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First foot

1 Jan, 2024

The first person entering a household on New Year's Day setting the tone for the year is a tradition celebrated by the Scottish and Northern English people. National First Foot Day, often associated with "Hogmanay" in Scotland, dates back over 1000 years, possibly introduced by invading Vikings. The custom involves the belief that the first person stepping into a house on New Year's Day brings good luck for the entire year.

It was exactly 100 years ago, in 1924, that walking arts became what it is today, with surrealists walking about chance encounters and meetings, meeting with strangers at the core of their artistic walking actions.

Our century is and will be defined by forced migration, together with the problems emerging from climate change. The archetype of the migrant in our time of global crises is a walker. Climate change and global conflicts displace people and communities, causing mass migrations in search of safety, food, and shelter, many of these displacements happen by foot between continents.

Walking arts in the 21st century can help to mitigate the impacts on displaced people and communities, with great importance given to local hospitality towards walkers of all origins. Walking arts is a universal practice and places the refugee/migrant and the local citizen in a shared space of hosting and being welcomed. It creates an inviting environment for reciprocity and cooperation between the ones who are hosted and the ones who host.

And that may well be the legacy of walking arts, when looked back upon in 2124.

Happy New Year!

co-founder of walk · listen · create

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"SCHRITTWEISE" by Katja Münker is a performance-intervention, using choreography and walking to engage with city environments and create performative walks. It combines physical performances with an audio-guide and a research toolkit available online. The project aims to establish a collective aesthetic space and invites individuals to interpret and co-create within the provided framework, reaching beyond social and physical boundaries imposed by COVID-19.
With The (Future) Wales Coast Path, Alison Neighbour, through a cooperation between Wales and India, seeks to raise awareness of the impermanence of the land many of us take for granted, and to open up a local and global conversation about flooding, sea level rise, and adaptation. This walking piece is one of the shortlisted pieces in
Audio Artist Dawn Matheson, in collaboration with Abhiraj Dadiyan, has produced a participatory work "Semi-Colon". Part of the larger "How To Draw A Tree" project, Semi-Colon invites listeners to engage with nature in original ways. The multimedia endeavor focuses on fostering connections between individuals with mental health challenges, creativity, and trees, seeking to foster social change and combat isolation.
"Stopping To Notice" is a podcast created by Miranda Keeling, Oli Seymour, and Fresh Air Production, focusing on everyday life's joys. The show lasts only 5 minutes per episode and aims to celebrate ordinary moments via sound.

Upcoming events

2024-01-05 10:00 · Online
Walk the new year in with a difference! Does January feel endless and stodgy?  Want to kickstart fun into January? Walk this way! Step into fresh thinking this J... Keep reading
2024-01-06 16:00 · Héroes Park, Jirón Las Mimosas 231, Lima 15063, Peru
Join Ursula Franco Block for a 2 hour in-person Street Wisdom Walkshop, meeting at Parque de los Heroes, Jiron las Mimosas 231, Lima 15063 (Google map here) on Satu... Keep reading

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Stuff we found

Hear what musings coming alive in the dark. Source: Podcast: Nightwalking with Bianca Giaever – Atlas Obscura Keep reading

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pedestrian acts

By de Certeau: In “Walking in the City”, de Certeau conceives pedestrianism as a practice that is performed in the public space, whose architecture and behavioural habits substantially determine the way we walk. For de Certeau, the spatial order “organises an ensemble of possibilities (e.g. by a place in which one can move) and interdictions (e.g. by a wall that prevents one from going further)” and the walker “actualises some of these possibilities” by performing within its rules and limitations. “In that way,” says de Certeau, “he makes them exist as well as emerge.” Thus, pedestrians, as they walk conforming to the possibilities that are brought about by the spatial order of the city, constantly repeat and re-produce that spatial order, in a way ensuring its continuity. But, a pedestrian could also invent other possibilities. According to de Certeau, “the crossing, drifting away, or improvisation of walking privilege, transform or abandon spatial elements.” Hence, the pedestrians could, to a certain extent, elude the discipline of the spatial order of the city. Instead of repeating and re-producing the possibilities that are allowed, they can deviate, digress, drift away, depart, contravene, disrupt, subvert, or resist them. These acts, as he calls them, are pedestrian acts.

Added by Asli Ozgen-Tuncer

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