The URL leads to the Pedestrian Blog hosted on Sandra Cowan’s website, which focuses on themes related to walking, art, and urban space. The blog features reflections, essays, and project documentation that explore walking as a cultural and artistic practice. It engages with the ways pedestrian movement intersects with environmental, social, and spatial contexts, often considering walking as a method of inquiry and creative expression within the urban landscape.
The entries include discussions on walking art projects, public space interventions, and the experiential qualities of navigating city environments on foot. The blog situates these practices within broader discourses of cultural geography and environmental psychology, highlighting the significance of walking in understanding place, identity, and community dynamics. It serves as a resource for those interested in the intersections of art, geography, and pedestrian culture.
Most recent articles
Walk 149
Bertha LakeBack in hiking land with hiking friends. A long steep trail up, a long steep trail down - we get to know the switchbacks really well. The glorious lake and views! Location: Waterton Lakes National Park, ABLength: 10 kmCompanions: Troy, Annie, GregDate: 13 July, 2024 [...]
Walk 148
KoraCircling the great stupa of Boudhanath, along with monks, nuns, Tibetans, Nepalis, westerners, easterners, northerners, southerners. All the mantras muttered, butter lamps lit, prostrations offered, prayer wheels spun, incense burned, hundreds or thousands of years of people doing walking meditation here, weaving tendrel with their footsteps, making the world a little more compassionate and wise. The sound of monastic horns and drums floats over the rooftops as the sun sets.Locat [...]
Walk 147
Boudha at nightIt's cool at night, and there are familiar faces everywhere I walk in Boudha. At the stupa I meet friends from Mexico, Hong Kong, Poland, we stop to eat momos together, and share stories and hopes. We walk clockwise, together and apart, joining the street dogs who are always here.Location: Boudhanath, Kathmandu, NepalLength: 2 kmCompanions: severalDate: 11 June, 2024 [...]
Walk 146
Swayambhu to Tergar Osel LingPilgrimage and sacred sites all over the place. There is so much I don't know about these ancient streets I'm walking on. Past that one air conditioned cafe. Around Swayambhunath, the Monkey Temple. Through Buddha park, where golden statues of Padmasambhava, Shakyamuni and Chenrezig gaze across the crowded and noisy Ring Road. Across the Ring Road, somehow. Up the windy road, up the pathway, up the stairs. Cheerful monks coming down say I'm almost t [...]
Walk 143
Spring SnowshoeTracks in the snow leading to a coyote nest overlooking the river. Waves of white cresting over the hills, partridge and deer keeping an eye on us, a small cold northerly breeze, happy to be out tromping through the spring snow.Location: Lethbridge, ABLength: 3 kmCompanions: Tom & TroyDate: 24 March, 2024 [...]
Walk 141
Walk in the SnowFirst snow of this winter, up in the mountains at the end of the Akamina Parkway. Snow falling straight down, quietly fluffing the ground and the burnt trees, still warm enough that streams are flowing.Location: Waterton National Park, ABLength: 3 kmCompanions: TomDate: 6 January, 2024 [...]
Walk 139
Night RiverIt's dark by the time work ends, and it's the feast day of the Virgin of Guadalupe, and if we want to walk we have to do it in the dark, which, as it turns out, is a pleasure.Location: Lethbridge, ABLength: 3 kmCompanions: TroyDate: 12 December, 2023 [...]
Walk 136
Gathering WalkCollecting materials, images, ideas, perceptions...sitting in the bowl-shaped valley over the first hill beyond the hot water swamp where the spring first emerges from the ground, trying to connect to the ground, the hills, forest, grasses, sky, water, the creatures and stories that live here.Location: Boulder, MontanaLength: 5 kmCompanions: NoneDate: 30 September, 2023 [...]
Walk 134
City WalkKensington, Queen West., Spadina, Dundas, Bloor. A black sculpture of a man, smoke rising from his silhouette. At her local cafe, my lovely cousin got more napkins for our tears. So many people making homes on the streets.Location: Toronto, OntarioLength: 8 kmCompanions: Cousin who met me for coffee along the wayDate: 31 August, 2023 [...]
Walk 132
Lethbridge CouleesA summer day's walk down to the river, along the shore to Fort Whoop-Up, up the hill to the museum, and across into downtown, where we must have stopped for an iced coffee.Location: Lethbridge, AlbertaLength: 8 kmCompanions: TomDate: 2 July, 2023 [...]
Related
Marches
With Marches, commissioned by Artangel Inter- action in February 2008, Lawrence Abu Hamdan set out to explore the auditory perception of the built environment using the ephemeral and intangible nature of sound to re- imagine our architectural surroundings and daily spatial practices. These choreo- graphed marches saw ten participants navigate two planned passages through the urban
walknow
The website walknowtracks.co.uk serves as an archive and resource focused on walking routes primarily within the United Kingdom. It catalogues a diverse range of walks, emphasizing detailed route maps, descriptions, and geographical points of interest along each path. The platform integrates cultural and historical contexts related to the routes, enriching the understanding of the landscapes and communities encountered during the walks. The site also enables users to access walking tracks with GPS data, supporting an intersection of digital navigation and traditional walking practices. Additionally, walknowtracks.co.uk functions as a hub for walking enthusiasts and researchers interested in exploring how walking intersects with cultural geography and spatial experience. Through its curated walks, the site documents the relationship between physical movement across terrains and the cultural narratives embedded within those spaces. This approach reflects the broader field of walking art, where walking is both an act of exploration and a method of engaging with place-specific stories, heritage, and environment.
Walking Arts Encounters and Conference
Art del Caminar is a website dedicated to exploring walking as an artistic and cultural practice. It documents various projects and initiatives that engage walking not just as a means of transportation but as a creative and expressive act. The site features a range of content including essays, interviews, event information, and photographic documentation, reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of walking in contemporary art and cultural geography. It highlights how walking can serve as a tool for social engagement, environmental awareness, and personal reflection. The platform also emphasizes the historical and cultural dimensions of walking, situating it within broader discussions of urban space, nature, and community. It includes contributions from artists, scholars, and practitioners who investigate the relationships between movement, place, and perception. Through its curated content, Art del Caminar contributes to the discourse on walking as a mode of inquiry, activism, and artistic expression across diverse geographic and cultural contexts.
IMPRINTABLE
Imprintable.org is an online platform dedicated to the study and documentation of walking as a practice intersecting with art and cultural geography. The site features a diverse collection of projects, essays, maps, and multimedia that explore walking’s role in shaping spatial experience, memory, and identity. It serves as an archival and research resource that highlights interdisciplinary approaches to understanding walking beyond its utilitarian function, focusing on its cultural, environmental, and artistic dimensions. The platform also includes critical reflections on walking as a form of social and political engagement, examining how pedestrian movement interacts with urban landscapes, public spaces, and social histories. Imprintable.org engages contributors from multiple fields, including artists, geographers, anthropologists, and historians, to provide a nuanced understanding of walking's imprint on cultural and geographical practices.
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