Today at 2pm I "joined" Blake Morris and The Loiterers Resistance Movement for a remote but synchronised Sunday stroll. Every first Sunday of the month the Manchester based LRM, lead by Morag Rose get together to walk creatively and engage critically with the city. Their walks are open to everyone but in light of the lockdown they're having to be even more creative: can collective walking be compatible with social distancing? Yes.
This month's solution was to team up with Northampton based walking artist Blake Morris whose 52 Scores project fits the brief perfectly:
Every day I am picking a piece of scrap paper to add to a weekly walking collage. After 7 additions the collage will form a walking score, i.e. instructions for walking. Each score will be finished on Friday, made public Saturday, and walked on Sunday.
At 2pm BST Sunday 5th April Morag Rose will be at home in Manchester and will begin a walk guided by the score from her home, while I do the same in Northampton. We invite you to join us wherever you are.
I took up this invitation from my home in Birmingham and got myself a copy of the score from Blake's website:
At the agreed time I stepped outside and gave myself an hour to complete a circuit of my chosen block. I stayed much closer to my house than on my usual state-sanctioned daily strolls and I walked at a much slower pace meaning I was able to really tune in to my immediate environment while contemplating the cryptic lines of Blake's score.
I set myself the challenge of taking a photo for each line of the score and here are the results:
Thanks to Morag Rose and Blake Morris for this opportunity to walk together alone. I'm sure there will be more to come.