On Walking... and Stalking Sebald
- Submitting institution
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University of Plymouth
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 264
- Type
- A - Authored book
- DOI
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- Publisher
- Triarchy Press Limited
- ISBN
- 9781909470309
- Open access status
- -
- Month of publication
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- Year of publication
- 2014
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- ‘On Walking’ is a detailed case study of a 17-day exemplary walk by Phil Smith, which recreated the ‘unreliable’ journey of W. G. Sebald’s 'The Rings of Saturn' (1995). A ludibrium for the exponential growth and sophistication of the walking arts movement, it builds upon Smith’s earlier book, ‘Mythogeography’ (2010), in which he proposes an exploratory understanding of place and space based on heightened awareness and the layering of multiple meanings and perspectives. The research deployed a multi-modal practice-research methodology that included participant observation, autoethnography, a review of recent psychogeographical and activist literature, and experimental walking performance. In doing so, it tested the tactics that were emerging (or revived) within a ‘new movement’ of walking practice, considering the extent to which they realise mythogeographical principles of multiplicity, immersion, stratigraphic layering, hypersensitization to terrain, the disruption of dominant narratives, reflexive autobiography, possibilities for subversive play and art making. It also identified where they break beyond those principles and necessitate an evolving revision of mythogeography (as, for example, in advocating dispersive forms of organization developed by arts walkers). Where the findings were of successful tactics, these are distributed in the ‘handbook’ element of the book.
‘On Walking’ draws in detail on the field notes and extensive photographic records not only of the ‘Sebald walk’ but also of many other exploratory and performance walks by Smith in a wide variety of contexts. It led directly (both visually and in terms of intent) to the booklet, ‘Rethinking Mythogeography in Northfield, Minnesota’, with photographer John Schott (Triarchy Press, 2018), in which Smith again critically re-evaluates his praxis, this time the result of ambulatory research in the United States in 2016 (which included two weeks of autoethnographic walking, 5 dialogic walks with local residents, and a two hour ‘Blazing Worlds’ performance walk, re-made as a film).
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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