Across RCA (2019) – The Walkative Project

This is a walking-based project led by 2019-20 co-presidents Adalberto Lonardi (MA Interior Design) and Katharina Siegel (MA Sculpture), following on from the Walkative Across RCA projects led by Simon King and Jaspar Joseph-Lester between 2013-15 which evolved into the student-led Walkative Society.

Psychogeographic research has its roots in the arts or at the point of a junction where art, architecture, geography, psychology, and philosophy intersect. The term was initially influenced by The Situationist International, a left-wing, avant-garde group of European artists and intellectuals founded in 1957. If psychogeography investigates what influence the architectural or geographical environment has on perception, mental experience and behavior, we can ask what are the characteristics of structures by which we are surrounded on a daily basis – the visible and invisible infrastructures of cities like London.

The workshop will have as its outcome the publication and exhibition of 3 to 4 group projects. Input will be in the form of guest presentations that, inter alia, provide a history of psychogeography and art movements that explored ways of unleashing the subconscious imagination. From this, we pose a question: how do different places make us feel and behave? Groups will take this question as a starting point for their own research walking. Participants will be mapping an area of London taking into consideration modern or future social patterns. In collaboration with RCA graphic designer, José Garcia and Betty Brunfaut we will communicate the works in a self-published fanzine.

Tom Spooner

Tom Spooner is a London-based illustrator and artist. Graduating from the Royal College of Art in 2016 and long-time contributor to The Walkative Project, he is interested in current debates concerning what constitutes psychogeography today and whether the term is misused i.e. is it a politically-charged critical walking practice that was developed as a means to an end (a revolution in the case of the situationists), or is it today a more free-floating form of walking that effectively functions as an end in itself?

Katharina Siegel

is an artist based in London and Berlin, who holds a Diploma in Fine Art from the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig (HGB) and a Master’s in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art London. Her multidisciplinary art practice is often research-based and explores concepts of experience, space, temporality and process. She was Co-President of the Walkative Society in 2019/20. www.katharinasiegel.de

José García Oliva

Venezuelan–Spanish artist based in London whose practice navigates the collision of both identity and places. This interrelationship is explored through the lens of migration in its socio-economic and political context; the ashes of post-colonialism — especially from South America — and its echo in Europe. His practice is research-led and situated, taking the form of participatory performance, installation and drawing.