Framing the Capital – Waypoints and Walkworks

I am starting to make some progress on my creative intervention of the Long time No See Project? The conversations between Chris and I are beginning to yield many different ideas of creating a walk that reveals the layers of the inner north of Canberra. At our weekly meeting, we compared notes – of my walk to Mt Majura and Chris’ exploration of the reclaimed dump site at the back of Campbell Shops. Some of the images from my walk were originally posted on this post titled 365 Places: filling in the gaps. Here is the map and a link to the walk.

Mt Majura at EveryTrail
http://www.everytrail.com/iframe2.php?trip_id=3010011&width=400&height=300EveryTrail – Find trail maps for California and beyond

Here are some of the images:

We also talked about how we could use the waypoints in the PDF Fieldwork book to build our ideas. As a start, I thought I could respond to the waypoints textually and poetically, by connecting my personal experience of the inner north to the provocations put forward in the Fieldbook. Here are some initial comments:

1. Leaving behind: the past, nostalgia, abandonment, loss, reflection, a new and unfamiliar place.
2. Planting ideas: new thoughts, thinking about the future, preparing, being outside of one’s comfort zone.
3. Getting closer: the journey is long, the destination is far in the distance, though progress has been made.
4. Taking care: leave only footprints, take only photographs, being conscious of how we tread on the ground, what we consume, which ground does it come from?
5. Giving more: how can we improve on the past? what are our obligations for the future?
6. Breaking silence: making our actions speak, talking the walk, voicing our experience.
7. Talking point: letting the site speak, stories hidden under ground or in the trees, exposing them to the light, seeing with new eyes.
8. Enduring legacy: how today’s actions impact the future, healing the ground, acknowledging the past, moving on, acceptance of new homes and evolving sense of place.
9. Welcoming embrace: home, love comfort, a place to think, a place to dream, a place for the future.

One of the things that I have thought about a lot since starting to use my phone for producing creative walkworks, is the connection between nature and technology. Last night I discovered a very interesting text by Sue Thomas Technobiophilia: Nature and Cyberspace, which I hope will inform some of the theoretical aspects of these projects.