Skip to main content

Walk No. 21

Route: House to bus stop via two banks
Duration: 10 Mins
Time of day: Morning


Surface: Topography of the streets, great images are being drawn in my mind of the skin of this landscape (townscape?).

Lines:   The horizontal lines are interrupted by verticals.  I'm thinking of parallax and this makes me
              imaging everything is illusion.  We may even be living in a synthesised invention and not                    know it.

Detail:   I'm walking with a child who is seeing this route (a regular one for me but not for him) through untainted, fresh eyes.  He picks up every detail.  Observations of inanimate minutiae but also the movements of birds, people, vehicles all get mentioned.  The everyday. ........

Pace:  My companion walks very slowly.  It forces me to slow down.  This is agonisingly slow at first but I eventually enter a sedate pace.

Burden: As usual I'm carrying a lot of baggage.  I begin to remember, at the age of my companion or roundabout, being read the Pilgrims Progress by our Welsh class teacher, Mr Davies.  The only part I remember is the rucksacks.  Or what I took to be rucksacks being carried for no reason for the whole journey.  The burdens were unnecessary.......

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Walk No.27

Route: Plymouth Train Station to PCA Duration: 15 Mins Time of Day: Morning Tarmac:  The crust of the earth made from tarmac.  I see under the skin where the roadworks have excavated.  The layers of stuff.... Strata.  Man made. Topography: This shape that hugs the surface.  The horizontality.  The way it changes as you near the spot you thought you could grasp in your vision.  How might the topography look as a drawn thing.  Topology, the mobius strip etc.... Plateau: A plateau is a safe resting place when climbing.  I'm plateauing now but it doesn't feel safe. All I can see is the next mountain face I have to navigate... Steps:  There are perfect steps (just near the station) where each one is at the right distance and height to take one step at a time, perfect.  Then there are the ones just in the university campus where I use two feet on one step meaning I have an uneven rhythm going up or down them.  It's hugely d...
Post a Comment
Read more

Walk No.26

Route:  Totnes to Dartington via Riverpath Duration: 1 hour 30 mins Time of Day: Midday Speeding Van: A van came speeding up the high street and I had started to cross.  Something snapped in me and I slowed right down, holding my ground and walking steadily across the road so the van had to slow down, I stared at the driver in the eyes and gestured he should slow down.  He gave me the finger and swerved round me accelerating loudly so I yelled and gave him the finger back.  I was furious.  He had come out of nowhere, speeding up a gentle road, full of pedestrians with hardly any room to walk on the pavement.  Wanker. From Ollie's sketchbook.. to the man in the van. Lucy Lippard: I try the Eskimo custom she describes in Overlay.  I'm walking the emotion out of my system along the path of the river. "The Eskimo is given a stick, the point at which the anger is conquered is marked with the stick, bearing witness to the strength or length ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Walk No.29

Route: A circular walk around Totnes Duration: An hour and a half Time of day: Afternoon Seagulls: I tune into the cacophony of seagulls above.  I love their sound.  It brings me back to safety.  It's familiar.  It means home, whatever that is. Fishchowters'/Fishcheaters' Lane: Brilliant bit of walking related history - this green lane dates back to medieval times when fisher-people walked this way to the market as an alternative route to avoid paying taxes at the tollbooth.  I particularly like it because you don't often see other people.... Black Cat:    Another walking superstition.  The dog chases any luck away.  It's interesting that her fixation with the cat gives her such a strong purpose of direction, she deviates according to her desires or compulsions. Grass: She finds another purpose.  Eating grass growing in lines through the paving stones.  Although it's disconcerting when your dog eats grass I drift of...
Post a Comment
Read more