Why is the landscape beautiful?
This weekend saw the celebration of the International Day of the Landscape, highlighting its importance as a fundamental part of the human environment. A key focus was on the connection between well-being and the landscape, as interacting with nature has been shown to greatly benefit our health. Exposure to natural surroundings can enhance social interactions, increase happiness, instill a sense of purpose, improve sleep, and reduce stress.
It’s impossible to discuss landscapes and walking without referencing Lucius Burckhardt (1925-2003), the godfather of Spaziergangswissenschaft, or the "science of walking." Burckhardt, who taught architectural theory at Kassel University, coined this term in the 1980s. Also known as Promenadology or Strollology, he developed it into a sophisticated approach to planning and design, extending even into the walking arts.
For Burckhardt, landscapes exist primarily in our minds. His work emphasized the rich and layered relationship between walkers together and their surroundings. Those who walk with open eyes continually encounter intriguing questions, like why the boundaries between city and countryside are no longer so distinct, or why landscapes and gardens should be viewed as works of art. Hence his central question "Why is the landscape beautiful?". Since landscapes are mental, we shape and reshape them as we walk through them, making walking itself an inherently creative act.
Walkers are like painters, interpreting and transforming the landscapes they traverse from within.
Walking arts goes far. beyond the lone walker artist, walking over long distances over often difficult terrain, it is about walking and making friends, to walk together, to celebrate together. It is about movement, in the broad sense of the word, a movement of people triggering change and collective action. Becoming a landscape, becoming the landscape. Humans and non-human beings in unisono.
And maybe that is what makes a landscape beautiful?
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co-founder of walk · listen · create
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Free for supporting members, open to everyone
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2024-10-22 18:00
· Online
A Walking Writer's Salon with Duncan Minshull. In his new book, Duncan Minshull, the UK’s ‘laureate of walking’, brings together the recorded footfalls of over fifty walker-writers who have travelled somewhere across the world’s seven continents. Keep reading
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Latest podcast episodes
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Join @thebuzzknight for this Classic Replay with Steve Howe, guitarist for the progressive rock band Yes. Listen to this musician interview podcast to hear one of t... Start listening
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We all love a story, and here at Chiltern Open Air Museum, we have plenty to tell! On Sunday 13th October 2024, around the campfire in our beautiful surroundings, w... Start listening
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Join @thebuzzknight for this music podcast interview with the powerful singer-songwriter/musician Daniela Cotton. She is known for her powerful, soulful voice and h... Start listening
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Maggie Doyne joins Libby for a ‘Walk & Talk’ to discuss her journey from New Jersey to Nepal, where she’s lived for almost two decades as the co-founder of Blink No... Start listening
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Join @thebuzzknight for this episode with Michael Dorf, Founder of City Winery, a chain of music venues and urban wineries with locations in seven states and nine c... Start listening
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Join @TheBuzzKnight for this Classic Replay with the great Record Producer Jack Douglas. He is responsible for producing some of the greatest rock music ever made f... Start listening
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New walking pieces
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The People’s Park. By the Park’s People. This sound walk was created as a contribution to Poole Park Celebration Day, held on 29th July, 2021. The audio materials were sourced from online video clips, in which people documented their own experiences while visiting the Park. These were combined with excerpts from interv... Keep reading
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This video explores the various surfaces of a rhetorical walk to -- inscribing the road with feet and posting signage systems with tape and staples -- all to find a lost cat. Keep reading
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Drawing on an old local folk-tale that contains remnants of ritual, Libations was a 30-day project involving listening to the land and multi-species others, walking, and pouring a libation of water as an offering each day. Keep reading
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Guards (2004) is a video installation with sound documenting a performance orchestrated by the Belgian-born artist Francis Alÿs. It is one part of the “Seven Walks” series commissioned by Artangel. Keep reading
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FROM DUST TO STARDUST a sensorial walk in deep time
by ienke kastelein, Beatrice Khoumeri and Peter Schreuder
Banyoles, July 5, 17.30 – 20.00 – 2024
Part of the Walking Art and Relational Geographies Conference Girona – Banyoles 2024
During the Walking Art and Relational Geographies Encounters in Girona and Banyole... Keep reading
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Upcoming events
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2024-10-22 18:00
· Online
A Walking Writer's Salon with Duncan Minshull. In his new book, Duncan Minshull, the UK’s ‘laureate of walking’, brings together the recorded footfalls of over fift... Keep reading
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2024-10-26 09:00
· Boekhandel van Noord, Buikslotermeerplein, Amsterdam, Netherlands
On Saturday 26 October we will walk around the landscape of Buikslotermeerplein and draw.
Walk in: 10:30
Time: 11.00-13.00
Starting point: Boekhandel van Noord... Keep reading
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27 Oct - 3 Nov, 2024
· Online
British Summer Time is a series of short sunrise walks in consideration of the time change. Over ten seasons, walkers from across Europe and the Americas have joine... Keep reading
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2024-10-27 13:00
· 1 Quaker Street, London E1 6SZ, United Kingdom
The fifth walk with Alisa Oleva in October will be an invitation to move with the city and let the city move you. How do you move in the city? How does the city mov... Keep reading
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From our network
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Christina Horvath and myself will headline the Clevedon LitFest, Celebration of the Book, on Sat 2 November. I'll be hosting a conversation exploring the publicatio... Keep reading
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Day 111 - Perambulate and 8.3 km drawing. Epicurean and 5.7 km drawing. Keep reading
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Day 110 - In Transit and 3.2 km drawing.Materialize and 4.5 km drawing. Keep reading
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This week’s adventure: a long walk to my father’s hometown, and another one back. Both walks turned out to be longer than I’d anticipated, even though I took a shor... Keep reading
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Day 108 - Appoint and 3.4 km drawing.Post-Downtown and no drawing. Keep reading
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English teacher Yusuf finds an old cassette recorder and dusty mixtapes belonging to his newly deceased father that reveal secrets about a man who remained as sil... Keep reading
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Les grandes oreilles cherchent une seconde vie.Voulez vous les adopter ?A donner avant destruction le 15/11/2024Après deux présentations en Normandie, nous ne pouvo... Keep reading
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Day 106 - Survey and 1.7 km drawing.Immanent and 5.3 km drawing. Keep reading
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The idea is to deepen our knowledge of landscape as a sphere of movement. The need to conduct research on urban walking emerges from the mechanics of so-called “sen... Keep reading
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Choisir un bancSelon son emplacement,Ce qu’on y entend,Ce qu’on y voit,À ’instinctS’y installerNe rien faireLaisser venirS’immergerPrêter attention aux sonsNe pas c... Keep reading
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Latest videos
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Launching a new international series ‘Anna and the Verwandelingen’, a sequel to the successful editions of ‘Anna and the Field Reports’, before a live audience at the School of Gaasbeek in Belgium, Anna Luyten chatted with historian, painter, performer, writer, pianist, doctor of arts, collector and walker Koen Brouck... Keep reading
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How can artistic interventions that engage communities through walking create and foster an emotional connection to coastal landscapes? Join Ali Pretty , Walking Artist and the Director of Beach of Dreams, for an insightful session exploring the role walking artists can play in advancing the conversation on climate cha... Keep reading
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Launching a new international series ‘Anna and the Verwandelingen’, a sequel to the successful editions of ‘Anna and the Field Reports’, before a live audience at t... Keep reading
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Stuff we found
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Walkers are provided with maps but are encouraged to use their intuition to move between waymarkers. Source: AI-generated Irchester nature walk highlights climate c... Keep reading
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Roger Sewill will start his journey from Charlwood, Surrey, on 15 October and will finish in Dorset. Source: Campaigner to walk 200 miles with a pony from Surrey to... Keep reading
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While travellers rarely stop to sightsee, providing overnight facilities will give historic venues an edge Source: Heritage sites on new offshoot of Spain’s Camino ... Keep reading
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