The Walking Artists Network seeks to connect those who define themselves as walking artists – or who are interested in walking as a mode of art practice – through a series of meetings and an online interface. We would like to invite you to take part in its development.
At the moment we think WAN might help us:
* share examples of our walking practices, and the practices that inspire.
* ask how we might define walking art as a medium, and whether attempting a definition is a fruitful method for generating discussion and debate
* explore the multi-disciplinary routes to walking as an art practice.
If you would like to be part of the network you can add your name and biography to our members directory here: http://www.walkingartistsnetwork.org/register-your-interest/ and join the mailing list here: www.jiscail.ac.uk/wan
Thank you for endeavouring to give form to something as an artist, creative person I have considered as part of my self expression.Walking connects me to the meditative spiritual state in which I connect to my creativity.Walking is part of an over all art process, as it is multi sensory and physical it encompasses me entirely.it is breathing , seeing, feeling, smelling, connecting, living as a process.Walking engages all my senses in a creative dance, sometimes leading to other forms of expression , but always part of a whole.
Beautifully put, Tracy! You’ve succinctly expressed what I instinctively have felt about walking, and how it really is part of artistic practice… I’ll know where to point if anyone ever tries to scoff! Thank you.
Well being to you,
a Syd.
I just wonder why put the word art in it, if meditation and internal experience is the focal point. If we say that is art, couldn’t we say all activities done with mindfulness can be called art? And then we lose the specificity of the definition of art to a broader view of life as mindful practice and meditation. How do we differentiate between the two, and is there a difference at all? Certainly WAN opens up this discussion, but it also will alienate those who take these kinds of walks not as a form of art but as a form of living as non-artists. Many don’t want to define art as day to day living and for good reason. It reminds them of a contrived action, as opposed to something that existed long before art ever did.
Hello-
I am interested in this idea as an artist but I would like to extend the notion to not just walking, but movement under human power through the landscape. I find the movement via bicycle another valid category. This could also open things up to other wheeled folks as well.
thanks!
I had thought of this too. However on reflection, after reading Paul Maunder’s book ‘The Wind at my Back- a cycling life’, a realised that cycling connects us in a different way from walking, probably due to the speed and the concentration required to cycle (ie not fall off etc!). Walking is easy to stop, reflect, think, write, draw etc? I think cycling also has meditative qualities but different?
In last evenings webinar with Living Maps, Wilding places through Walking (and not Walking), the speakers brought up issues of inclusivity including disabilities, gender and poverty. That was interesting as I had been thinking along those lines too.
Hi
Great idea, just finished a project about the subjective experience of walking in the natural landscape for my Fine Art Degree, and am compelled to do more, found such an abundance of stimulation, thinking of exploring the city landscape and making some connections between the two. Thanks
i am in the first term of a MA fine art ,as a mature student .. last time i studied was years ago…. i find the concept of walking and art interesting
Just found WAN – I am walking and photographing the N7 part of Islington for the Bleeding London/RPS photo project. Every time I go out I am surprised by what I find. Yesterday I went around York Way and into Cally Park – all regenerated – but still a sense of the history which I love about London. Had a nice cup of tea in the very old Parma Cafe in York Way!
I’m an Italian architect, PhD Candidate at the Department of Architecture of the University of Naples Federico II and Junior Researcher at the Institute for Service Industry Research (Naples) — one of Italian institute of the National Research Council of Italy.
I’m doing a three-week Short Term Mobility Programme at Plymouth University and my goal is to investigate the diverse aspects of the urban regeneration processes of the waterfront and the City Centre with a particular focus on public spaces and community engagement.
My fieldwork consists also in contacting stakeholders to have a short brief about the facts done and the projects in progress for the city.
It would my interest meet us.
Thanks in advance.
Your sincerely,
Stefania Ragozino
I am applying for an MA as a nature student and am feeling very much out on a limb! No pun intended. I met you Tracey at UCLAN a couple of months ago. Sadly missed your talk at the Brindley on the 23rd. Walking has always been a part of my life’s great joys and later art practice armed with my third eye, my camera. Journeys documented are an interest in mine too so the ones on foot are especially worthy being slower and less interrupted!
I am a textile teacher and have just found this site realised this is something I have been doing from childhood. My mum used to walk us everywhere and instruct us on the scenery and history as we walked, when we got home we would create a collage of what we had seen that day. Thankyou for the memory. I now use this in everyday life, in my work I recognise angles, structures, and colours depending on where i have been and which way I have walked to work reflects on my day.
I am a traditional herbalist and artist. For me walking is art, a way to connect, a pilgrimage. I am currently deeply immersed in a project ‘a year in Stara Woods’. A community woodland in Cornwall. I walk as practice and an art form. I work with linocuts, ink, charcoal, acrylic and oils. My art objects are the end result of my art practice of walking, for me there is no disconnection between the two, walking and art object. I have a solo exhibition Nov19th-Dec16th 2016. Part of my exhibition will include a meditative and mindful silent walk.
Tried to complete the questionnaire on the event in Edinburgh. There did not seem to be a way to send it. Perhaps the problem was because I completed it on my tablet.
Hi Libby, sorry about that – I’ll look into it and get back to you. if you have time to try it on a desktop that would be must appreciated. All best, Clare
I’m an artist who is currently involved in a project at Bankfield Museum, Halifax called “The Secret Life of Objects” (check out the blog) where I have created a route based on an old map that was made to identify roads that needed widening in the 1920s. My aim is to walk the route filming, drawing and recording my subjective experience. I have looked at OS & virtual maps and am interested in the embodied experience of mapping/walking. I would be really grateful if anyone could recommend any texts/theoretical sources as its about 8 years since my fine art degree. I’m following my intuition but a conceptual framework & examples of other artists work would be great.
Karen, check out our publications page for resources on walking and art: http://www.walkingartistsnetwork.org/publications/
I love this site, thank you so much! One question, I am on the member list and want to change my email address. Is there a way this can be done? Thank you!
Hi, if you can email me at cqualmann@hotmail.com I’l send you the link to edit your entry
I am a walking artist , based in Cheltenham and just embarking on my second ma , this time visual communication …. are there any other walking artists locally to work on collaboration projects…. I am a multi disaplinary print maker . Thankyou anthea
Hi, I am a current third-year Photographic art student. I am currently working on a project which started from the basis of walking practice. I am looking for somebody to write a short text about my project for the publication that will accompany the work. If you could help it would be amazing and your work would be published. My email is cressyknuckey@hotmail.co.uk. Please get in contact if you believe you could help,
Thanks,
Cressy
Hello all walkers, I am part of a collaborative creek walking project in Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia. Our project is called Walking Upstream: Waterways of the Illawarra. We’d love to hear from any of you who have a creek/stream/river walking project. If you’d like to become members of our International Creek Walking Network (ICWAN) please post on our blog at http://walking-upstream.net/
I too love the site. I saw a reference to it last week and joined immediately. Many thanks.
Hello, for me, walking is an immersive practice, allowing me both to contract into the tiniest speck of matter in a vast world and appreciate the detail of what’s around me, and to expand beyond horizons of this life, universe and the limitations of my imagination. With my feet on the ground, I can find the silent emptiness which allows more things to be possible.