Thought-in-Motion. The walking-voice as an affective research methodology for the creation of locative media content (original) (raw)

2020, In Y. Ziogas and G. Vermeire (Eds). 2020. Proceedings of Walking Practices-Walking Art-Walking Bodies International Encounters/Conference, 01-07.07.2019, Prespes, Greece.

The paper examines how ‘walking and talking’ could form a creative research methodology, based on the assumption that movement -in its widest sense- and ‘walking’ in particular, also encompasses ‘speech’. My main research question is centered on how the ‘walking-voice’ (as an extension of ‘thought-in-motion’) can reveal aspects of both cognitive and e-motional/affective processes, while we walk in public space. ‘Walking’ constitutes both a way of thinking and of feeling. Subjectivities are always constructed in situ, thus ‘moving bodies’ are continuously constructing and performing identities, at the same time. This is how the spatialization of the self is based on a constant process of intense flows, that create a sense of belonging (or not belonging). I do not intend, here, to approach ‘walking and talking’ as a way to do a peripatetic interview, but as an experimental way to reflect on how “speech act” in this context, could be seen as an important linking element in between the narrativity of speech and the embodied experience of walking. To do this, we I will discuss how we can expand out methodological research tools so that we can approach ‘speech act’ in relation to ‘walking’, not only as a way to tell a story in motion, but as ‘the’ story itself. Finally, I propose that this methodology could be used in order to create digital content (sound narratives) for the creation of locative media projects that focus on our relation to public/private spaces. My main argument is that by re-placing this content in the space it was first produced, we might create a ‘new’ place for these stories/experiences to be re-enacted by other ‘subjectivities-in-motion’. This re-placement could possibly create the circumstances for ‘new’ relationalities and encounters in public space.