Dear all, it is our pleasure to invite you to a collaborative ‘Widdershins’ urban walking event, organised by one of our PhD students, Gareth Jones (please note: this event is open to all, but there are a restricted number of places; please contact: g.h.m.jones@dundee.ac.uk regarding availability)
Widdershins walks aim to disrupt our habituated encounters with everyday places and to reveal (and perform) the material, cultural and narrative entanglements between our selves and the city. These walks force a reconsideration of subject, agency and causality, in turn advocating a more attentive engagement with place and the other. To put it lyrically: they entangle objects and events encountered in the moment with structures prepared and practiced elsewhere. Building on the ideas of the Situationist International and the practices of contemporary creative walkers such as the Mythogeography of Phil Smith, Widdershins walks recognise the roles that play, the absurd and purposelessness can have in both our everyday encounters with place and in our critical appraisal of those encounters. These group walks engage participants in various imaginative and philosophical activities such as voiced readings of literary, critical and spontaneously created texts, games of chance, and simple performances that draw attention to the body and the senses.
Where: the walk will commence from the main entrance to the University Library.
When: WEDS 14th MARCH at 2:00pm.
Length and preparation: The walk will take about 2 hours, and sturdy footwear and waterproof jackets are advised.
Gareth Jones is a British artist, researcher and educator living in Osaka, Japan. His practice-based research is a cross-disciplinary enquiry into place and place-experience. Aimed at promoting personal, cultural and environmental wellbeing, his practice entangles creative walking, drawing and theoretical analysis. Gareth presents his research in a number of international contexts and is a member of the steering committee for the International Visual Methods Conference. He is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Dundee, Scotland, UK.