Walking and Mapping: Artists as Cartographers

摘要

If we are to consider that the walking turn is still rolling and actually seems to gather momentum where disciplines, doings and practises come together, then Walking and Mapping by Karen O'Rourke is well positioned in a burgeoning field. For many years now we have seen walking and associated practises increasingly entering into ways of doing geography and engaging landscape. Inspiration has inevitably come from the fields of art and performance studies where walking and drifting still feature significantly. This book and its chapters endeavour to navigate through 'the cartographic jungle' (p. (ⅹⅶ)), and in doing so it maps and reviews a range of works. O'Rourke suggests that both walking and mapping are the means through which our situations can be made sense of. It is through this complimentary process that we are able to give ourselves a sense of positioning in what is seen by many as a mixed up and mingled world. This book, as O'Rourke intends, is itself a route map through walks of art and cartographic techniques that offer up new and interesting ways of representing space through bodies on the move.