Sidewalks and Peprception: A Talk and Walk in Northfield, part of the Northfield Walking Festival April 30th

At the end of the month, on Saturday April 30th, I'm taking part of an exciting month-long "walking and art festival" in Northfield all about the intersection of walking and art.

One of the key ideas at stake in the festival is psychogeography, which is a favorite concept of mine that emerged from out of the French Situationist movement of the 1960s.

(For example, check out the various "sidewalk games" that I've put on this blog, many of which come directly from Phil Smith's great book Mythogeography. Smith himself will be at the festival in May as a visiting artist at Carleton.)

On Saturday the 30th, I'll be down in Northfield giving a talk and leading a walk around the city. Both the talk and the walk will focus on something I call the "spatial perception" of sidewalks. Put simply, it's how sidewalks express the relationship between the walking body and the city, between speed and and observation.

In a way, I'll be sharing sort of an "artist talk", where I'll go into a bit of detail about how I try to move through urban spaces. What tricks can you use to help think about walking in the city? What kinds of things are useful to notice or observe? How can we start to see the built environment in different ways?

I'll be sharing my personal "walking practice" as its evolved over the years. This includes noticing and photographing things like signs, dogs, telephone poles, windows, and doorways. But I'll also be sharing how I think people can develop their own walking practices, why it's important, and pointing out some interesting ways to go about it.

Then we'll go on a 2-3 mile walk around Northfield to see waht we can see, and to experience the non-linearity of place, how the city and sidewalks ebb and flow and flux to create different and evolving urban landscapes in Northfield, a wonderful walking Minnesota town.

I hope you can come!

[Here's the link to the event.]

When in Roam: Sidewalks, Space, and Perception in Northfield

Urban geographer Bill Lindeke discusses sidewalks as urban amenities, followed by guided walk of Northfield's sidewalks.

Saturday, April 30th, 2016

12:00 pm / Weitz 236

Urban geographer and an editor of streets.mn, Bill Lindeke, will offer an on-foot introduction to the wealth of ways sidewalks invite us to explore. Following a brief talk, Lindeke will lead a guided walk of Northfield sidewalks. Lindeke is a specialist in urban and human geography, specifically how urban space creates habit and shapes desire. His research involves how public space works in US cities to create social possibilities, specifically around the push to increase non-motorized transportation. Twin Cities Sidewalks

It's always delightful to get down to Northfield and I'm excited to participate in such august group of pedestrian thinkers.

[The delightful sidewalks of Northfield await.]