Walking & talking: making strange encounters within the familiar

Abstract

This article outlines the creation and testing of a practice-as-research methodology that investigates whether introducing playful interventions into a habitual cultural practice – in this case, walking – can heighten an individual’s openness to encountering the strange and unfamiliar, with a view to increasing receptivity for communication and dialogue. The focus on physical movement as trigger for intellectual, psychological or emotional change distinguishes this research from other, more conceptual, ideational strategies. The methodology emerges from a performing arts practice centred around notions of play and draws on contemporary geographical discourses concerned with relationships to place as well as on qualitative methods of inquiry. Creating a series of experiments and interventions to look anew at our surroundings, the research locates itself within practices that are concerned with critically exploring the cultural geographies of cities through performative and affectual approaches. The article examines some of the empirical findings of the research specifically related to negotiating encounters across difference presented by the other articles in this issue.

Résumé

Cet article fait un compte rendu de la création et du test de la méthodologie « practice-as-research* » qui cherche à savoir si l’introduction d’interventions ludiques au sein d’une pratique culturelle habituelle – dans ce cas, marcher – peut intensifier l’ouverture de la personne à la rencontre de l’étrange et du non-familier, dans le but d’augmenter la réceptivité à la communication et au dialogue. L’accent sur le mouvement physique comme déclencheur de changement intellectuel, psychologique ou émotionnel différencie cette recherche d’autres stratégies plus conceptuelles et idéelles. La méthodologie tient son origine de pratiques de performances des arts centrées autour de notions de jeu et s’inspire de discours géographiques contemporains qui s’intéressent aux relations au lieu ainsi qu’aux méthodes qualitatives d’investigation. En créant une série d’expériences et d’interventions pour un nouveau regard sur ce qui nous entoure, la recherche se situe au sein de pratiques qui s’intéressent à l’exploration critique des géographies culturelles des villes à travers des approches performatives et affectives. Cet article examine certains des résultats empiriques de la recherche, spécifiquement liés à la négociation des rencontres avec la différence, présentée dans les autres articles de ce numéro.

*Note de la traductrice : Ce terme exprime la notion de lien direct entre la recherche et la pratique. La pratique fait partie intégrante du processus de recherche et des résultats obtenus.

Resumen

En este artículo se describe la creación y el ensayo de una metodología de investigación práctica que investiga si la introducción de intervenciones lúdicas en una práctica cultural habitual — en este caso, el caminar — puede aumentar la apertura de un individuo para encontrarse con lo extraño y desconocido, con miras al aumento de la receptividad para la comunicación y el diálogo. El enfoque en el movimiento físico como disparador para el cambio intelectual, psicológico o emocional distingue a esta investigación de otras estrategias más ideacionales y conceptuales. La metodología surge de una práctica de artes escénicas en torno a nociones de juego y se basa en los discursos geográficos contemporáneos que se ocupan de las relaciones de colocar, así como en métodos cualitativos de investigación. Creando una serie de experimentos e intervenciones para volver a examinar nuestro entorno, la investigación se localiza en sí dentro de las prácticas que se ocupan de explorar críticamente las geografías culturales de las ciudades a través de enfoques performativos y afectivos. El artículo examina algunos de los hallazgos empíricos de la investigación relacionada específicamente con la negociación de los encuentros través de las diferencias presentadas por otros artículos de este número.

Keywords:

• Encounter
• walking
• habit
• dialogue
• perception
• neighbourhood
• movement

Mots clés:

• Rencontre
• Marche
• Habitude
• dialogue
• perception
• voisinage
• mouvement

Palabras clave:

• encuentro
• el caminar
• hábito
• diálogo
• percepción
• barrio
• movimiento

Acknowledgements

Thanks to all the research participants, near and far, and to the anonymous reviewers for their insightful and helpful comments.

Notes

1. Participants were happy to be named and some requested this. No one expressed the wish to remain anonymous. Participants were interviewed before and after their walks. I prepared sets of questions for each of these which are available on request. Many participants talked at length, going beyond the questions and offering a wide variety of interesting and thought-provoking ideas that contributed to the research. Their words are cited thus: (Dee, April 2009, pre) for a pre-walks interview with a volunteer and (Claire, November 2008, post)for a post-walks interview with a volunteer.

2. Desire line – Although the definition is not to be found in the Oxford or Chambers dictionary, a desire line or desire path is an urban planning term used to denote paths which are created by humans or animals which diverges from concrete or paved roads. They may be created because of a lack of these. Wordspy.com suggests it is: an informal path that pedestrians prefer to take to get from one location to another rather than using a sidewalk or other official route.

Wikipedia suggests: a desire path (also known as a desire line, social trail, cow path, goat track, pig trail or bootleg trail) can be a path created as a consequence of erosion caused by human or animal foot-fall or traffic. The path usually represents the shortest or most easily navigated route between an origin and destination. Width and erosion severity can be indicators of how much traffic a path receives. Desire paths emerge as shortcuts where constructed ways take a circuitous route, have gaps or are non-existent. Desire path – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire_path

3. Participants in a walk mis-guided by Wrights & Sites at WALK21 in Zurich, 2005

4. Chipwalk chip paper, from walk walk walk’s Chip Shop Tour as part of E8: the Heart of Hackney exhibition, June 2008.

5. The Feldenkrais Method has become an internationally accepted way of re-training the body to move more freely through increased awareness of our habitual patterns of movement: ‘The Feldenkrais Method® uses movement as a sensory measure, employing developmental movement patterns experienced in the growing infant who learns how to gain flexibility, strength and mobility. In the adult patterns of use occur which can inhibit and limit movement. These patterns that we use unconsciously in adult life can be re-orientated to improve function’. http://www.feldenkraisforyou.co.uk/what-is-feldenkrais/ accessed 4 November 2009.

6. ‘Walk’ here is in parentheses because Laura uses a wheelchair and calls her walking activity ‘trolleying’.

7. Eileen, for example, often makes the walk to her local shop three times a day.

8. Post Walk interviews which were conducted once the participant informed me they had completed the four walks. These took place in cafes, homes and on walks. Almost all of the participants had a lot to say about their walks. Discussions lasted from 9 to 90 min. They discussed with me their notes, drawings, photographs and found objects. Questions that I created to encourage discussion were usually not necessary. The questionnaires for both the Pre and Post Walks Interviews can be sent on request, as can more detailed findings.