flaneurs | Entries tagged with constraints

Challenge II.(a) asks you to walk outwards from a railway terminus for a specific length of time, following the railway line as closely as possible. I’ve been doing a modified version of this in stages for a few years, walking from West Croydon to London Bridge.

Two years ago I reported on an earlier stage of this, and now I have finally finished it. Here’s my map. I find it quite interesting to see how closely I could stick to the line in some places, and how much I had to detour in others.

( A few photos below the cut. )

I also took many many photos of railway bridge identifiers, which I seem to be collecting.

bob

On June 1st I did challenge II(b).
I randomly ended up with page 154 column D of our A-Z. In fact I did pages 136 and page 166 as well.
I think there was one point where I went outside the column but only briefly.

el_staplador

Last weekend I had a go at challenge II (b):

II. (b)

Get an A-Z map (or similar) of your city - something that has a grid of squares overlaid on the maps. Choose a page at random, then choose a grid column on that page at random. Start in the square at the top of this column, and travel as far as you can down the page without leaving the column.

I couldn't find my A-Z street atlas, so had to use a city centre map. ( Report, with images )

squirmelia

It was a rainy day in Nottingham, but by the evening, the weather had started to clear up, so I decided to go for a walk. Earlier in the day, I got a map from Tourist Information. I decided to do a beer glass walk, so turned a glass upside down and drew around it on the map.

I tried to follow the outline I had drawn as closely as possible.

( Read more and see photos )

spiralsheep

I completed a walk in anticipation of the June challenge (Lines II.(c)). This local council walk was the Lichfield Heritage Trail that I was given free at tourist information in the city.

Report with 14 small images at my journal.

14 Lichfield Cathedral, yes it truly is that black, 05-15

squirmelia

I wanted to go to the Howard Griffin gallery, so decided to turn it into a Beer Glass Walk. (Flâneurs June Challenge II(d): Beer glass walk).

( Lots of pictures of street art )

spiralsheep

Report of my railway line flan through Tunbridge Wells in April 2013 (yes, I accidentally met Disgusted Of but she was disgusted on an unexpected topic, hee!).

spiralsheep

The Pocket Scavenger is a book by Keri Smith. I imagine there’s probably also an app for smart phones &c. This book contains, amongst other ideas, a list of objects often discarded in urban environments (and therefore potentially free) that one is encouraged to "scavenge" and then repurpose by using a complimentary list of random alterations.

This book is for people who like prompts for exploring their world, people who like keeping art journals, and people who embrace random influences.

This book is probably not for people who dislike experiences guided by arbitrary parameters, completists who’re subjugated by a list until they’ve ticked every box, or people who think objects found on the streets are untouchable.

There’s a full report of my first use of the book at my journal. Enjoy!

mummimamma

So, for four weeks I am staying in Athens (the one in Greece of course), and even though I havelived here before, I'm now staying in a new area, so I thought I'd do a beer glass walk to get to know my new neighbourhood.

All photos were taken with my mobeil phone, since I managed to forget to pack my camera as well as my bathing suit..., and since I didn't bring a computer I've done it the easy way and just uploaded them uncut and unaltered, since that would be a bit fiddly.

So here is my walk. Starting out with a beer of course!
( Which I drank immedeately... )

squirmelia

I attempted challenge II.(d), beer glass walk, yesterday in London, which started by Hyde Park, then circled round through Little Venice, to Regent's Park, and then back down through Baker Street, and back to the start.

( Photos of my walk )

kake

As we've recently been discussing lines, I thought flaneurs within reach of London might be interested in this: One-dimensional maps: why an old form of mapmaking deserves a revival. Monday 3 June, 7:30pm, Swedenborg Hall, London, UK.

I've seen a previous talk by this speaker, and would thoroughly recommend it.

spiralsheep

Inspired by this community, I walked a line up the Tything in Worcester in July 2011. I wanted to see the parallel streets too. In April 2013 I finally managed to complete the walk. Parallel lines walk report with 15 small images at my journal. Enjoy!

sanguinity

For the June Challenge: IId, Beer Glass Walk. We went through our Big Box o' Portland Maps looking for something that had a scale that we could live with; all but one of them were Too Magnified or Not Magnified Enough. The one whose scale we could live with was a bike map of Outer SE Portland. Then we plunked our glass.

Map: the glass and the resultant walk.

Portland has a reputation for being a very walkable city, but just how walkable it is depends on the neighborhood. East Portland is not one of the more walkable areas, unfortunately. It was annexed by the city fairly recently, and has never gotten much love nor money from the civic planners. There's an interstate bypass plunked right through the middle of it, and it trends toward being car-centric. We'd had kind of a bad feeling about using an Outer SE map for our beer glass, but had decided to go ahead anyway: we really don't know East Portland all that well, and maybe there would be some pleasant surprises.

There were indeed pleasant surprises. And an awful lot of car-centric East Portland-ness, too.

( walk and photos )

bob

Today I did a modified II. (a) challenge. Instead of a rail terminus I did a tram terminus. I choose 2 as my integer number of hours.

My terminus was New Addington and after 2 hours I ended up at Sandilands which is where the tram diverges.

Flickr Photoset of my wanderings.

kake

Yesterday I did a beer glass walk through the City of London, from Wormwood Street to Moorgate Station. I made a photoset on Flickr (with commentary) and a Google map of the route.

This wasn't a particularly long walk (Google maps says 1.5 miles) but it was fun!

nanila

Hello, flaneurs! I recently completed a photography/walking project in which I visited all of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries in London. These were established from 1832 to 1841 as a result of a Parliamentary bill designed to deal with the problem of overcrowding in inner London churchyards. Each has a unique character and they are as follows:

Kensal Green (1832) - Still open for burials, with a straightforward layout and very well kept grounds. Rather sterile in comparison to the others although still beautiful, probably because it lacks overgrown vegetation at its borders to keep it feeling remote and enclosed from the city. The catacombs are accessible via guided tour.
West Norwood (1837) - Similar to Kensal Green, with the additional caveat that the new burials are entirely integrated into the old monuments, creating a rather hodge-podge appearance.
Highgate (1839) - Probably the most famous of the Magnificent Seven and a perennial favourite of mine. Both the Eastern and Western Cemeteries have the haunting, melancholy charm of overgrowth and gentle decay.
Abney Park (1840) - This cemetery has been closed to new burials for decades. It’s easy to find, accessible and wonderfully atmospheric. It features a variety of grave markers and a beautiful abandoned chapel at its heart.
Nunhead (1840) - Feels like an appropriate setting for a murder mystery with its circling bands of calling rooks and confusing, myriad paths. It must be terrifying to be trapped here after dark.
Brompton (1840) - Much like Kensal Green, with the addition of a staggeringly high concentration of angel statuary.
Tower Hamlets (1841) - Like Abney Park, Tower Hamlets has been closed to new burials for quite some time and a large percentage of it was never used. It feels more like a wildlife haven that happens to contain some Victorian monuments than a cemetery.

Each of these links will take you to a Dreamwidth post containing a selection of photographs from that cemetery. I’ve also included a few samples, one from each cemetery, below.

(For people who like to know about methodology/constraints and kit: I restricted myself to one hour per visit, to a 35mm prime lens on my dSLR, to black and white, and to a square format for my chosen images.)

Kensal Green Cemetery

( +6 )

kake

How far can you walk from Trafalgar Square without crossing a road?

A couple of years ago, as a test of the walkability of London, I set out from Trafalgar Square — the official centre of the town — one Sunday morning to see how far I could get without crossing a road or going over the same place twice. It was almost 17 miles before I ended up going round in a circle.

The author also says: I know of no other capital city where it is possible to do this. That sounds like a challenge to me! flaneurs, do you think this would work in your city?

bob

Since I fail at using the internet you can have link to a post in my journal instead of full post here.

Mosiacs! Lots of Mosiacs!

tim

For theme II (lines), I picked (a), where you choose a railway terminus and walk along the line that terminates there, or as close to it as possible. Since I started my walk at 8:30 PM, I went for the minimum of one hour.
( It didn't go all that well )

kake

Here is the second theme for your June challenge: lines.

To recap: I will post sets of instructions grouped into three themes. To complete the challenge, all you need to do is make an attempt during June to follow at least one set of instructions from each theme. A small prize (details still being arranged) will be offered to everyone who does at least one theme!

You may report back on your attempt at the "lines" theme either in a comment to this post, or in a top-level post of your own. Your report can be as brief or as lengthy as you like.

( Theme II: Lines: Four sets of instructions under the cut. )

Please do let me know if anything in the above is confusing or needs more explanation.