Session Outline:
“The time has come, everyone conducts a kind of observation on the road.” -Rojou, Kansatsu, Gaku, Nyumon
INTRODUCTION AND PLANNED OUTPUT
The Walkative Society is pleased to present Walk-in-gage, a two-day workshop exploring two different markets in London including a workshop from guest artist Tamara Stoll who is currently a tutor at the London College of Communication. Participants will experience how walking can be used as a research method, as an investigation of a place and how we can use this method to articulate our voices in response to the issues we discover. The workshops will be a mixture of talks, practical exercises and discussion, including the use of breakout rooms to allow smaller group discussions.. The event will also be a meeting place for students who are interested in socio-politics and who are interested to discover and discuss through “walking-in” the two sites. By the end of the event, we hope to also have a physical output of photographs, maps, sketches, and writings highlighting the spatial and methodological aspects of site-specificity of a walking practice.
CONTENT
On the first day Tamara Stoll will present and talk about her publication on Ridley Road Market, sharing her eight-year engagement with the venue, its community and open up critical discussion of public spaces. Ridley Road Market, which has been serving the diverse communities of Dalston in East London since the 1880s. Sociologist Sophie Watson describes the market as a “hub of connection, interconnections and social interaction”. The following day, Pat, Wing Shan Wong, the co-president of Walkative Society, will share her current project Barter Archive, which looks to document and preserve the collective memory of Billingsgate Fish Market. Billingsgate Fish Market, one of the largest fish markets in Western Europe, supplies fish all over London. The people who have worked there over five decades, have formed strong familial bonds. We will explore her methodology and her ‘walk-in-progress’ which involves visiting the market every day at 5am. In the workshop she will invite you to participate and experience her research through a workshop and discussion covering topics of gentrification and class migration. Barter Archive is funded by the Hong Kong Art Development Council and the Varley Memorial Award 2020.