Strive to fulfil your purpose
You might be aware that WLC is part of WALC, a collaborative 4-year project, partially funded by the EU, which aims to establish an International Center for Artistic Research and Practice of Walking Arts. One of our partners is Nau Coclea, headed by Clara Gari.
With this week’s mailing, we’re expanding the scope of our weekly newsletter, with Clara sharing her thoughts with us. If you want to learn more, you can meet up with Clara at our online event on May 29, where she will talk about The Grand Tour, a 250km walk in Catalonia.
Meanwhile, take note that next month is National Walking Month in the UK, and we are delighted that Jack Cornish, Head of Paths at the Ramblers, the U.K.’s largest walking charity, will be our guest at a Walking Writers’ Salon on Tuesday 7 May. He will be talking about the history of rights of way in England. We do hope you’ll be able to join us.
Some of you will know me well, like you do Geert, Andrew and Babak of WLC. I’m grateful to them for expanding our collaboration, and to give me a voice here, through the platform shared by so many of you, walking artists, soundscape creators, explorers and travelers.
Working in my project, the Nau Côclea Contemporary Art Centre in Catalonia, I experiment with a model which completely merges life and professional activity, not in a conciliatory manner, as seems to now be the trend, but by merging time, completely, in a kind of "dance mode", through a scenario in which creation and personal time move their feet together, as if in a Perpetuum mobile.
This is how, together with Geert Vermeire, I’ve taken up the challenge to organize, for the second time, the Walking Art and Relational Geographies Conference in Girona and Banyoles, from the first to the sixth of July, 2024. This, after the good times we had together in 2022 with a community of over 100 people who came to Catalonia from all over the world.
As part of the conference, in step with contemporary thinkers and artists, we have become interested in movement, not only of people but also of animals, plants and all the beings that live with us. This transcending of the human has led us to reflect on transhumanities and on human and non-human migrations. And this is the theme of our 2024 meeting.
Our meeting brings together academics and artists in a hybrid programme in which experience and academic knowledge are of equal importance. That is why, along with first-rate academic contributions such as that of professor Radhika Subramaniam, we have also programmed film screenings, meetings in the city, processions, walkshops, and more, including a long-distance walk between Girona and Banyoles in which some of the most interesting events of our meeting will take place.
I would like to invite you to this conference, which will also be a discovery of my homeland, Catalonia, and of the magnificent city of Girona, which some of you already know from previous visits, and also of the mysterious and enchanting karst lake of Banyoles, a biological jewel with fauna and flora rooted in a remote past.
You can come and exchange your experiences, to explain your projects, or simply to meet informally around a table, with a few beers, to exchange visions, projects and emotions with people from all over the world.
Consider, your holidays do not have to be “escapades”, or “detours”, as, instead, you can incorporate them into your significant projects, and combine them with your personal research, to fuse them with the spirit that animates you, striving to fulfil that for which each and every one of you has come onto this world.
I invite you to take this journey with us, as I know what this adventure is going to mean for you.
Walking, cooking, loving, exploring and wine drinking
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Supported by:
Contemporary Art Center Nau Coclea
We are small, non institutional and independent but we are resistant, sustainable and we love what we do.
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Free for supporting members, open to everyone
2024-05-07 18:00
· Online
Hundreds of thousands of miles of paths reach into, and connect, communities across England and Wales, however, there are several thousand that have been lost or barricaded over the years. Walking artists and activist, Jack Cornish has dedicated the last five years of his life to walking these forgotten routes. Keep reading
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2024-05-15 18:00
· Online
Researcher and author Dr Anna Burton who has researched and written extensively about trees and how they have influenced the way we write about them; is the guest of Shani Cadwallender and Amelia Hodsdon, our writers in residence. Keep reading
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Support walk · listen · create
walk · listen · create is a member-supported organisation. If you like what we do, and want to see more of it, please become a supporting member.
You will be facilitating a more sustainable organisation and you will contribute to larger prizes for both the SWS and Marŝarto awards. And, as a supporting member, you get free access to our online cafés.
Support us from 5 euros per month. It’s even a bit cheaper if you commit for a whole year. Check out the details.
Neighbourhood Narratives
Last year WLC took over the management and ownership of Placecloud, which we have since made more accessible for anyone to contribute and geo-locate audio stories. We’ve been exploring ways to encourage more people to create material for Placecloud, and have started conversations with publishers, architectural practices, as well as with Historic England, the latter with the intention of deriving stories from the list of registered buildings and ancient monuments in England.
With this in mind, earlier this year, we launched our first ever non-fiction writing competition in which we invited people to write about places familiar to them, calling it Neighbourhood Narratives. We enlisted Bathscape Landscape Partnership in the UK and Orana Arts in Regional NSW, Australia as sponsors for some of the prizes. Now, the judges have made their decisions and drawn up a shortlist of these stories. There’s a Baker’s Dozen of them and each is an absolute joy to read. Which one would be your winner?
New walking pieces
A series of parallel walks exploring the way from seclusion and destruction to playful movement and exchange under the open sky. Keep reading
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A City Full of Stories is a digital SoundWalk created by those experiencing homelessness in London and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. It lasts 25 minutes, blending words and music to imagine the stories of the streets and buildings. Keep reading
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Upcoming events
2024-04-30 08:00
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Join Street Wisdom’s Philip Cowell and Vanessa Barlow for a 1 hour online Street Wisdom Walkshop meeting on Zoom at 8am BST on Tuesday 30th April 2024! Starts at 8a... Keep reading
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2024-05-01 23:00
· Online
A free online event promoting geo-locative audio experiences and getting it out there: signage/marketing: simple things can make a big difference to the uptake. For... Keep reading
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2024-05-02 08:00
· Online
A free online event about promoting geo-locative audio experiences. Do you track your download numbers? And what about signage? Simple things can make a big differe... Keep reading
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2024-05-04 04:30
· John Wesley's New Room, 36 The Horsefair, Broadmead, Bristol BS1 3JE, UK
Join Lisa D’orso and Kevin Hughes for a 2 hour in-person Street Wisdom Walkshop meeting outside John Wesley’s New Room, 36 The Horsefair, Bristol BS1 3JE on Saturda... Keep reading
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From our network
Shortlisted in the Neighbourhood Narratives writing competition -
Birds of Passage at Bradwell by Richard Westcott Keep reading
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Writing competition shortlist announced. Keep reading
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Shortlisted in the Neighbourhood Narratives writing competition -
East Hynish Lighthouse Cottages Keep reading
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Shortlisted in the Neighbourhood Narratives writing competition -
Chances by Chris Cuninghame Keep reading
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Shortlisted in the Neighbourhood Narratives writing competition -
The Monument Woman by Dan Harwood Keep reading
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Shortlisted in the Neighbourhood Narratives writing competition - Little Forest by Jamie Derkenne Keep reading
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Stuff we found
Beginning and ending in Dundonald Park, Morgan Mercury’s tours explore prominent activist figures, the development of Ottawa’s queer nightlife and the decades-long ... Keep reading
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