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Fred Forest, Hygiene of Art: The City Invaded by Blank Space (1973)

book containing photo of protestors with blank signs

Fred Forest, Hygiene of Art: The City Invaded by Blank Space (1973). Photo of page from “Walking and Mapping: Artists as Cartographers”

This was a performance walking by Fred Forest in the streets of São Paulo, Brazil under the military dictatorship. The artist hired 15 professional sandwich board men to walk with him carrying blank signs.

The goal of this series of provocative actions undertaken under the cover of art was to create symbolic/utopian spaces of popular free expression in the mass media and the street in defiance of the ruling military junta. Elements included a nationwide call-in operation using specially installed telephone lines, blank spaces for reader response published in several newspapers, the use of radio and television to orchestrate unusual experiments in public participation (e.g. a taxi rally through the streets of the city), a videographic “mini museum of consumerism,” and a street demonstration in which participants carried blank signs: “The City Invaded by Blank Space.” This last endeavor led to the artist’s arrest by the political police.” (credit)

12th SAO PAULO BIENNIAL
OCTOBER 1973-
AWARDED THE BIENNIAL’S GRAND PRIZE IN COMMUNICATION

Megan Young “Longest Walk” (2016)

Developed in response to the militarization of public space during the 2016 Republican National Convention (RNC), this embodied installation draws inspiration from feminist histories and solidarity networks around the word. The collaborative gesture includes serial public texts printed by Angela Davis Fegan and collective actions led by female participants. Gallery installations include the resulting print archives layered with experimental video archives of participants in motion.

Alexandra Huddleston, “Traces of Time, walking the Jardins de l’Abbaye de la Cambre in summer” (2022)

“Title: Traces of Time, walking the Jardins de l’Abbaye de la Cambre in summer

Author: photography and text by Alexandra Huddleston

Link to Downloadable Press Release

Traces of Time explores how walking – in particular walking in a park – influences our perception of space and place. Through a close, meditative, and pedestrian observation of the built and biotic landscape of one of Brussels’ most beloved parks – the Jardins de l’Abbaye de la Cambre – this work highlights the small, almost imperceptible, hourly and daily transformations that mark time’s passing. The work was photographed in August and September of 2021 while Alexandra was an artist in residence at the Boghossian Foundation – Villa Empain. The resulting book is a hand-bound, limited edition artist’s book that centers around eight photographic sequences, interspersed with large, single images.” (credit)

Julie Poitras Santos, flight Paths (2018)

four people walking down a street on a hill

“In Flight Paths participants were invited to walk together, considering significant moments of departure. Whether actual or metaphorical, departure – with its twin, arrival – asks us to give up something in order to find the new, but we aren’t always ready to go. Beginning our walk at the Kulturcentrum in Ronneby, we walked through the narrow streets of the oldest part of the city, making our way to the town square. In the square participants traded stories about departure and leaving.

(photo: Simone Aersoe) Created for the Kulturcentrum, Ronneby, Sweden in partnership with the AIR Blekinge.”

Credit: “Flight Paths.” Juliepoitrassantos.com, juliepoitrassantos.com/section/519153-flight%20paths.html. Accessed 1 Oct. 2023.

Walking Meetings

From MindTools:

“A walking meeting is exactly what it sounds like: a meeting that takes place while its participants are walking around.

It could involve just a few minutes’ “walk and talk” with a colleague en route to another part of the building. Or, it could be a more organized 20-minute stride around the park while you and two or three colleagues brainstorm ideas or thrash out a problem. … To stay healthy, the U.S. Office of Disease Prevention, via its Health Promotion Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate intense activity (such as brisk walking or playing doubles tennis) each week. [3] So, by holding a 30-minute walking meeting every day, you would be helping your people to achieve this, giving them long-term health benefits.

Mental health and wellbeing can be improved too, with studies showing that regular exercise can help to reduce anxiety and build up your tolerance for stress. [4] The combination of fresh air, daylight and walking is a great stress reliever, and exposure to daylight helps your body to produce beneficial chemicals, such as serotonin and vitamin D. People with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) will also thank you for the opportunity to get some natural light.

Furthermore, research by the American Psychological Association shows that walking enhances people’s creativity and productivity. According to neuroscientists, walking increases blood flow to the brain, which helps people to express ideas more fluently.

Formalities tend to be dropped when you take people out of the office. This allows them to think more freely and to develop stronger relationships with one another, and with you. And, by taking yourself away from the hustle and bustle of the workplace, your meeting has less chance of being disturbed.

Things to Consider When Arranging a Walking Meeting

To hold a walking meeting, you won’t need any special equipment beyond a decent pair of shoes and clothing suitable for the weather. But you will need a safe space and participants who are able and willing to cover the distance.

You’ll also need to consider the resources that you’ll require, such as refreshments, pens and paper, and how confidential the meeting will be – who needs to be there, who might be in the vicinity of your walk, and who might overhear what you’re saying.

Other considerations include noise that might make it harder for attendees to communicate (chatter in a busy corridor, for example) and how you will chair the meeting effectively outside the more formal setting of a meeting room.

It is, therefore, crucial that you think about the purpose of your meeting carefully before adopting this approach. For example, could a quick standing meeting be carried out in a more formal setting, with a small agenda and ideas submitted via email beforehand?

Walking meetings are best for exploring possible solutions to a problem, brainstorming or conferring on decisions. If you know that you’re going to need a whiteboard or other equipment, it might be better to “walk and talk” to promote discussion and then return to the boardroom to draw everything up together.

A word of warning at this point: please remember that, if you can’t include remote workers, you’ll not only be missing out on their contribution, but they may also feel excluded from the decision making process. They will likely need to be consulted before any final decisions are made to ensure that they can participate in the process.”

Credit: “MindTools | Home.” Www.mindtools.com, www.mindtools.com/af5nfqq/walking-meetings

‌Tips from Harvard Business Review:

Consider including an “extracurricular” destination on your route. Dr. Eytan, whose office is located in Washington, D.C., often mentions the nearby Washington Coliseum as a place to stroll by, and notes it is where the Beatles played their first U.S. concert. Naming a point of interest, he says, provides more rationale and incentive for others to go for a walk.

Avoid making the destination a source of unneeded calories. One of the arguments in favor of walking meetings is the health benefit. However, this is easily negated if the walking meeting leads to a 425-calorie white-chocolate mocha that wouldn’t otherwise be consumed.

Do not surprise colleagues or clients with walking meetings. It’s fine to suggest a walk if it seems appropriate in the moment, as long as it’s clear that you’ll be fine with a “maybe next time.” But if you’re planning ahead to spend your time with someone in a walking meeting, have the courtesy to notify them in advance, too. This allows them to arrive dressed for comfort, perhaps having changed shoes. You might also keep water bottles on hand to offer on warm days.

Stick to small groups. Haimes recommends a maximum of three people for a walking meeting.

Have fun. Enjoy the experience of combining work with a bit of exercise and fresh air. Perhaps this is the one piece of advice that doesn’t need to be given. Our data show that those who participate in walking meetings are more satisfied at their jobs than their colleagues who don’t.

Based on our survey and the clear case to be made for walking in general as a key to good health, there would seem to be no good argument against making a habit of walking meetings — or at least giving it a try.”

Credit: “How to Do Walking Meetings Right.” Harvard Business Review, 5 Aug. 2015, hbr.org/2015/08/how-to-do-walking-meetings-right.

Graeme Miller, Linked (2003-)

aerial view of a roadway

Graeme Miller, Linked (2003-)

“Commissioned by the Museum of London, Graeme Miller’s ongoing Linked project opened in July 2003 as a massive semi-permanent sound work and off-site exhibition of the contemporary collection of the Museum of London.

Stretching across from Hackney Marshes to Redbridge, the M11 Link Road was completed in 1999 after the demolition of 400 homes, including Miller’s own, amid dramatic and passionate protest. Concealed along the three-mile route, 20 new transmitters continually broadcast hidden voices, recorded testimonies and rekindled memories of those who once lived and worked where the motorway now runs evoking a cross-section of East London life. Day and night, voices and music were broadcast along the length of the route.

IN RECOVERY

Linked has endured as perhaps the largest sonic installation and sculptural entity in London for over 18 years. Since 2003 its transmitters have broadcast over a million times the voices of former residents of the 500 buildings demolished to build the M11 Link Road motorway.

Over these years some of the transmitters have been lost – to a lorry crashing into a lamppost, to accidentally being taken down by contractors, to weather, time and entropy. Amazingly many have endured and have become an almost secret layer of the landscape of East London. It is not only time to refurbish this work, but time to look at how it works in time and how public art endures or de-commissions itself. With this in mind Graeme Miller is currently looking to stage RE-Linked in 2022: the first annual 48-hour restoration of the entire network that will also include a reflective public conversation between former residents, interviewees and interviewers, sound and radio artists, eco-activists and, as ever, the wider curious walking public.

Please watch this space for developments and join us in 2022

“I found myself wishing that more of Britain was covered by such transmissions, ghosts of ravaged neighbourhoods set free to speak again.”

Libby Purves, The Times” (credit)

Carol Maurer, Walking Forward, Looking Back (2018-19)

people on the floor in a gallery

Carol Maurer, Walking Forward, Looking Back (2018-19)

Walking forward, looking back is a practice-based project utilizing a journey through the landscape. Artist Carol Maurer walks from her ancestral home on the Eastern Shore of Maryland through Delaware to Chester County PA, collecting stories, photos, memories and objects along the route. Rediscovering histories – both true and false. ​The journey began as a way to experientially confront her responsibility as a descendant of enslavers and slowly weaves into a meditation on the time, tempos, conversations and understandings walking can make space for.” (credit)

Kristina Borg, The Cities Within (2016) Alternative DIY Walk – Vienna, Austria

people walking in a city with headphones and zines

Kristina Borg, The Cities Within (2016) Alternative DIY Walk – Vienna, Austria

Kristina Borg

“In 2016, the methodology and practice outlined in the previous section (Alternative DIY Walks) resulted in the project The Cities Within. This walk was specific to the city of Vienna (Austria), precisely to the neighbourhoods of Leopoldstadt and Favoriten, the 2nd and the 10th districts respectively. This project was made possible as part of the Artists in Residence programme of the Austrian Federal Chancellery and KulturKontakt Austria, and also supported by the Cultural Export Fund of Arts Council Malta.​” (credit)

Alternative DIY Walks

These alternative do-it-yourself walk-tours are specific to different cities. Starting off with a series of conversations with a number of locals, the artist gains knowledge about their day-to-day experience of their city. Gleaning information from these conversations, together with onsite-research walking, the artist maps-out a number of hidden and/or neglected spaces, significant to personal and collective memory, so as to create a fictional-narrative based on a mix of fantasy and reality.

The narrative forms basis for a sound-walk that takes the shape of a do-it-yourself walk-tour and invites the participant/walker/wanderer to enter a one-to-one relationship with that city. Through a combination of recorded found, ambience sounds and a voiceover narration, one is guided through different neighbourhoods, streets, spaces and places. This project purposefully moves away from the city touristic centre and focuses on the outer districts/areas which more often than another are neglected by authorities. During such one and a half to two hour walks one passes through streets and places that are not always so common, but are significant to the daily lives and memory of the local inhabitants. Each DIY walk is also complemented with a series of illustrated maps, presented in the form of a booklet, which help indicate the way as well as when to play or pause the audio. From time to time the audio is paused so as to get a live experience of the place here and now.

Through this mix of fantasy and reality it is up to the participant/walker/wanderer to decide how to interpret the narrative, whether to take it as a fact, a metaphor or a dream. ” (credit)

Peter Hutchinson, Foraging (1970)

Basically it is an account in photographs and text (there was also a film) of a six-day backpacking hike through the Snowmass Wilderness of Colorado. The expedition became for him “one of those short times that subjectively is greater than a lifetime.”

He accounts of the trip in Art in America in 1972, and later Eric Cameron writes about the piece in Art Forum in 1977.

Bani Abidi, Security Barriers A-Z (2009-19)

illustration of a road barrier

Ban Abidi, “Security Barriers A-Z” – type A – Iranian Embassy, Shahrah-e-Iran, Clifton, Karachi (CREDIT)

illustation of security barriers

Bani Abidi, Security Barriers A-Z (selection of M-Z; 2019) [CREDIT]

Bani Abidi, (1971-) in Karachi (PK), lives and works in Karachi and Delhi (IN)

26 Inkjet Prints, 29.7 x 42.0cm

A design typology of security barriers found on the streets of Karachi (2009 – 2019). These barriers, which started making an entry into Karachi’s streets soon after the attack on the Twin Towers in NY in September 2001, raise questions around the notion of safety and economic segregation, state control and political strategies of demarcation. Out of context, against a white background, they resemble minimalist abstractions.” [credit]

Security Barriers A-L, 2008

The artist Bani Abidi is a nomad of two cultures. Born and brought up in Karachi, Pakistan, she lives and works today in Delhi, India. These biographical details run through her humorous works that depict the cultural and political differences and similarities between the two countries and their conflict-ridden border. In her work Security Barriers A-L, Abidi employs temporary architectural elements for an analysis of political manifestations of state violence, the maintenance of state power, and national strategies of demarcation.
In twelve prints, the artist catalogs the various models of security barriers in her hometown of Karachi, which she first photographed on-site, before going on to digitally rework them. She found the various constructions in front of embassies, consulates, at airports and intersections. Arranged in rows of three, the brightly colored, clear, and sharply contoured vector drawings against a white background are like objects featuring in a glossy catalog. One almost feels tempted to order one of these beautiful objects for the front yard, even though their design idiom is unambiguously that of a barrier. Only the attached titles establish the link to their original context and the related strategies of isolation and demarcation: type H stands out among the drawings with its all too vigorous expression of political superiority, while the flower-bedecked barrier in front of the British Deputy High Commission of the former colony almost seems smarmy. (KB) [credit]

“Bani Abidi’s early engagement with video, beginning at the Art Institute, led to the incorporation of performance and photography into her work. These mediums have provided Abidi with potent, sometimes subversive means to address problems of nationalism—specifically those surrounding the Indian-Pakistani conflict and the violent legacy of the 1947 partition dividing the two countries—and their uneven representation in the mass media. She is particularly interested in how these issues affect everyday life and individual experience.” (credit)

“…It is the life of ordinary citizens that interests Abidi—not the heroic tale, but the poetry of the quotidian struggle for freedom of those who die laughing, or defiantly laugh in the face of death….

I want to make a strong point about the fact that my work is not about Pakistan. It’s about power, security, and militarised architecture; and it’s about the vulnerability of regular people.

We ought to be aware and assert the fact that such an identity-based reading of culture only happens when a work by a brown person is shown in a white space. A romance set in Paris is never perceived as being ‘about’ France, is it? What you see in my films is what I know and assume as my normative: the sounds, smells, landscape, and temperature . . . these are the details that help tell a story.

I am certainly not out to teach anyone anything about my country. My practice draws from a large spectrum of present and past experiences, and I hope to be able to speak to anyone who is interested in those ideas.

Of course, there are many layers in my work and its reading very much depends on the context in which it is placed….” (credit)