Search
My feed
walkingevent

Utility Notation

Utility Notation is a guided psychogeographic walk led by artist Ruby Waldo that explores the overlooked utility codes spray-painted on sidewalks in Pittsburgh’s Point Breeze neighborhood. Participants learn to recognize the colors and symbols used to mark underground infrastructure such as electric cables, gas lines, water mains, and sewage pipes—visual language that maps hidden networks beneath the urban surface. Using these utility markings as a navigational score, the walk encourages an embodied experience of the city as participants follow cues for movement and observation along a 1.25-mile route.

The event combines artistic practice with an attentive study of everyday urban surroundings, inviting walkers to use their bodies and senses to engage with infrastructure in a new way. Through this process, Utility Notation highlights the relationship between the built environment and the flow of resources, revealing how subterranean systems shape the rhythms of the city above. The walk starts at Westinghouse Park and includes a visual score for reference, fostering deeper awareness of both the physical landscape and one’s own movement within it.

Submitted by: Babak Fakhamzadeh
This event has happened

2026-09-26 14:00
2026-09-26 14:00
2026-09-26 14:00

Hosted by: Shiftworks Community + Public Arts; led by Ruby Waldo
Westinghouse Park, 7051 Thomas Blvd, Pittsburgh, PA 15208, USA
Westinghouse Park, 7051 Thomas Blvd, Pittsburgh, PA 15208, USA Westinghouse Park, 7051 Thomas Blvd, Pittsburgh, PA 15208, USA
Westinghouse Park, 7051 Thomas Blvd, Pittsburgh, PA 15208, USA

Electric

Collection · 4 items
Sub-collection

embodied knowledge

Sub-collection · 13 items

water

4 sub-collections · 133 items

Regions

Pittsburgh

City · 8 items

the [video]flâneur

The artist walks like a „Flâneur“ through the city. He does not have a turtle with him (as the original Parisian Flâneur of the 1830‘s used to); later, he does not write stories, he does not write poems. He has only a video camera. He takes shots of the city; he takes shots of the “life” of the people of the city, sometimes he also shoots “himself” (…without camera moves, without zooming, without special lighting, with original sound, without permission); Later he chooses and combines the scenes, Installs and presents them online, offline, on site or off site, always under different contexts.

Problem?

Encountered a problem? Report it to let us know.

  • Include the page on which you encountered the problem.
  • Describe what happened.
  • Describe what you expected to happen.
Follow us

A weekly dose of walking inspiration

One column, selected discoveries, and upcoming Open Calls. Free, once a week.