An overview of my most noteworthy projects
Walking
For this project I made a reconstruction of a cultural artefact ‘’walking’’.
Concept:
I first started with deconstructing the movement walking. I looked at it from different angles, I started from a biological one, then asked myself what is walking, to begin with. I concluded that walking is a very different experience for everyone. The public space is not equal for every individual, and this results in the fact that an activity that seems very mundane for one, can be experienced as very challenging for the other. I started doing research and found numerous articles on walking. Where I learned that in existing culture, the meta-narrative of walking is based on a male narrative and that on average globally women walk a lot less due to coventional and safety reasons. A few exmaples where this is prominent:
- some streets are not well lit
- low number of public toilets, mainly urinais
- street names, and statues are mainly a representation if men
- cars dominate the streets
Public space is not an equal playground for every individual right now. The main problem is the oblivion of this phenomenon. This was my deconstruction, now it was time to reconstruct. How could I improve this phenomenon? I realized that just changing the outside was not enough. Making streets easier walkable for pedestrians, lighting them well, changing street names and putting up more public toilets that everyone can use might improve some for people, but does not tackle the core of the problem. Education is the key in solving this problem. Through awareness and educating people that this mundane activity might not be as mundane for everyone and teaching people to behave and respect others. By thinking of others, by realizing that you are also part of the problem. But not only that, but that you can also be part of the solution. For my deconstruction, I created an individual that takes a step, as a metaphor for the future. A future where public space is for everyone. A world where everyone can step outside and feel like the world belongs to them, as much as it does to the others.