Arts of Walking

When I'm looking for a pick-me-up, I often turn to the Some Landscapes blog, run by "Plinius" out of somewhere in Britain, which regularly explores the relations between art and landscape.  Plinius has a nice account of a retrospective by Richard Long, he of the "Line Made By Walking," one of the inspirations for Walkscapes everywhere.  He also references uptake of Long's work, including a film by Carey Young, Lines Made By Walking (2003), which transplants Long's notion into urban space.  To make sense of the citationality of these walks, I would have to turn to Tim Ingold's Lines: A Brief History (2007). I must have mentioned Ingold's work before: he is The anthropologist of walking.

Beyond the familiar

Another beautiful piece by Verlyn Klinkenborg in this morning's NYT:

Recently, I’ve been thinking about the geography of familiarity. By that I mean something like a map of my habitat, the paths I travel most often, the places I feel most comfortable, the routines embedded in the rural and urban landscapes I know best. Most days, familiarity seems inherent in the world right around me, but every now and then I remember that it’s really an artifact of consciousness, a form of perception that can be lost, say, in someone with Alzheimer’s.

More at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/03/opinion/03weds4.html?_r=1&ref=opinion