Pedestrian - a virtual exhibit by Sandra Cowan for the Drifting Bodies / Fluent Spaces International Conference on Walking Arts.
Guimarães, Portugal, 22-24 July, 2020.
This virtual exhibit is a visual distillation of a walking project that I have been engaged in since 2018. I record many of my walks through text and photography on my Pedestrian blog. Rather than a form of documentation, this is more a collection of experiences. It is evidence of my footsteps across time and space, evidence of moments of connection and perception.
In the same way that a life is an accumulation of small and often repetitive acts, a walk is an accumulation of footsteps through a place. It seems simple and insignificant, but the accumulation becomes something great over time. My walking practice is many things: a way of connecting; an aesthetic experience; a conscious expansion of breath; a form of retreat/going-forth; a kind of research into the place I am in as well as into my own mind; an exploration; a path.
In moving through a place on foot in a relatively slow, rhythmic way, my perceptions are awakened and I experience the place in all its sensory and energetic richness. I walk in silence, with no music, no podcasts, no phone calls. Even with a walking companion, there are often long periods of silence. In the silence of a walk, I am more able to feel the ineffable quality of place. As I weave myself through a place in this way, the place weaves through me. I become more present than normal - more aware of my sensory experiences, of my own being-in-the-world, of the world around me. It is an exercise in resting in awareness by walking.
All photographs © Sandra Cowan 2020
Guimarães, Portugal, 22-24 July, 2020.
This virtual exhibit is a visual distillation of a walking project that I have been engaged in since 2018. I record many of my walks through text and photography on my Pedestrian blog. Rather than a form of documentation, this is more a collection of experiences. It is evidence of my footsteps across time and space, evidence of moments of connection and perception.
In the same way that a life is an accumulation of small and often repetitive acts, a walk is an accumulation of footsteps through a place. It seems simple and insignificant, but the accumulation becomes something great over time. My walking practice is many things: a way of connecting; an aesthetic experience; a conscious expansion of breath; a form of retreat/going-forth; a kind of research into the place I am in as well as into my own mind; an exploration; a path.
In moving through a place on foot in a relatively slow, rhythmic way, my perceptions are awakened and I experience the place in all its sensory and energetic richness. I walk in silence, with no music, no podcasts, no phone calls. Even with a walking companion, there are often long periods of silence. In the silence of a walk, I am more able to feel the ineffable quality of place. As I weave myself through a place in this way, the place weaves through me. I become more present than normal - more aware of my sensory experiences, of my own being-in-the-world, of the world around me. It is an exercise in resting in awareness by walking.
All photographs © Sandra Cowan 2020
