Walking Workshops Two Part Event with Michele Whiting.
What happens when walking becomes part of your practice?
These sessions introduce walking as both a conceptual and practical method – moving from shared exploration to developing your own approach. Expect discussion, experimentation, and new ways of engaging with your surroundings.
- 28 March, 11:00–14:00 CET
- 18 April, 11:00–14:00 CET
The following are notes from Walking as a method of my practice on 18/04/2026
Keep in mind there is pain, accidents, getting lost involved – a tria-logue and speculative theory. Walking is an inclusive activity, inclusive of the world around you. Keep your practice central to your listening – we walk because we can – acknowledge those you cannot, or find it difficult, or have never been able to walk. Walking is political – it is mediated by patriarchal systems, race, identity, inequalities, gender, etc. It is a form of labour, a necessity for people without transport, people walk to collect water/food/, think of war zones and forced migrations.
The idea of ‘drove ways’ was interesting. I remember walking these on the Tankwa Camino. I am aware that this is an issue on the road I daily drive to town for walkers – this is not a safe walkway and is not being maintained as such. This reminds me of the neglected road alongside the railroad – in the years of this line being working, I can imagine it was well-kept for walking and a truck to drive alongside.
As a method, it is about being present and within our artistic research processes. Walking lab – Rebecca Ways to present research in walking – discuss colonialisms in a walk. Can unpack many ideas – more than just utilitarian, it’s political, ethical – we have experiences as artists.
She shared some earlier thinking/theories – looked at Guy Debord and his account of derive – something like wandering when he established drifting as a playful technique to move from one place to another and let the psycho geographic effects inform his experience /drifting of being in the city/ the urban environment. (1956) It enables other alternatives to walk – not the regular reason for walking. As artists, that is what we want to happen. Through this act, we start thinking and capture these insights. She referred to the ‘Occupy movement’, which claimed they used this method. Students of the situationist movement – Culture Jam by Lassen ideas to shift American consumerism, a manifesto for change. Going back to the early 2000 – 2014 which we can take stock of. The drifting walks had few rules – tipe of toolkit and strategies. She also referred to the term, flaneur/ flaneuse – binary – suggesting Flannery – to walk idlely – but still very male