Walking as Research Practice

by Alice Twemlow, Tânia A. Cardoso

What might be considered the research output of a walking practice? An important caveat to this would be to ask where and when the research occurs in relation to the walk, the walking, and the walkers. Does the walk activate our senses, or do our senses demand that we walk? Since walking involves encounters with various objects and subjects, how might it help us emphasise our connection to the more-than-human world? In addition, walking reveals different entry points to a city. Could walking provide a path toward more socially just urban spaces and commons? With an introduction by design critic and educator Alice Twemlow and urbanist and researcher Tânia A. Cardoso. Published in collaboration with Soapbox Journal.

252 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2024

About the author

Alice Twemlow writes about design for publications including Arena, Baseline, Communication Arts, Design Issues, Design Observer, Good, Eye, Grafik, Graphis, I.D., New York Magazine, Paper, Print, The Architect's Newspaper, and Varoom. She is the author of What is Graphic Design For? (Rotovision, 2006), StyleCity New York (Thames & Hudson, 2005) and has contributed essays to Jonathan Barnbrook's monograph, Barnbrook Bible (Booth Clibborn, 2007), Looking Closer 5: Critical Writings on Graphic Design (Allworth Press, 2007), ELSE/WHERE: MAPPING (Design Institute, 2006), and Why Not Associates 2 (Thames & Husdon, 2004). She has directed several design conferences, including "Voice: AIGA National Design Conference 2002," and "Being Here: Craft and Locality in Graphic Design," held in Berlin in 2004, and co-directed "Looking Closer: AIGA Conference on Design History and Criticism." Alice is currently a PhD candidate at the Royal College of Art/V&A Museum History of Design program in London.

Reviews

[luna · Rating 4 out of 5]

apparently there are as many walking practices as there are people. each essay of this collection is unique, while also being connected to the others by the same calm and explorative spirit. i loved Maria Persu's articulated essay, in which she concludes that there is a need to "abandon the fixedness and conceptual abstraction of ‘social order’ in favour of sociomaterial order-ing, a term that suggests the strong connection between the social and the material, as well as the prevalence of processes over states of affair, of becoming over being". i loved the emphasis on the physical —the body we reside in and the land we reside on— that especially shines when Mendez and Marzan quote Brown, that says what is important right now is "how we intentionally change in ways that grow our capacity to embody the just and liberated worlds that we long for."

walking as a small act of resistance.

[amber]

i have many thoughts on this, which i won't articulate completely here, but i was drawn to this publication. i can't remember how i found it, but recently i've been thinking a lot about walking, especially as i've moved from a walkable city to one that is not. and i've been trying to convince myself to walk more, even though it sucks so much here, and there aren't enough sidewalks, and it's not efficient nor that enjoyable. so, as someone who studied and worked in contemporary art, i guess i looked to artists to see what they had to say about walking as a way to motivate myself to walk. idt that really worked lol, but there's a lot of interesting concepts and thinkers in this publication. i was exposed to a subject matter i never engaged with deeply.

favorites here are by maria persu, natalie bamford and simon king, mariken overdijk. otherwise, there is a lot of art gobbledygook. i don't mean this as an attack on opacity, complexity, big words, or citations. when well utilized, those all create incredible work. they can be important strategies to protect access to subcultures and marginalized communities. and sometimes big specific words are necessary because we're talking about big specific ideas. what i mean are general statements that are declared without elaboration. don't just tell me what; tell me how! with specificity! no more posing questions as concluding sentences. you don't have to explain your statement, but you can't generally state something and expect me to believe it. honestly, a lot of this is directed at myself; i saw writing tactics that i've used before to produce weak writing full of art gobbledygook. but maybe i'm not reading deep enough, or i want something those writers weren't interested in writing, idk.

[abbey lakey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so lucky to own this object. In a way, my rating is considering the marriage of form and function of the design itself - the contained writings are just a bonus. I stumbled upon this book at the printed matter book fair and instantly knew I had to have it. It's full of beautifully written essays on viewing walking as a practice paired with art-making, writing, and general exploration. Each piece of writing gives a different context on walking - walking as a way to gather data, walking as resistance, and walking as a way to slow down, allowing you to get in touch with your body and surroundings. The book is designed to be carried with you on a walk - all the text is on the right side of the spreads, while the left side has coinciding images. It is bound with no true beginning and end, so you can fold the spine to read while carrying in one hand. It is well curated and so uniquely designed.

[Ella Celine · Rating 4 out of 5]

i very much enjoyed the design of the book itself- made to be held and read while walking, one has a very distinct and enjoyable experience of reading it‘s contents. The soft spine and layout of the pages with the text on the right side and citations on the left allows the reader to hold the book in one hand.
A highlight for me was Maria Persu‘s essay on Walking between the disciplinary and the tactical, An embodied view of Certeau's everyday practices.

[-]

really enjoyed the design of this book, but some papers definitely worked better than others in this proposed context. at times it felt the writing was too heavily loaded, or forced, and didn’t provide the openness and clarity that I was looking forward to (in relation to both language and walking practice)!

[tooooby m · Rating 4 out of 5]

𝑥^2 - 2x + 5 kinda

would give 3.5