Walking Places

Walking Places: Pedestrian Activity and Spatial
Politics

"A walk can exist like an invisible object in a
complex world."
?Hamish Fulton

Walter Benjamin famously reflected on the
architectural spaces of Paris through the figure
of the flaneur, a meandering literary figure who
experienced the city as an unfinished text.
Drawing on the poetry of Baudelaire and
influencing subsequent generations of writers and
artists, Benjamin understood walking as a key
component in the development of a critical and
poetic relationship to the city of the past and
the present. With reference to historical and
theoretical texts and contemporary art, literature
and film, Walking Places explores the space of
contemporary landscapes from a pedestrian
perspective. Through textual analysis and
experiential practice, this class relates walking,
the organization of space and cities, ideas about
technology and aesthetic practice.

Each week, students will take excursions on foot
either individually or in organized class meetings
and reflect on these walks in their journals.
Journal entries will contextualize these walking
exercises in relation to specific course readings,
using various historical and theoretical texts as
framing devices. A final research project is also
required.