Movement: the ongoing passage of nature
MOVEMENT
THINK: Walking is an embodied practice which enables humans to engage directly with the cultural landscape. Walking attunes the human sensorium to the ecological and aesthetic dimensions of an immersive environment through the active experience of movement and sensation. Yet there are as many kinds of walks as there are walkers, and for every destination there exist any number of pathways and points of departure. This means that the way you walk matters. A walk can enact and reinforce 'a bodily image of colonial occupation', or alternatively, a walk can involve sensitive, nomadic and 'dextrous movements' along the pathways of life (Ingold, 2011, p. 17). Walking is thus inherently political and aesthetic: a performative action through which the unfolding relationships between people, places, things and ideas can be expressed. The power of walking as a cultural and expressive practice has long been recognised by Indigenous and First Peoples around the world.The potentials of walking as an artistic practice have also been rigorously explored since the 1950's, through movements associated with psychogeography, environmental art, performance art, sound art and conceptual art (O'Rourke, 2013). Walking has more recently been taken up as a research methodology for interdisciplinary academic practices, linking together sensory methods across the fields of geography, anthropology, sociology, education, cultural studies, media studies and contemporary art, among many others. This recent proliferation of walking as a method for artistic and cultural research has also been stimulated by the rise of locative media and mobile technologies, including GPS, wifi, smartphones and other wireless devices and applications. States and Territories contributes to this growing body of research by exploring the potentials of walking as a tranformative practice for interdisciplinary teaching, learning and research within a university campus.
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