHO RAILED AGAINST THE SYSTEMATIC AND TOTALISING PERSPECTIVE OF THE GOVERNING AUTHORITIES. MERLIN COVERLEY, AUTHOR

Coverley, Merlin. 2006. Psychogeography.

Harpenden: Oldcastle Books.

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KEYWORDS CHAIR CITY COLLECTING INHABITANTS MATERIAL NARRATIVE

PARAMETER PSYCHOGEOGRAPHY ROUTE STRANGER TRESPASSING WRITING

A NARRATIVE OF THE ARTIST AS WALKER – METHODOLOGY THORIR FREYR HOSKULDSSON STUDENT, ART / SCIENCE, KABK

My research for this project begins in the field of psycho­ geography. I am fascinated by written accounts of writers and artists who walk through cities in order to fully explore them.

I decide that I too will become a character in the narrative of the field of psychogeography. But how do I situate my research within the field? I need to find my own parameters, rules, and techniques. I ASK MYSELF; ‘WHAT IF YOU ARE A CHARACTER WHO EXPLORES THE CITY BY MAKING A CHAIR?’ I decide to go on walks around the city, collecting material as I go. When I have enough material, I try to build a chair so that I can rest on it and then carry it back to my starting point. The rest of the narrative takes shape during the research process.

The parameters of the walk are dependent upon the making of the chair. I document each walk by tracking the route via GPS and by writing down my thoughts as soon as the walk is complete. Each walk begins and ends at the same point.

The turning point in the walk is where the chair is completed, and sat upon. While undertaking the walks I discover I have already subconsciously put two parameters in place: 1. I will not steal; 2. I will not trespass. I stick to my rules and anything else that happens during the walks I leave to chance.

I complete the walks, and now have to decide how the project will be presented. I have three types of data: the GPS tracks, the chairs built from the collected material, and the writing about the walks. What are the walks really about? I have come to the conclusion that the tracing of the routes via GPS is unnecessary.

THE WALKS ARE NOT ABOUT THE PHYSICAL ROUTES I TOOK. They are about the material I collected, the chair I made, and mostly about the walks themselves. And these can only 150

be captured through the writing. So, in the end, the writing is the most important part in the presentation of the work.

FIRST WALK, 10 FEBRUARY, 6.19 KM, 2 HRS AND 7 MIN I am searching for material to make a chair. I found the material quickly, all in different places. As I collected more material into my hands, I BECAME STRANGER AND STRANGER TO THE CITY AND ITS INHABITANTS. I became more detached from the life of the city; I had my own purpose within it, a purpose only known to me.

THIRD WALK, 28 MARCH, 17.2 KM, 3 HRS AND 33 MIN I didn’t expect anything before going on this walk, like I had done before. I simply went on a walk with the intention of making a chair for me to rest on, however that might come into being. I define the chair, I define the walk, so there is nothing left to do but enjoy.

It is good going on a walk to nowhere, for no one, when everybody else seems to be busy. When you can hear your own footsteps on the street so clearly, your own thoughts reflected in the city so clearly. YES, TODAY I HAD A GOOD WALK, A BEAUTIFUL WALK. PROMPT WALK THROUGH THE CITY; COLLECT WHAT YOU FIND; DO NOT TRESPASS; DO NOT STEAL; CONSTRUCT SOMETHING; WALK THROUGH THE CITY

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WALKING ORGANIZES THE WORLD AROUND US; WRITING ORGANIZES OUR THOUGHTS. FERRIS JABR, JOURNALIST

Jabr, Ferris. ‘Why Walking Helps us Think’. New Yorker.

September 3, 2014.

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KEYWORDS CITY FOOTPRINT LANDSCAPE LOOP OCCUPATION

PACE RHYTHM SHOES THOUGHT

WALKING L O O P T I J D \ TIMELOOP SOPHIE VAN ROMBURGH ALUMNA, FINE ARTS, KABK

I walk. Step and pace and pace and step. No thought is forming, merely onsets of thoughts. Walking in a mindscape of nearthought: not yet, not quite. Composting. The cow chews the cud.

I walk outside – landscape, city, desert – I walk outside time.

I LAY DOWN A WALKING LOOP. The loop is without time. I walk for a while, in the dunes, on the beach. I take the bus there.

I take the bus back. I walk a loop on a weekday, on a Saturday, on a Sunday.

THE AIM OF MY WALKING IS TO WALK. Walking is the occu­ pation. Walking around does not lead to anything. It is already what it is. One need not walk in a circle. Walking is image, representation, imagination. Signification is in the doing.

To be in a place at a time.

My walking routine is commonplace. It does not strive after anything. I am not leaning into limits, I am not putting on a spurt, I am not going extra slow. Each step is a step, the same and not the same as another step. Walking is like the falling drop, ‘gutta cavat lapidem’: constant dripping wears away a stone. The cow regurgitates, ruminates. Rotations, revolutions.

Repetitive motion transforms.

The dunes are a studio. There, in the dune-scape, work gets an onset of form, an onset out of which form may evolve.

There, something is rustling. Trembling, shivering. The shifting of grains of sand. Buckthorn swaying stiffly. A ruddy streak.

A fox passes on the edge of perception. Would the cow’s ruminations ever become a thought? Would the cow’s ruminations ever generate form? TO WALK UNTIL A PLACE HAS WORN ITSELF INTO ME. The dunes are getting into my system, and their sand into my shoes.

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Walking a loop may seem fleeting, perhaps insignificant. But by laying down a walk, I go against the conventional time system. The walk cuts right through it. The revolution of my steps undermines the system, from the inside, almost imperceptibly.

Hairline cracks.

In a straight line slowly uphill, across the footbridge, into the dunes. Go through passages head-on. One walks by taking all steps. Walking goes, and leaves behind. Without my passage, no footprint. No footprint without my absence.

Excerpted, condensed, and translated from Sophie van Romburgh, ‘L O O P T I J D’, Fine Arts thesis, part-time, KABK 2012.

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Sophie van Romburgh, Walking words onto the page, Locomotion of the hands, 2014 – 2017.

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LOCOMOTION OF THE HANDS GENERATING THOUGHTS LOCOMOTION OF THE FEET AND MY KNIKKENDE KNIEEN WHY DO THEY KNIK SO EASILY SO OFTEN SO AUDIBLY IT CAN BE DISTRACTING? THEY THOSE KNIKS TOO ARE ARE ARE A RHYTHM AND MAY SET THE PACE OF MY WORDS HERE LOTS OF SUCH INTERACTIONS RHYTHMICAL DYNAMICS THAT WE THAT I TEND TO IGNORE IN EVERYDAY LIFE ALSO AM WEARING FLIP FLOPS RIGHT NOW THEY TOO GENERATE A KIND OF STEP AND A FLIPFLOP SOUND THAT WHO KNOWS WORKS ITS WAY INTO MY EARS AND THEN ON TO THE NERVES AANSTUREN DIRECT THE NERVES THAT DIRECT THE FINGERS THAT PUT THESE WORDS ONTO PAPER AS I PACE DOWNSTAIRS ON THE GROUND FLOOR UP AND DOWN THE HALLWAY FROM HERE FRONT DOOR TURN AROUND GO SLOWLY BACK PAST THE STACKS OF BOARDS GOOD BOARDS TOWARDS LIGHT FILTERING THRU PATIO PAUSE TO STEP ACROSS THE PLANT NOW IN BACKHOUSE CAN CIRCLE A BIT HERE AND WONDER WHEN EXACTLY YES NOW IS THE FARTHEST POINT WINDING BACK DOWN THE SANDY PART OOP ACROSS PLANT DOWN HALLWAY SUNNY OUT FLIPFLOP IN AND ALL THAT HAS AN EFFECT TOO STILL TOO EXCITED ABOUT THIS NEW EXPERIMENT TO WRITE ABOUT ANYTHING ELSE BUT THE EXPERIMENT AND THE COINCIDING OF STEP AND THOUGHT THE COLLOCATION OF PACE AND WORD WORDS ARE GOOD WORDS MORE THAN THOUGHTS STEPS SETTING MY WORDS WORDS ON PAPER LIKE PACES ON GROUND LIKE WORDS IN WRITING LIKE STEPS IN A RHYTHM ON THE SOIL GROUND I TREAD 4 AUG ENDING 16:45

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FROM A DERIVE POINT OF VIEW CITIES HAVE PSYCHOGEOGRAPHICAL CONTOURS, WITH CONSTANT CURRENTS, FIXED POINTS AND VORTEXES THAT STRONGLY DISCOURAGE ENTRY INTO OR EXIT FROM CERTAIN ZONES. GUY DEBORD (1931 – 1994), MARXIST THEORIST AND FOUNDING MEMBER OF SITUATIONIST INTERNATIONAL

Debord, Guy, in Knabb, Ken. 2006. Situationist International Anthology: Revised and Expanded Edition. Berkeley: Bureau of Public Secrets.

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KEYWORDS ATMOSPHERE COLONIALISM EXPERIENCING FIELD LISTENING LONELY

MAPPING MIGRATING MINUTIAE PSYCHOGEOGRAPHY SOUNDS

WALKING AND LISTENING AS SELF-DESIGNING IN CONTEMPORARY URBAN ENVIRONMENTS BUDHADITYA CHATTOPADHYAY MEDIA ARTIST, ALUMNUS, PHD ARTISTIC RESEARCH AND SOUND STUDIES, ACPA, LEIDEN UNIVERSITY

MY ARTISTIC RESEARCH INVOLVES WALKING THROUGH A CITY WITHOUT DIRECTION, LISTENING, FIELD RECORDING THESE TRACES OF DRIFTING AND THEN COMPOSING WITH THE RECORDED SOUND. Through this psychogeographic process, I hope to shed light on urban conditions in the Global South, where cities are still recuperating from the colonial rubbles, whilst also experiencing rapid growth, a lack of urban design and state control through surveillance. Through engaging with the multilayered sounds of past and present the essential and characteristic ambience of these vibrant but clamorous cities can be evoked as well as my subjective position within them.

The Nomadic Listener is an augmented artistic book developed between 2012 and 2019. Based on my artistic research on migration, contemporary urban experience and sonic alienation, the book is composed of a series of texts stemming from psychogeographic explorations (namely walking and listening) of a number of contemporary cities spanning three continents.

Each text is an act of listening, where I recorded my sur­rounding environment and attempted to attune to the sonic fluctuations of movement and the passing of events. A collection of meditations on the minutiae of life emerges, interwoven with my own memories, associations, desires and reflections. Readers are brought inside a personal and tender map of contemporary urban experience and the often lonely, surprising, and random interactions found in walking.

THE SHORELINE, WHERE THE VIBRATING CITY MEETS THE INDOLENT SEA, IMPERCEPTIBLY DISAPPEARS. IT IS REPLACED BY A LONGISH LINE OF MIGRATING BODIES WALKING TOWARDS THE CENTRE OF THE CITY. ALL THESE PEOPLE ARE WITHOUT CLOTHES AND 164

BELONGINGS. EACH OF THEIR TIRED STEPS MAKES A VIOLENT MARK ON THE SAND. THE SEA IS BOILING IN THE SCORCHING SUN. ITS SKELETON IS GRADUALLY BECOMING VISIBLE CONSISTING OF DEAD CORAL REEFS, RESIDUES OF SHIPWRECKS, AND THE PILES OF BONES OF DECEASED FLOCKS OF FISHES, SEA CREATURES, AND MONUMENTAL CARCASSES OF WHALES. SURVEILLANCE HELICOPTERS CIRCLE OVER THE CITY TO OBSERVE AND CONSTRUE TODAY’S NEWS. HEARTBREAKINGLY INDIFFERENT CLOUDS LEAVE SHADOWS OVER THE LOWLY FLYING DRONES GATHERING DATA. FROM A NUMBER OF WINDOWS SMOKES COME OUT. IT IS FOLLOWED BY SMELLS OF BURNING TIRES. ELDERLY CITIZENS WAIT AT THE BALCONIES FOR A TELEPHONE CALL TO EVACUATE THEIR HOUSES. ONE CAN HEAR RELIGIOUS CHANTS AND PRAYERS ADDING A LAYER OF SURRENDER TO THE FRAGILE ATMOSPHERE. ALL ELECTRICAL MACHINERIES START REVERBERATING IN A MINOR CHORD. Excerpt from Chattopadhyay, Budhaditya. 2020.

The Nomadic Listener. Berlin: Errant Bodies Press.

PROMPT LISTEN CONTEMPLATIVELY WHILE WALKING

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THE WALK IS SIMUL­ TANEOUSLY THE MATERIAL OUT OF WHICH TO PRODUCE ART AND THE MODUS OPERANDI OF THE ARTISTIC TRANSACTION. FRANCIS ALYS, ARTIST

Alÿs, Francis in interview with Ferguson, Russell. 2007, Francis Alÿs. London: Phaidon Press.

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KEYWORDS AFFECT EXPERIENCING INVESTIGATING GAZING

PATH PRACTICE UNDEFINABLE

THOUGHTS ON WALKING DAAN JENSEN STUDENT, INTERACTIVE / MEDIA / DESIGN, KABK

I began walking as a daily practice in my first year at KABK. The flow of external input at an art school can be overwhelming, and walking gives me time and space for breathing. The daily walks are frequently the same, so I am able to focus less on what’s around me and more on myself in the setting of the walks. In this way, my gaze, which ordinarily is only a subject, becomes such a defining factor in the ‘forming of the walk’s experience’, that my focussing eyes and my thoughts them­ selves become the objects. And so the line between ‘me’ and the ‘path’ I’m walking becomes indistinguishable and MY EYES AND THOUGHTS BECOME ‘THE SAME’ OR EQUAL TO THE STONES I AM WALKING ON, THE TREES I AM WALKING UNDER AND THE LITTLE ANIMALS THAT PASS ME BY. This more or less transcendental self-investigation helps with both my personal and artistic development. The investigation always ends at what could be called ‘source’ which is neither just ‘in me’ or ‘around’, but the discovery that if I were to look for myself, I only have to look around me – so that ‘me’ and the whole evident world around me are transcending. The idealism is imminent.

It became apparent to me that visual artwork might be intuited in the same way as the visual input during my walks.

MY WALKS HELP ME TO ANALYSE AND EXPERIENCE THE PRESENT MOMENT (OR: THE NOW). How I describe and define my experience of the now during a walk is always defined by the ‘walk itself’. In that way the present unfolds in a manner I have no control over. There is always a peculiar effect that determines the experience, which is always different. Because the variations in the repetitive walks are so small, the nuance of the different kinds of affect are amplified. For this reason, WITH WALKING, THE FACTORS OF AFFECT BECOME VERY 170

APPARENT AND CLARIFY A LOT OF VALUABLE INFORMATION FOR ME AND MY WORK. I mean to say that while the walks themselves are always about 98% the same, the experience of the walks always differs much more. This vague and almost undefinable ‘affect’ – that shapes the connection between ‘my surroundings’ and ‘me’ – is what I am trying to grasp.

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WHAT IS IT THAT MAKES IT SO HARD SOMETIMES TO DETERMINE WHITHER WE WILL WALK? I BELIEVE THAT THERE IS A SUBTLE MAGNETISM IN NATURE, WHICH, IF WE UNCONSCIOUSLY YIELD TO IT, WILL DIRECT US ARIGHT. IT IS NOT INDIFFERENT TO US WHICH WAY WE WALK. THERE IS A RIGHT WAY; BUT WE ARE VERY LIABLE FROM HEEDLESSNESS AND STUPIDITY TO TAKE THE WRONG ONE.

WE WOULD FAIN TAKE THAT WALK, NEVER YET TAKEN

BY US THROUGH THIS ACTUAL WORLD, WHICH IS PERFECTLY SYMBOLICAL OF THE PATH WHICH WE LOVE TO TRAVEL IN THE INTERIOR AND IDEAL WORLD; AND SOMETIMES, NO DOUBT, WE FIND IT DIFFICULT TO CHOOSE OUR DIRECTION, BECAUSE IT DOES NOT YET EXIST DISTINCTLY IN OUR IDEA. HENRY DAVID THOREAU (1817 – 1862), ESSAYIST, POET, PHILOSOPHER

Thoreau, Henry David. 1862. ‘Walking’, The Atlantic.

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KEYWORDS ALONE DOCUMENTING OBSERVING

PEOPLE THERAPEUTIC THINKING

ON WALKING AND PHOTOGRAPHING ARINA LIVADARI ALUMNA, INTERACTIVE / MEDIA / DESIGN, KABK

I’ve always valued my time spent walking as much as my time spent thinking. In Holland, walking is a conscious choice rather than necessity, and only happens when one decides not to hop on the bike or take the bus from point A to B. With its therapeutic properties, walking enables us to observe, not only see; to decide, not only think; to research, not only presume. Walking shouldn’t be just performed for the sake of one’s health; it’s also for the sake of one’s spirit. We each carry an unrendered world inside of ourselves, and that is louder than everything else.

Walking was a different experience for me before relocating from an Eastern to a Western European country. It’s 2020 now, and no matter where I find myself in the city I call home, I have to ignore thousands of people. There is a difference between walking with someone – having a chat or a laugh, and walking with oneself; allowing the true noise of the environment pierce the ears.

My most valuable walking experiences are those when I’m alone, usually in the early morning or late evening. I live a five minute walk from Scheveningen beach in The Hague, so every time I need my walking dose, I GRAB MY OLYMPUS MJU 2 ANALOGUE CAMERA – SMALL ENOUGH TO FIT IN MY POCKET – AND GO OUT.

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Arina Livadari, Observation while walking home from KABK, On Walking and Photographing, October 2017.

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Arina Livadari, Sand ring sculpture after sunrise, On Walking and Photographing, September 2018.

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Arina Livadari, Someone who can walk helping someone (who can’t walk) walk, On Walking and Photographing, June 2019.

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Arina Livadari, During a huge, rare snow storm, On Walking and Photographing, December 2018.

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THE PHOTOGRAPHER IS AN ARMED VERSION OF THE SOLITARY WALKER RECONNOITERING, STALKING, CRUISING THE URBAN INFERNO, THE VOYEURISTIC STROLLER WHO DISCOVERS THE CITY AS A LANDSCAPE OF VOLUPTUOUS EXTREMES. SUSAN SONTAG (1933 – 2004), PHOTOGRAPHER

Sontag, Susan. 1977. On Photography. New York: Picador.

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KEYWORDS BODY EARTH ENVIRONMENT LANDSCAPE ROUTE

SENSES SHOES SPACE TRANSPORT

SHOES NUMB LOUISE SPISSER STUDENT, INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE & FURNITURE DESIGN, KABK

In the Western world, wearing shoes to walk is common.

We wear them for protection, stability, comfort, and to move more quickly from point A to B. However, if we consider neither the route nor landscape and instead focus on the sensation of walking, every step becomes the same. HOW CAN WE USE OUR FEET AS AN INSPIRATIONAL SOURCE, AS WELL AS A MODE OF TRANSPORT? Our feet are very sensitive parts of the body and, therefore, different textures underfoot can stimulate our imagination in many ways, whether we walk on rock or on moss; on cold or warm surfaces. BY WALKING BAREFOOT WE CAN START TO FEEL OUR ENVIRONMENT AGAIN. Our senses become engaged and we can feel the earth connection: a physical link is created between our bodies and space itself.

PROMPT TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES AND START FEELING

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Louise Spisser, Garden as Feeling, Shoes Numb, 2019.

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THERE IS A MOMENT WHEN YOU WALK SEVERAL HOURS THAT YOU ARE ONLY A BODY WALKING. FREDERIC GROS, PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Cadwalladr, Carole. 2014. ‘Frédéric Gros: why going for a walk is the best way to free your mind’. The Guardian, Sun 20 Apr 2014.

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KEYWORDS CREATIVITY PACE PHILOSOPHY RHYTHM

SPACE STUDENTS TECHNIQUES THINKING

TAKING A WALK WITH YOUR MUSE SARAH GLUSCHITZ ALUMNA, BA INTERACTIVE / MEDIA / DESIGN, KABK

An adaptation based on excerpts of Gluschitz’s bachelor thesis – ‘When I Run: Physical Activity as a Tool to Conquer Creative Blocks’, 2016.

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE

‘SIT AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE; DO NOT BELIEVE ANY IDEA THAT WAS NOT BORN IN THE OPEN AIR AND OF FREE MOVEMENT – IN WHICH THE MUSCLES DO NOT ALSO REVEL’.

Famous German philosopher and writer Friedrich Nietzsche was known for his hour-long walks through nature. He recognized the importance of connecting body and mind, a concept that dates back to Ancient Greece. Greek philosopher Aristotle liked to walk about while lecturing and the Lyceum, his forum for scholars to discuss ideas, was also known as the Peripatetic school in reference to its emphasis on connecting walking and thinking. Besides historical figures such as Nietzsche, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and William Blake there are also many modern day writers who use the same techniques.

Philosophers, writers and artists alike who experience creative ‘block’ often find that walking outside the studio or workplace can help them rediscover their inner muse and their creativity.

Walking for long periods outside can invert the feeling of space as it starts to feel as comfortable as being inside and with this comfort the thoughts can flow easily. In an article for the New Yorker, titled ‘Why Walking Helps us Think’, Ferris Jabr writes, ‘Walking at [one’s] own pace creates an unadulterated feedback loop between the rhythm of [one’s] body and [one’s] mental state’; in other words, it allows creativity to flow.

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Ancient Greece was a time of innovation and enlightenment.

Contrary to the walking school of Ancient Greece, many modern schools, including art academies like KABK, rely on students sitting still in a chair for hours at a time. Being confined to a chair and keeping the body still does not provide the best conditions for the mind, let alone for creativity. THE IDEAL CREATIVE ENVIRONMENT AND CURRICULUM SHOULD INCLUDE A TYPE OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY SUCH AS WALKING. Considering how many innovations modern society has adopted from Ancient Greece, it seems only logical that it should also reintroduce the peripatetic school. A school that once again, teaches while walking. IT IS TIME TO TAKE OUR MUSE FOR A WALK. REFERENCES Gros, Frédéric. A Philosophy of Walking. London: Verso. 2015.

Harper, Kris. A Student’s Guide to Earth Science, Volume 2.

Greenwood Publishing Group.

Jabr, Ferris. ‘Why Walking Helps us Think’. newyorker.com.

September 3, 2014.

Mills, Billy. ‘Path to Enlighten: How Walking Inspires Writers’. the guardian.com. August 9, 2012.

PROMPT GET OUT OF YOUR HEAD, BY GOING FOR A ONE-HOUR WALK. PICK A LOCATION THAT IS NEW TO YOU, FREE OF MOST CITY NOISES, BIG GROUPS OF PEOPLE AND DON’T USE YOUR PHONE OR LISTEN TO MUSIC; YOU WILL NOTICE THAT IT SETS YOUR MIND FREE. POSSIBLE LOCATIONS: HAAGSE BOS, CLINGENDAEL, MEIJENDEL, THE DUNES, THE BEACH IN THE MORNING...

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WALKING IS NOT JUST WHAT A BODY DOES; IT IS WHAT A BODY IS. TIM INGOLD AND JO LEE VERGUNST, ANTHROPOLOGISTS

Ingold, Tim, and Jo Lee Vergunst. 2008. Introduction.

Ways of Walking: Ethnography and Practice on Foot. Aldershot: Ashgate.

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KEYWORDS ARCHITECTURE BODY CROWD DIRECTION DISTANCE DRAWING

INVESTIGATING MOVEMENT OBSTACLE PACE PUBLIC SPACE ROUTE

TRYING TO CATCH A TRAIN (2 1 –) JUSTINE CORRIJN STUDENT, NON LINEAR NARRATIVE MA, KABK

I am investigating the act of walking as a bodily movement through space, with a particular focus on how walking pace and direction in urban areas can be influenced by gender, and, more recently, COVID-19, where we are required to keep a 1.5 meter distance from each other.

These schematic drawings depict the attempt to catch a train in Antwerp Central Station during rush hour. As well as the unique architecture of this multi-levelled building, I was interested in how everyone influences each other’s way of moving in such a lively public space.

PROMPT WALK A ROUTE YOU ARE FAMILIAR WITH. GET ANOTHER PERSON TO WALK THIS EXACT SAME ROUTE. COMPARE YOUR WALKING EXPERIENCES AFTERWARDS: HOW FAST / SLOW DID YOU WALK ON CERTAIN PARTS OF THE ROUTE? DID YOU EXPERIENCE THE SAME OBSTACLES? WERE THESE OBSTACLES MERELY PHYSICAL, OR WERE THERE OTHER FACTORS INVOLVED? WHAT DO YOU THINK INFLUENCED THE DIFFERENCES / SIMILARITIES IN THE WALKING EXPERIENCE?

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Justine Corrijn, F23BEASC(L-1), Trying to Catch a Train, 2019.

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Justine Corrijn, F23BEASC(L-1), Trying to Catch a Train, 2019.

WALKING IS THE BEST WAY TO EXPLORE AND EXPLOIT THE CITY; THE CHANGES, SHIFTS, BREAKS IN THE CLOUD HELMET, MOVEMENT OF LIGHT ON WATER. DRIFTING PURPOSEFULLY IS THE RECOMMENDED MODE, TRAMPING ASPHALTED EARTH IN ALERT REVERIE, ALLOWING THE FICTION OF AN UNDERLYING PATTERN TO REVEAL ITSELF. IAN SINCLAIR, WRITER AND FILMMAKER

Sinclair, Ian. 2003. Lights Out for the Territory.

London: Penguin Books.

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KEYWORDS BODY CREATIVITY FOREST NATURE

PERFORMING STUDENTS TOOLS WRITING

WALKING AS A TEACHING TOOL ANNA AROV TUTOR, WRITING, FINE ARTS, KABK

I ask my students to go for walks before and during their writing process when at home (especially now). We have gone to the forest for walks. Sometimes we do presentations while walking.

I use walking as a teaching tool to help students generate new ideas and thoughts but also to find the right body language /  posture for presenting and performing.

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Anna Arov, On a walking-writing exercise with tutor, Part of the thesis writing process, 2016.

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DESCRIBE YOUR STREET. DESCRIBE ANOTHER. COMPARE. GEORGES PEREC (1936 – 1982), ESSAYIST.

Perec, Georges. 1997. Species of Spaces and Other Pieces: Essays.

London: Penguin Books.

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KEYWORDS ALONE ASSIGNMENT CITY DESCRIBING DOCUMENTING

LULU VAN DIJCK STUDENT, BA GRAPHIC DESIGN, KABK.

GUIDE NOTES PHOTOGRAPHY RULES STREET

I grew up in Bilthoven, a village near Utrecht. I’ve never really liked the place and so I felt conflicted about what to do.

At the time I was reading Species of Spaces, by Georges Perec.

When he wrote of his city, Paris, ‘Obviously I don’t know all the streets in Paris’, it made me think: What does it mean to know all the streets of a place? Can somewhere be ‘yours’ even though you don’t know every street, every corner? What would happen if I got to know every street of the village I grew up in?

Would it make me feel more attached to it?

I wrote a set of rules for myself in order answer these questions: 1. Walk on every street in the village (not necessarily in its entirety) 2. Take one photograph of each street 3. Do not listen to music while walking 4. Note down thoughts (quickly while walking and more fully afterwards) On one day in November 2019, with these rules in mind and a map of Bilthoven, I began walking. I visited all 278 streets in 4 days (over a 2 week period). During this time I passed by places where childhood friends had lived, where I had karate lessons, the site of my father’s grave, and the absence of places I once knew but were now demolished. I wrote short notes of my thoughts, mostly reflecting on my childhood and seeking to discover why I don’t feel connected to the place.

I brought the notes and photographs together in a publication, arranging the images alphabetically and the notes chrono­ logically, allowing a new relationship to be created between the text and pictures.

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Lulu van Dijk, city-guide for van Dijk’s hometown, made in response to an assignment set by Laura Pappa, Bilthoven 069 – 227, 2019.

Lulu van Dijk, city-guide for van Dijk’s hometown, made in response to an assignment set by Laura Pappa, Bilthoven 069 – 227, 2019.

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Lulu van Dijk, city-guide for van Dijk’s hometown, made in response to an assignment set by Laura Pappa, Bilthoven 069 – 227, 2019.

IF YOU ARE READY TO LEAVE FATHER AND MOTHER, AND BROTHER AND SISTER, AND WIFE AND CHILD AND FRIENDS, AND NEVER SEE THEM AGAIN – IF YOU HAVE PAID YOUR DEBTS, AND MADE YOUR WILL, AND SETTLED ALL YOUR AFFAIRS, AND ARE A FREE MAN – THEN YOU ARE READY FOR A WALK. HENRY DAVID THOREAU (1817 – 1862), ESSAYIST, POET, PHILOSOPHER

Thoreau, Henry David. 1862. ‘Walking’, The Atlantic.

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CURRICULUM IMPLEMENTATION EXHIBITION / TEACHING 221

KABINETS The KABK Art and Design Research Practices initiative has its physical location at the KABK entrance area in a pair of black metal-framed glass cases. The cases were specified by the architect J. H. Plantenga, who also created the floorplans for the Academy’s modernist building, completed in 1937, and were probably designed by the architect J. W. E Buijs.

They were originally used to showcase student work as well as smaller pieces from the Academy’s extensive collection of historical plaster casts. The cabinets are now being reacti­ vated as a research-focused display space.

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WALKING: A RESEARCH METHOD IN ART AND DESIGN AN EXHIBITION FEATURING SAGA CREEK STORIES, A PROJECT BY KCCM In the autumn of 2020 we installed the ‘Walking as a Research Method’ exhibition in the Kabinets display space. It focuses on the working process used by public space and landscape designers Krijn Christiaansen and Cathelijne Montens (KCCM) who teach field research in BA Interior Architecture and Furniture Design at KABK. Specifically it features a speculative urban planning project in Saga City, Japan, in which the designers attempted to reactivate the city’s extensive system of ancient waterways and find points of entry and connection for local communities.

In addition to their initial archival research, mapping of the waterways, and interviews and conversations with residents, KCCM conducted 24 walks during which they collected the memories, stories, images, impressions, and objects that the creek network contained. In practical terms, this meant wading in the creeks, videoing their progress from a frog’seye-perspective, but also dredging and excavating artefacts from the creek beds and making rubbings and photographs of structures on the creek banks.

The exhibition provides a detailed exemplar of how walking as a research method can function in a project and in a practice.

Mostly, it is meant to provide inspiration and a departure point for anyone interested in finding out more about walking as a research method in art and design.

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PERHAPS A PERSON WOULD HAVE LEFT TOWN, ON FOOT OR ON HORSEBACK, VIA A BRICK CITY GATEWAY, SEEN STRANGERS AT THEIR WORK, FORDED A RIVER, ENTERED A FOREST OR CLIMBED A HILL. LUCIUS BURCKHARDT (1925 – 2003), SOCIOLOGIST

Burckhardt, Lucius. 1996. ‘Strollogical Observations on Perception of the Environment and the Tasks Facing Our Generation’. Written for an exhibition planned by Herzog & de Meuron for Centre Pompidou.

TEACHING WALKING AS RESEARCH ALONG THE VECHTE RIVER In October 2020 Cathelijne Montens and Krijn Christiaansen took a group of their students from Interior Architecture & Furniture Design for a week-long camping trip to the Salland region of the province of Overijssel in the easternmost part of the Netherlands. Here, along the banks of the River Vechte, they introduced the students to walking as a research method.

The group used some shared parameters so that even though each student was focused on a different aspect of the landscape, at the end of the day they were able to combine their findings by layering sheets of tracing paper over the same underlying map. As the week went on, Montens recalls that the students’ ‘way of looking became more focused and we could exchange with more precision about what was being seen’. Christiaansen loves using walking as a method as a way to get students out of school and beyond using just books and the Internet. ‘It’s amazing how much material you can gather in even one day’, he notes.

Montens and Christiaansen were careful not to ask for a specific outcome from the students or to state an explicit goal for the project. They wanted the students to take the time necessary to immerse themselves in the landscape and absorb and observe all the things around them in an open-minded way.

‘When you walk, you encounter and experience so much’, says Montens, ‘you have to learn how to define your own research questions and find the things that inspire you or interest you and then from there you can develop a new work or research inquiry’.

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KCCM, IA & FD students learning about walking as a research method in the Overijssel region, October 2020.

KCCM, Landscape drawings, October 2020.

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OBSTACLES Getting close enough to the river to walk right beside it was harder than it seemed on the map. There were no manmade routes and many obstacles, laws and private properties which got in my way.

During my walking field research, I learned of the labour that used to take place here beside the river. Until the 1950s, men and women used to pull boats laden with sandstone through the river, sometimes with the help of animals, sometimes not. As I encountered each obstacle in my path, I thought of the ones those workers would have gone through, such as encountering sharp bends in the river.

I moved through the landscape with the workers in my mind.

The river as an entity wants to go from A to B. But is also challenged by obstacles such as: dams, locks, concrete pillars, bridges, pipes that create detours or lakes. Its physical body is reshaped but the destination is unchanged. When sandstone transport boats stopped using the river, space was made for the modern phenomenon of leisure. This all leads me to my research question: How does the way in which we perceive our immediate environment effect our decision about how, and in what manner, to move through it?

Zhao Zhou, student, Interior Architecture & Furniture Design, KABK

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Pulling a cargo barge, 1931, The Netherlands

Pulling a cargo barge, ca. 1915, The Netherlands.

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Zhao Zhou, Obstacles, October 2020

Zhao Zhou, Obstacles, October 2020

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Zhao Zhou, Obstacles, October 2020

Zhao Zhou, Obstacles, October 2020

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WALKING IS NEVER NEUTRAL. IN A TIME OF GLOBAL CRISIS – EMBOLDENED WHITE SUPREMACY – IT IS CRUCIAL THAT WE CEASE CELE­ BRATING THE WHITE MALE FLANEUR, WHO STROLLS LEISURELY THROUGH THE CITY, AS THE QUINTESSENCE OF WHAT IT MEANS TO WALK. INSTEAD, WE MUST QUEER WALKING, DESTABILIZING HUMANISM’S STRUCTURING OF HUMAN AND NONHUMAN, NATURE AND CULTURE.

WALKING METHODOLOGIES IN A MORE-THAN-HUMAN WORLD PROVOKES A CRITICAL MODE OF WALKINGWITH THAT ENGENDERS SOLIDARITY, ACCOUNT­ ABILITY, AND RESPONSEABILITY ‘IN THE PRESENCE OF OTHERS.’ STEPHANIE SPRINGGAY AND SARAH E. TRUMAN, DIRECTORS OF WALKING LAB

Springgay, Stephanie and Sarah E. Truman. 2018. Walking Methodologies in a More-than-Human World: Walking Lab. Oxford and New York: Routledge.

Blueprint for cupboards for KABK, designed by J. W. E. Buijs and J. B. Lürsen, 1933.

Detail of blueprint for KABK building, designed by J. W. E. Buijs and J. B. Lürsen, 1932.

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KABINETS IDENTITY The visual identity for this publication and the project as a whole was designed by Niels Schrader and Martijn de Heer.

Referencing blueprints for the KABK 1937 building, located in the The Hague City Archives, the identity is centred on a modular stencil typeface which is based on the Graphik typeface by Christian Schwartz, Commercial Type, and is inspired by early 20th century geometric sans-serif typefaces.

The typeface has five different weights and each of them varies in the width of its stencil bridges, creating a vast range in variation. Setting text in this typeface is randomised by a custom script which creates the unique visual character of the body text.

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STENCIL G1, STENCIL THICKNESS SEMIBOLD

ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ STENCIL G2, STENCIL THICKNESS SEMIBOLD

ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ STENCIL G3, STENCIL THICKNESS SEMIBOLD

ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ STENCIL G4, STENCIL THICKNESS REGULAR

ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ STENCIL G5, STENCIL THICKNESS SEMIBOLD

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STENCIL G1, STENCIL THICKNESS REGULAR

ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ STENCIL G2, STENCIL THICKNESS REGULAR

ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ STENCIL G3, STENCIL THICKNESS REGULAR

ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ STENCIL G4, STENCIL THICKNESS REGULAR

ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ STENCIL G5, STENCIL THICKNESS REGULAR

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STENCIL G1, STENCIL THICKNESS LIGHT

ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ STENCIL G2, STENCIL THICKNESS LIGHT

ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ STENCIL G3, STENCIL THICKNESS LIGHT

ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ STENCIL G4, STENCIL THICKNESS LIGHT

ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ STENCIL G5, STENCIL THICKNESS LIGHT

ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ 250

STENCIL G1, STENCIL THICKNESS EXTRA LIGHT

ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ STENCIL G2, STENCIL THICKNESS EXTRA LIGHT

ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ STENCIL G3, STENCIL THICKNESS EXTRA LIGHT

ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ STENCIL G4, STENCIL THICKNESS EXTRA LIGHT

ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZ STENCIL G5, STENCIL THICKNESS EXTRA LIGHT

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KABK LECTORATE DESIGN The Lectorate Design is centred on a research project titled ‘Design and the Deep Future’, which investigates the relationship between design and geologic time, through topics such as waste and trash, the dematerialisation of design, repair and re-use, digital detritus, and space junk. More generally, it wants to nurture a robust design-centred research culture within the KABK learning environment and via the channels that connect KABK and Leiden University.

For more information please visit: lectoratedesign.kabk.nl DESIGN LECTOR

Dr. Alice Twemlow COORDINATOR

Martha Jager

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CONTRIBUTORS ANNA AROV is an artist and poet. She teaches writing at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (KABK) and works as a poetry editor at Versal.

BUDHADITYA CHATTOPADHYAY is a media artist, researcher, and writer and holds a PhD in artistic research and sound studies from the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA), Leiden University.

JUSTINE CORRIJN is a graphic designer and researcher in the Non Linear Narrative MA program at the KABK. She holds an MA in Graphic Design from LUCA School of Arts Ghent.

CHRISTIAN ERNSTEN is an Assistant Professor in Cultural History in the Department of History of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Maastricht University. He serves on the advisory board at Mondriaan Fund, co-curates the Atelier aan de Middendijk artist-in-residency in Groningen and is co-founder of the Walking Seminar.

MARTIJN DE HEER is a designer, creative coder and coding tutor in BA Graphic Design at the KABK. THORIR FREYR HOSKULDSSON is in the final year of a BA in Art Science at the KABK.

WIM CUYVERS is an architect, educator, and writer with a particular interest in informal public space and has used walking as a method for both teaching and exploration since 1995. In 2009 he became a forestier at Le Montavoies in the French Jura.

SARAH GLUSCHITZ is a scientific illustrator and artist, and currently works as fellow and Medical Illustrator at The Center for BioMedical Visualization at St. Georges University in the West Indies.

She graduated from the KABK in 2016 with a BA in Interactive / Media / Design.

LULU VAN DIJCK studies Graphic Design at the KABK.

JAN GOLABEK is studying Photography at the KABK.

REBECCA DUNNE is a sound, text and installation artist. She graduated with an MA in Artistic Research from the KABK in 2020.

DAAN JENSEN is an Interactive / Media / Design student at the KABK.

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KRIJN CHRISTIAANSEN and CATHELIJNE MONTENS (KCCM) are a design duo whose practice explores the ways public spaces and landscapes are made, lived in and shaped by people. Their research and interventions have taken them to Serbia, Romania, Indonesia, Morocco and Japan. They teach field research in the bachelor programme Interior Architecture and Furniture Design at the KABK. MARCIN LIMONOWICZ is a multi­disciplinary lens-based artist and designer. He is a student in the MA in Non Linear Narrative at the KABK. ARINA LIVADARI is a conceptual designer, photographer, and filmmaker.

She graduated in Interactive / Media / Design from the KABK in 2020.

VIBEKE MASCINI is a visual artist and writer. At the KABK she teaches sculpture in the Fine Arts department and is a member of the 2020 KABK Research Group.

SOPHIE VAN ROMBURGH is a guest lecturer at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society. She holds a PhD from Leiden University and a degree in Fine Arts from the KABK.

NIELS SCHRADER is a designer, founder of Mind Design, co-head of BA Graphic Design and MA Non Linear Design, and a former member of the Research Group at KABK. NICK SHEPHERD is Associate Professor of Archaeology and Heritage Studies at Aarhus University in Denmark, an Extraordinary Professor at the University of Pretoria and co-founder of the Walking Seminar.

LOUISE SPISSER is studying Interior Architecture in the Interior Architecture & Furniture Design department at the KABK. DIRK-JAN VISSER is a visual storyteller and photographer based in the Netherlands. He teaches in the Photography department at the KABK and is a member of the KABK 2020 Research Group. He co-curates the Atelier aan de Middendijk artistin-residency in Groningen and is co-founder of the Walking Seminar.

ZHAO ZHOU is a student in BA Interior Architecture & Furniture Design at the KABK.

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PUBLICATION

EXHIBITION WALK THROUGH EVENT

Art direction Mind Design (Martijn de Heer and Niels Schrader) Editing Alice Ladenburg and Alice Twemlow Editorial assistance Natalia Sliwinska Photography Roel Backaert (p. 224 – 237), Tessa Koot (p. 54 – 55) and Stewart McLaughlin (p. 104 – 105) Printing robstolk® Paper Edixion 80 gr Typefaces G1 – G5 Stencil and Graphik Publisher Design Lectorate, Royal Academy of Art (KABK), The Hague ISBN 978 90 72600 561 Thanks to all the contributors for sharing your work and your reflections.

Videography Vladimir Vidanovski Guest speakers Vibeke Mascini, artist, tutor and member of Research Group, KABK; Dirk-Jan Visser, photographer, tutor and member of Research Group, KABK; Guy Livingston, pianist, radio producer, and PhD candidate, Leiden University.

© 2020 Royal Academy of Art (KABK), The Hague

Thanks to the Interior Architecture & Furniture Design students for sharing and reflecting on the role of walking as a method in their field research, and participating in the Listening Walk in The Hague.

Walking as a Research Method is the first edition of the KABK Art & Design Research Practices project, an initiative of the KABK Design Lectorate.

EXHIBITION Exhibition design KCCM Graphic design Mind Design (Martijn de Heer and Niels Schrader) Exhibition coordination Martha Jager

Design Lector Alice Twemlow Coordinator Martha Jager lectoratedesign.kabk.nl

SPECIAL THANKS TO Thanks to Zeno Beikircher, Chris Borman, Gytha Coleman, Simcha van Helden, Ferry Lemmers and Wais Wardak.

VIDEO INTERVIEW Art direction Niels Schrader Photography Roel Backaert Camera and editing Yannick van de Graaf Script Martijn de Heer Music Lance Laoyan Production Emily Huurdeman Thanks to Krijn Christiaansen and Cathelijne Montens for hosting us at KCCM Studio, Noordwijkerhout.

Krijn Christiaansen and Cathelijne Montens, for being at the heart of the Walking as a Research Method project, for creating a beautiful exhibition, for hosting us at their studio and for being great designers and inspiring teachers.

Niels Schrader and Martijn de Heer for their design, bold and sensitive by turn, and Niels in particular for all that he does for KABK. Marieke Schoenmakers, director of KABK, for supporting this initiative and the growth of a vibrant research culture at KABK.