The Agder team of the project Encounters – Through art, ethnography and pedagogy is inviting to a workshop through walking. The workshop Introduces the a/r/tographich working mode of propositions (Lee et al., 2019), and participants are invited to carry out the proposition “Walk on borders” (Illeris, in press. See text below).

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The workshop will start and end in the amphitheatre of the Lofos Strefi park in Athens (see map below). The workshop will be carried out from 15-18 on Wednesday 24 November 2021, and will have the following structure;

15.00: Meeting in the stairs at the intersection of Emmanouil Benaki & Kallidromiou (outside the Strefi Park). Walk together to the amphitheatre in the park [If raining; We will ask for a space nearby]

15.15-15.45: Strefi park amphitheatre: Meeting up, introduction to the workshop:
On propositions, and walking as practice.  
Information, preparation. Decide how participants will communicate (possible WhatsApp group?), how to share material, when to meet again after the walk.

Ca. 15.45-16.45: Carrying out the proposition “Walk on borders” (individually); walking, creating film snippets (or images & sound?)

Ca. 16.45-18.00 Meeting up to look at the films together, discuss the experiences and different interpretations of ‘borders’. Voluntary: Sharing the films to be merged into a joint presentation for the web page*

Please bring a fully charged phone with a camera, or other type of digital camera.

Proposition text [will also be handed out]

(Proposition by Helene Illeris, to be published in the anthology Pedagogical Propositions: Playful Walking with A/r/tography (Irwin et al., in press). Reflection text below is a shortened version from the same publication, adapted for the Encounters workshop in Athens, November 2021)

Proposition: Walk on borders

The ground is filled with borders and lines, most of them caused by humans.

Follow a border, for example between a street and a lawn.

Film the border while you walk. See how it changes.

Film other borders – you can define your own idea of borders.

Reflection

Borders are everywhere in life, delimiting one thing from another. Physically we perceive our skin as the border of our body, the walls are the borders of our house, and on a geographical map we can see borders between regions and nations. Some want to build walls along borders, others desire to cross them either physically or metaphorically. In urbanized areas, we relate to an incredible amount of lines and borders. We walk on streets or pavements, paths or trails, delimited by surfaces, materials, signs. Outside cities, we also find borders everywhere, but here they often contrast with something less defined that we call ‘nature’.

The border is not only a limit. Like a proposition it is a hybrid between potentiality and actuality. Borders differentiate the visual perception of the ground, securing our sense of orientation, while allowing thoughts to wander. Borders are anchors to be played with. When we look down, moving with our steps, we lose the idea of horizon and thus of perspective, of being in control. With the proposition “Walk on borders” we want to employ a playful a/r/tographic approach to explore the ground, and what it offers.

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Figure 1 and 2: Looking downwards. Following borders. Photos: Helene Illeris 

(*) Use of material      

We invite all participants to share their walking videos, and – if they wish – reflections. In connection with this workshop we will put together a quick edit of these videos as a shared film, and put it on the website encountersproject.eu.

We ask your permission to use these films and reflections on this website, and potentially also as part of a future Encounters research publication, which will reflect on various aspects of using encounters as methodology – particularly in the practices of ethnography, art and pedagogy.

All contributors will be accredited with their name in the film if they wish, and will receive information by email every time we ask to publish a different version using your material. You can also, at any time, ask to be removed from the film. We need your emails to stay in touch for this. These are our emails:

Helene Illeris: helene.illeris@uia.no

Tormod Wallem Anundsen: tormod.w.anundsen@uia.no

Both of us work at the University of Agder, which is a partner in the Encounters project. This is an Erasmus+ strategic partnership (EU-funded educational project). Ethnofest – Athens international film festival  is hosting this event, and is another partner of the project.

References

Anundsen, T. W., & Illeris, H. (In press). Inhabiting landscape: Walking as an act of practicing and being practiced. In N. Lee, J. Ursino, M. Mosavarzadeh, & R. L. Irwin (Eds.), Walking matters: Material and digital a/r/tographic explorations. Springer.

Illeris, H. (in press). Walk on borders. In: R. Irwin,  D. Barney, N. Lee & J. Ursino (Eds.). Pedagogical Propositions: Playful Walking with A/r/tography. InSEA

Lee, N.; Morimoto, K.; Mosavarzadeh M., & Irwin R.L. (2019). Walking Propositions: Coming to Know A/r/tographically. International Journal of Art & Design Education 38(3) 681-690. DOI: 10.1111/jade.12237 .