A walk to film, a film of walking

I started this walk in the hopes that I could also film what I was doing at the same time...a difficult task indeed.  I found my attention being pulled in too many directions so I concentrated on making the film and just set my phone to record my track.  I did however snap a few photos and pass a guitar player as well as some Physical Plant sounds near the AMAFCA channel on North Campus.  I notice more areas to explore every time I walk this same route.  There are places forgotten that also continue to cry out for attention.  On the way back toward George Pearl Hall I noticed someone sitting under a large drain pipe and thought it a could place to rest and take shelter from the sun.  While secretly desiring a more urban playground (not so secret anymore) than Albuquerque, I have discovered that the mix of the urban and wild makes for an interesting dichotomy.  There are so many "unfinished" corners of the city and the walking has indeed revealed that notion to me.

I was able to create and place the QR code/objects throughout various locales in the city.  Two will be directly available to the people volunteering to take my walk and elucidate some landscape using a smart phone.  I will post photos of the process of making these objects and some photos of their placement throughout the city.  It was cathartic to make something physical for this project and I believe grounds the work by alluding to a possible design intervention one might make when attempting to cater to a smart phone using crowd.  I wonder if people will know what to do with them and indeed this may be a shortcoming of the finished product.  I wanted to keep the objects mysterious to only the most curious of user but I fear that may be too limiting.  Two days out in the environment however, and we will see what results more time may bring. 




View 2011-03-28 10:17 in a larger map

Walk #7



Sounds from Monday morning by itajan

A walk to a grassy parking lot

This walk came about as a result of the Fall 2010 semester.  We initially visited the old parking lot of a long since close car dealership in order to get a feel for the scale of a garden design we were working on.  The grass outlined polygons in the asphalt and created this puzzle of parking lot.  Nature always finds a way to weave its way into the forgotten crevices of society.  Earlier in the walk, in the neighborhood directly west of UNM's main campus I walked on a street that had no sidewalks...I guess an unnecessary addition to this particular residential street.  This was also the first time I was able to test out the SoundCloud app following an update to the program that allowed it to work on my smart phone.  It was fortuitous because that very day a bird was joyously signaling the first days of spring and his/her enthusiasm was noteworthy.  I also happened upon Merlin's door.  It was a small door on the side of someones backyard fence and I can imagine only a magician being able to fit through such a door...or a cat...named Merlin.




View 2011-03-18 17:50 in a larger map

Walk #6




Spring Bird by itajan

LE Subject Walk plus embedded object

View 2011-03-03 15:22 in a larger map

Walk #5

Quick investigation of the AMAFCA channel pathway

View 2011-02-28 16:18 in a larger map

Walk #4

Impromptu walk in the NE quarter

I found myself up in the NE quarter of Albuquerque in order to make some observations on the ecosystem of the foothills where the city meets the wilderness.  There are water drainage pathways all along the North/South lateral of the mountain span and in this particular area the water drains into a particularly large basin on the west side of Tramway Blvd.  This large basin is also part of the John B. Robert dam built by AMAFCA.  The dam provided the visual intrigue to stop and conduct a walk in the area.  West of the dam runs a concrete flood channel that is hedged on either side by a park and the North campus of Central New Mexico Community College.  The walk itself lead me through the park and on to the top of the dam which in addition to performing its intended function also serves as an imposing piece of land art sculpture as well as providing a wide angle view of the West Mesa and the setting sun.  Most of the walking I have done in fact has been conducted in the afternoons which has lead to me discovering quite a few places in which to observe varying qualities of light from the setting sun.  I also noticed on this particular walk another intriguing piece of infrastructure that I quickly added to Foursquare as a place.  I can only assume that this particular landmark, based on the proximity to and location downstream of the dam that it is part of the flood control system.  The landmark looks to be large ventilation shaft that is then supported by two wooden shade structures and two benches.  There are two of these structures directly across from each other and at one of them someone has added a camping chair to accompany the wooden benches and provided a softer resting spot for me to sit in.

Another area of note was the surface parking lot of CNM and a curious arrangement of 16 parking spots floating in the middle of a sea of asphalt.  Now it wasn't so much that there were 16 spots in the middle of a park lot but it was rather the perpendicular arrangement of the spaces in relation to the spaces that hugged the perimeter.  I'm sure the that whoever designed the lot arrangement had a good reason for doing it in such a way but I couldn't figure it out. 


View 2011-02-25 16:34 in a larger map

Walk #3