Walking project

A friend of mine back home is undertaking a masters degree in digital art and technology. Martha and I participated in a project for him today. It was a walking project and involved us downloading 25 audio instructions that we put on my ipod and randomized. Then every three minutes we are told either to go left, right, back, forward... you get the idea. During each three minute track we are obliged to make some sort of visual or textual recording of anything that interests us along the way.

Initial skepticism on my part gave way to pure enjoyment as we were forced to interact with the city in a controlled fashion. It was interesting to come across so many intriguing people and situations that would have remained otherwise hidden from our lives had we received a different instruction that led us down another street. I frequently give up on this city and proclaim that there is no good stuff in it, but I am usually proven wrong and this project confirmed that. Simply kicking back and waiting for a city to come knocking on your door with a list of fun activities is not going to happen. Seems to be a two way process.

We picked Central avenue in northeast Minneapolis as a good starting point. It's a higher end of the low income bracket blue collar type of neighborhood. There are freight trains running through the area, beautiful old warehouse buildings, a strong Russian and eastern European presence, plenty of hardware shops. It feels like a real community, the type of existence where you could go next door to borrow a shovel, be offered a cold beer and then spend hours talking about nothing in particular. And what's wrong with that? Absolutely nothing. It's got that very, very tiny hint of danger but overall is just full of normal people doing normal and abnormal stuff.

Some of the fun and peculiar happenings we experienced:

During the first few minutes of the project we were instructed to make a left, so we did. We walked by a funeral home. There was a ladder leaning against a wall right under an open window. A man in his late seventies and wearing a tailored suit was trying to get out the window. Why? We joked that he was assumed dead and thrown into the pine box only to awaken, break out of the coffin and then escape the funeral home to go and avenge his non-death.

The walking continued, sometimes doubling back on itself due to the random order of the audio instructions. We made our way up a steep hill of a street. Again, a ladder plays an important part in this tale. We came across a man in his early thirties carefully descending a ladder. In his right hand was a small cage containing a frantic squirrel. At home squirrels are happy-go-lucky characters who enjoy public affection. Over here they are as populous and as troublesome as rats. They have a habit of making a home for themselves in every available wall cavity of a house. Imagine the noise and the smell? Martha asked the guy could she take his picture and I inquired about the fate of the caged squirrel. The man replied, with a dry smile on his face "probably gonna put him out of his misery."

On we went, enjoying more and more this part of the city. Nice location for a future home? We came upon an elderly couple sitting in their front garden on neon plastic chairs. The man had a big spongy booze nose and was smoking the stub of a fat cigar. They were just sitting there enjoying the fine Spring weather. We asked could we photograph them. The man was into the idea. His wife was slightly nervous. He spoke for her and we took a few shots anyway. Nice folks.

Maybe a half hour later we came to a four way intersection. There was a church on one corner, houses on two other corners and some small commercial but out of business building on the remaining corner. In front of this was an old Ford pickup truck. Three men were standing around the truck. They saw us across the road with the cameras and started shouting over "hey, take our picture!" We crossed the road and a had a chat. They told us to title the photo "Three Guys Looking for Work."

I enjoyed the forced interaction between us, other people, locations, time. I suppose I could try and think about it in more detail but it was just simply a good time.

The result (LINK) of Emmet's toil.