Chapter Four
4.1 Moving as Knowing
Jacks (2004) states how walking provides a tool for knowing and positioning ourselves. Walking is a tool for discovery, it promotes an internal and external geometry that aligns and orientates the walker with the world that surrounds them. ‘Material walks’ question the walker’s engagement with landscape in relation to knowing materials, and explores the role of the path and its processes in conditioning the walker.
The walks explore movement as an origin of material engagement and knowing, and use walking to uncover and plot the relationship of walker and materials. The path becomes an active map: an interactive diagram where materials might guide the walker’s movement and an interface of material and walker which marks out a route. Material walks explore the use and influence of movement on the walker’s knowing the path and the potential use of material representation and operations in aiding understanding.
The first stage seeks to observe the material and experiential qualities of the various spaces encountered in walking. This stage explores a
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collective materiality, it extends beyond identifying what materials are found and recorded, situating these within a typological frame-work. The second stage of material walks questions how the rhythm and structure of materials might influence the path and the walker’s route. Can material typologies be used to build itineraries and map out potential experiential paths?
Material walks conclude with a study of the walker’s engagement and agency. Walking exercises explore how the landscape and the path actively alter and inform the walker and how the walker in turn also impacts the path through their actions and decision making. This final stage surveys the walker’s encounter with the path and explores how this can be used to produce a continuum of material reaction and response. What can be discovered through tracing the footsteps of a walker across landscape materials and time?
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4.2 Material Walk Stage One - Encountering
Materials Along the Path
Movement gives experience; it creates a unique and personal viewpoint, an intimate knowing of space and surface. Through movement we dwell in space, as a shift of emphasis transforms landscape from tat which is seen as pure image to that which is dwelt in. Landscape is touched, felt, close at hand rather than abstract or distal. It is in this moment that landscape becomes place.
To Phenomenological philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty space is situated. Space becomes known as it is moved through and its materials are explored (Merleau-Ponty, 1974)). Context and meaning is perceived or assigned as the walker interacts with elements of the path. Space is no longer isolated, it is not empty or disconnected from the walker, but framed through experience. Knowledge of and relationship with the path grows as the walker spends time within a space and it gains particularity.
Landscape moved in, is landscape lived in. In walking along a path the walker comes into contact with materials outside themselves. Walking produces an active narration of space as the walker encounters a progression of material things. Actions and elements intersect and allow a unique reading of place. The walker comes to know a particular story built through their active reading and experiential learning (Ingold, 2007). How is this narrative of encountered materiality captured? Sighting and sensing walks are used to observe and identify materials found in landscape and begin to explore the relationship between the walker and landscape. Material walks seek to enrich this knowing, and signify a shift in exploration. The exercises utilise observational tools and insights gained in the first two cohorts of exploration and turn these towards the development of a dynamic, narrative-based inventory. Walk records build a body of drawings, diagrams and scores which reflect materials from within a context of movement and time. This first stage of material walks begins by observing materials, form and
interactive elements across a range of pathways and spaces and endeavours to establish a typology of tracks – a storyboard of experienced materials and spaces.
Material typing begins with the collecting and classifying of a variety of spatial and environmental information (pre-walk mapping using existing maps, accounts and records).
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A networked series of survey walks was then undertaken within the study area across an extensive network of tracks from the Port Hills South through to Mt Herbert (Figure 19).
The range of data accumulated during these observational journeys offers broad scope for interpretation. Data collection includes mapping of landscape forms and features, recording of track surface conditions, and description of material properties and evidence of active processes (water courses, rock falls, erosion, vegetation growth). A typology of materials was created through compiling maps and information, comparing notes and contrasting records.
Recorded Observations:
Survey, analysis and exploration allowed for a thorough interpretation of track form and materiality and a set of sixteen types was developed. Each type relates to a core morphological landform as identified during walks. Each landform was characterised by its key topographic and morphologic features. Other experiential qualities were also mapped. Table 3 (over page) summarise the steps used to determine typologies. Appendix B4 contains a more detailed example of each typology and includes example of notation, field notes and cue cards used in this walking exercise.
Figure 19: Location map – Material Walk One. A range of sites were studied during the development of typologies. Observational walks were undertaken across a wide variety of spaces, along an extensive network of tracks throughout the study area. Orange line indicates walk route.
[IMAGE AUTHOR’S OWN:SITES FOR
TYPOLOGIES –AREA WIDE MAP]
Cue/ Interest Point Study Section
Natural Feature/formation Reserve boundary (DOC)
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Material Walks
Survey (Walk)
Record features: [Map, journal, sketch] Material Palettes
Spatial qualities Material properties Sources of change
Landmarks [Natural and Cultural] Vegetation/Colour/Substances Boundaries
Structures Surfaces
Analyse (Review Walk notes/outcomes
Compare and contrast observations Sketch and explore
Overlay
Look for clusters/similarities
Typical elements (physical site/spatial qualities) Similar experiences
Summarise & Collate
Write up summary notes Key elements/features Spatial layout/forms Processes/Flows
Key words/descriptive titles (landform/topographic feature etc.) List of typical features
Sketch/map (interpretive/concept of potential type sites) Diagram movement/channels/thresholds/edges Types 1 Hilltop/Peak 2 Exposed Ridge 3 Saddle/ Pass 4
Upper Valley Head 5 Re-Gen Scrubland 6 Rocky Outcrop Plateau Surface 8 Meadow Farm Track 10 Rim/Edge Track 11 Plantation 12
Lowland/ Valley Forest 13
Farm Field/ Flat
14 Park trail 15 Grove 16 Bog/ Wetland
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Each type is represented in a diagrammatic vignette, named after a foundational landform (e.g. plateau, saddle etc.). Material qualities are represented by sketched track schematics (plan/perspective forms), description of properties (material-physical and temporal) and are supported by section sketches and notation indicating surface form/ texture, vegetation, shade, wind. Figure 20 provides an example of a completed typology.
The images capture a particular type of material landscape as they are experienced by the walker. Each image gives an illustrative reading of landforms, not as they would appear in a real-to-life image such as a photo, but with a more embodied appearance, like a studied journal entry.
Both photos and drawings can be emotive and leading but drawing is deliberately chosen here to explore and represent type. Photos are used during walks to record a broad view of site and provide an instantaneous record of a scene. Sketching is however a preferred tool for type construction where the act of making a sketch allows time for focusing in and absorbing further.
Figure 20: A typology for a track across an exposed ridge. Each typology includes a shorthand description of core physical elements (top left), a graphic representation of
experiential qualities and spatial feel (top right), a quick sketch of track materials, core features and edge conditions (plan view, bottom right) and an interpretive sketch view of the path (bottom left)
[IMAGE AUTHOR’S OWN:TYPICAL SECTION OF TRACK –STUDIO WORKINGS/SKETCHES.TYPE SECTIONS AND COMMON GROUPINGS]
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The finding and labelling of types is experiential, a product of time in and contact with materials. Each type image is suggestive rather than absolute. In producing the image, elements are marked selectively. Each line is considered and deliberate. Hand rendering allows elements to be explored and defined through the creation of the image and produces an image which is fluid and partially ambiguous.
Physical descriptions are documented alongside records of experiential data and provide a general overview of type features. Descriptions are based on spatial form rather than temporal qualities. Experiential data is based on ‘at-the-moment’ records - perceived conditions, materials and surfaces according to the qualitative view of the walker at one particular time.
Insights Gained:
Creating typologies allows the observer to test and check observations. Maps and other survey data are reviewed as part of a critical process which questions the value and significance of materials observed. In a diverse and materially complex landscape, how many different types should be developed? In order to identify different types, the materials must be well understood with a clear set of recognisable features. Comparing and contrasting materials with a goal of communicating and assigning categories acts to crystallise what is observed and reveals where information is lacking.
The formulating of typologies relies on the walker’s observational abilities and is subject to interpretation. Each walk captures a range of overlapping views which together form a composite type of an idealised geographic location. Like a story board, each image can be viewed alone or as part of a sequence in a frame by frame view of a pathway. Images might be read in conjunction with a map or as a stand-alone account. The images allow the reader to imagine a track in succession, to pause at one particular location and explore detail before moving on and encountering another.
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