Walking – one sense at a time

2018

Sensory walks, counter-mapping, photography, writing, zine

Auckland, Aotearoa/New Zealand

Together with Elliot Hurst

Commissions/collaborations: auckland city council, splice, depot artspace, aotearoa festival of architecture

🌻

Walking – one sense at a time is about ways of knowing, relationships with places, walking and paying attention.

Walking – one sense at a time explores what changes when you try walking more attentively, making use of your senses. In this series of creative city explorations, we focused on one specific sense per walk: smell, sound, visual, tactile. During each of the walks we noted the respective sensory observations, discuss their meaning and create a unique sensory map. Weaving together arts, research and community activating, each walk is ultimately concerned with engaging the participants into broader social issues – what does a liveable city smell like, what is the sound of social justice, what does pollution feel like?

The walks

The walking series took part in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand from May to September 2018. There were 4 day and 4 night walks, with each pair focused on a specific sense. More than 50 walkers in total explored Auckland’s streets as a medium for creative city exploration, linking everyday sensory experiences to broader social and environmental issues.

I led the walks and shared various ways to smell/touch/look at/listen to the city. Participants mapped their experiences and I facilitated discussion after each of the walks. Together with Elliot Hurst we created five sensory maps that collated participants’ sensory observations. These were made publicly available at the interactive community hub Pā Rongorongo in Auckland’s City Centre.

Here’s me talking about Walking – one sense at a time on Radio New Zealand and sharing impressions from the smell-walk on Depot Artspace’s Art in Action blog.

The publication

Based on the walks I wrote (and Compound Press kindly published) a zine about walking, ways of knowing and paying attention that I wrote.

Print version

You can also get a print version of the publication - get in touch to order one.

What some fellow walkers said about their walk

“At first I was a bit more reserved with touching things, but the longer into the walk, the more it felt great to explore the different textures and surfaces, it was liberating.”

“I don’t usually stop by and take time to look at things, so this time I decided to look at things that I normally don’t pay attention to - the pavement, the manhole covers, the railings - I was very impressed”

“A three-course touch-feast: first you get the lichens - dry and flaky, crumbling under your fingertips, then sharp and stoney rock and finally some soft moss. It was a sensory symphony.”

“I was staring at the tree roots breaking from beneath of the concrete pavement, crumbling it on its sides as they emerge. It was an ‘intensity’ in slow motion. There might be nothing happening if you glance at it briefly, but when you stop and look at it you realise the scale of this extraordinary process.”

The map

As part of the project, Elliot Hurst and I have designed a sensory map of Auckland city centre. It’s based on the sensory observations that participants have noted during our walks and captures a collective attempt to notice the ecological and the political in the everyday urban spaces.

The project was was carried out in collaboration with the community organisation Splice and supported by Auckland Council.