"The Slow Death Of Purposeless Walking" - BBC Article By Finlo Rohrer
I've been pointed towards a BBC news magazine article from 2014, "The Slow Death of Purposeless Walking" by Finlo Rohrer.
The article asks "[a] number of recent books have lauded the connection between walking - just for its own sake - and thinking. But are people losing their love of the purposeless walk?"
Rather than describe the article I thought I should embed it into the page itself for everyone to read. [The embed no longer works so the article will load in a new page when image below is clicked]
Whilst doing this project I've walked purposeful walks along the main arteries of Sheffield - Pinstone Rd, Ecclesall Rd, Queens Rd, London Rd - as well as much more open free form "let's see where our wandrering takes us" type of meanders, and honestly, just being outside no matter where that outside is seems to be of more consequence than whether purposeful or not.
References from the article:
First posted on my blog for the 31st March - 11th April 2016 APG Works painting show "Uncertain Spaces" - http://uncertainspaces.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/the-slow-death-of-purposeless-walking_1.html
The article asks "[a] number of recent books have lauded the connection between walking - just for its own sake - and thinking. But are people losing their love of the purposeless walk?"
Rather than describe the article I thought I should embed it into the page itself for everyone to read. [The embed no longer works so the article will load in a new page when image below is clicked]
Whilst doing this project I've walked purposeful walks along the main arteries of Sheffield - Pinstone Rd, Ecclesall Rd, Queens Rd, London Rd - as well as much more open free form "let's see where our wandrering takes us" type of meanders, and honestly, just being outside no matter where that outside is seems to be of more consequence than whether purposeful or not.
References from the article:
- Trina-Marie Baird - essay "How did walking serve as an integrative activity for Wordsworth?"
- Charles Dickens, "Night Walks", 1860. (Read online, buy online)
- Virginia Woolf, "Street Haunting - A London Adventure", 1927. (Read online, buy online)
- Article in the Independent by Emma Woolf, great neice to Virginia Woolf, "Literary haunts: Virginia's London walks", 2011.
- Henry David Thoreau, "Walking", 1862. (Read online, buy online)
- John Francis's TED talk of 2008 - "Walk the earth ... my 17-year vow of silence".
- May 2015 was National Walking Month, as organised by Living Streets, an 85 year old charity focused on getting people walking.
- Merlin Coverley, "The Art of Wandering: The Writer as Walker", 2012. (Buy online)
First posted on my blog for the 31st March - 11th April 2016 APG Works painting show "Uncertain Spaces" - http://uncertainspaces.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/the-slow-death-of-purposeless-walking_1.html
