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Walk No.2


Route: House to Totnes Train Station
Duration: 15 Mins
Time of Day: Morning



Traffic Smell - It's cold and so the smell of the fumes from car exhausts is thick.  The air is dirty.

Zebra Crossing - I set foot on the zebra crossing and a car neglects to stop. I nearly get run over. I think about the intersections, the crossings and remember Tim Ingold's interpretation of this.  At this point the reality that it's on the pedestrian to be alert and watch out for traffic and not the other way round is colouring my day and also what I go on to notice.
The road/line of the driver is mapped and strict.  They are more or less relieved of autonomy and isolated from the immediate experience of movement in a system of simple obedience. (My mother believes this is why I have never learnt to drive.....)

Neighbours - I notice the neighbours getting into their car and then, as I'm passing the surgery (half a mile later),  I see them getting out of the car in the surgery car park.  They drove half a mile. It took me the same amount of time on foot.

Bike - I walk on the people bit of the shared space.  A bike flows by steadily.  I notice the continuous line it makes rather than the dot to dot line making my footfall does.

Finger lists - The remembering technique of using my fingers seems to be working ok but the recollection does not capture the essence of the walks.  Words are inadequate.  It's problematic. Extending the digit memory game has mileage within another field I'm dipping into about systems and my own thinking style but I need to investigate other methods of actualising my findings, or more than findings - total experience.
A later seminar discussion on failure reminds me to consider the notion of Modernism tending to polarise, and in this case practice/activity and thought rather than a whole.  So there's a deficit.  A lack of essence.  The sum of the parts < whole.  What is this essence, perhaps if I knew I could solve the issue? Later still I make a voice memo on my phone while walking. It still leaves a lot out.......




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