In what has become a monthly lockdown tradition I once again joined The Loiterers Resistance Movement (remotely) for July's First Sunday stroll. For reports on previous month's walks see here and here. This month's outing took the form of a "metaphysical treasure hunt" with participants receiving walking instructions to their phones via WhatsApp or Twitter. […]
Lucy Parris is documenting her current walking practice, which throws up images which become prints, on her blog. These prints were in response to boundaries. I have been thinking a lot recently about visible and invisible boundaries. I chose the walk as I knew it would involve boundaries, I have begun walking the perimeter of […]
Urban conservationist Kat Pearson has been using her lockdown walks "to explore the housing estates of Stirchley, Kings Heath, Bournville and Selly Park […] looking at how cars, and especially garage blocks, are integrated into these estates". The result are some fantastic photos and observations collected as Lockdown Lockups. As she says, many of these […]
Walks that use sound, either as an artificial accompaniment or through actively listening, are a broad and inspiring part of the walking practice. I first properly realised this on a sound walk run by SoundKitchen for Still Walking in 2013 where we walked around Edgbaston reservoir engaging in different forms of listening, from the amplified […]
Never in a million years did I think I'd be going on a tour of my local postcode, but lockdown has changed all that. Various Stirchley-based walkers – and I'm sure it's not just us – have developed a talent for 'extreme noticing' on our mandated daily lockdown walks throughout March to May. And the result has […]
In her first post for Walkspace, Megan Henebury goes for a walk in Birmingham city centre on the day the shops re-opened.
Lucy Parris is looking for people to take part in her socially distanced walking project on June 20th. We included Lucy in our recent round-up of West Midlands walking artists and we look forward to seeing how this turns out. Says Lucy: I would like you to join me in a ‘socially distanced walk’ (this […]
I can’t really write about walking without writing about maps. Hand drawn, Ordnance Survey, road, tube, physical, nautical, political, climatic, thematic, ancient, fictional maps, if you can think of it there is probably a map for it. A note before we proceed, everyone can learn to read maps, don’t believe any nonsense that some people […]
There's much to enjoy in this correspondence between writer Alys Fowler (who you may know from her memoir Hidden Nature kayaking Birmingham's canals) and artist John Newling (whose exhibition Dear Nature was on at Ikon before lockdown). It takes the form of six letters with photographs over April and May. You can read them on […]
One small consolation for walkers in lockdown is that it's no longer necessary to travel to Manchester to join the Loiterers Resistance Movement for one of their First Sunday strolls. For the past three months the Loiterers have been conducting their group walks remotely meaning that anyone can join in from anywhere in the world. […]