r  u  l  e  s    f  o  r    w  a  l  k  i  n  g

What  follows  is  a  set  of  walking  games,  mined  from  the  history  of  art  and  literature.  This  is  a  collection  of  psychogeographical  tools  for  the  walker,  which  I  call  games  because  they  are  rule  based.  The  walking  games  are  useful  for  bungling  time  and  provoking  interruptions  in  everyday  life,  but  little  else.  Perhaps  this  is  their  greatest  virtue:  they  are  at  once  a  profound  waste  of  time  and  a  reclamation  of  time.  

The  rules  of  the  walking  games  provide  the  tactical  structure  necessary  to  more  effectively  seize  and  multiply  interruptions-­-­that  is,  to  prolifer-­ate  in-­between  spaces.  In  the  theory  of  the  derive  (drift),  Guy  Debord  describes  the  ideal  form  of  drifting  to  be  a  game  with  rules,  instead  of  freestyle  wandering,  because  “the  action  of  chance  is  naturally  conserva-­tive  and  in  a  new  setting  tends  to  reduce  everything  to  habit  [...]  Progress  means  breaking  through  fields  where  chance  holds  sway  by  creating  new  conditions  more  favorable  to  our  purposes.”  These  “conditions”  are  for-­malized  in  the  walking  games.  

The  rules  of  the  walking  games  are  useful  in  focusing  one’s  attention  to  the  possibilities  of  a  place,  removed  from  its  habit-­forming  predicates.  There  is  nothing  particularly  subversive  about  drifting  in  itself,  absent  of  structure.  In  fact,  it  is  the  primary  mechanic  of  shopping  malls  and  simi-­larly  overdetermined  spaces.  The  walking  games  reappropriate  drifting  to  reinvigorate  sterilized  space.  

Performing  the  walking  games  is  not  only  a  means  to  explore  space,  but  also  to  give  it  shape.  Spaces  are  always  in  a  dialectical  co-­becoming  with  their  in-­habitants;  the  player  of  the  walking  games  acknowledges  and  thoughtfully  en-­gages  this  process.  The  walking  games  pit  enchanted  space  against  functional  space  (to  lubricate  sensation),  open  space  against  determined  space  (to  invent  or  permit  behaviors),  and  even  determined  space  against  determined  space  (to  dramatize  and  negate  the  rigidity  of  the  grid).  Their  sweet  spot  is  these  points  of  tension,  where  the  attractions  and  repulsions  of  a  place  come  into  greater  relief,  where  our  surroundings  vibrate  with  life  and  possibility.

                                     Bryan  Sonderman                            Los  Angeles,  January  2014

T H E

W A L K I N G

G A M E S

walking on colorswm. s. burroughs

Pick out all the reds on a street, focusing only on red objects–brick, lights, sweaters, signs. Shi! to green, blue, orange, yellow.

untitledyoko ono

count all the puddles on the street when the sky is blue.

intersection gamethe diggers

Any number of fools can play. Game Board formed by intersection of public streets

OBJECT: Complete all designs within diagram Lesser Triangle Greater Triangle Double Triangle "e Square

STYLE: DON’T WAIT DON’T WALK (umbrella step, stroll, cake-walk, sombersault, #nger-crawl, squat- jump, pilgrimmage, philly dog, etc.)

watch your feetsu! origin

watch your feet

.walkwilfried hou je bek

Repeat

{

1 st street le!2 nd street right2 nd street le!

}

easyalan kaprow

(dry stream bed)

wetting a stonecarrying it downstream until drydropping it

choosing another stone therewetting itcarrying it upstream until drydropping it

the map is not the territoryguy debord

Wander through the countryside while blindly following a map of London.

the circle gamerobert macfarlane

Unfold a street map… place a glass, rim down, anywhere on the map, and draw round its edge. Pick up the map, go out in the city, and walk the circle, keeping as close as you can to the curve.

following piecevito acconci

select a person from the passers-by who are by chance walking by and follow the person until he or she disappears into a private place where you cannot enter.

 I  don’t  have  time  to  write

Ralph  Rumney,  the  sole  member  of  the  London  Psychogeographical  Soci-­ety,  was  expelled  from  the  ranks  of  the  Situationist  International  for  fail-­ing  to  produce  a  text  he  had  promised  to  Guy  Debord-­-­A  pyschogeograph-­ical  study  of  Venice.  If  he  wasn’t  writing,  surely  he  was  walking.  Rumney  understood  that  psychogeographical  inquiry  is  so  much  more  sluggish  in  text,  it  must  be  walked  (Perhaps  it  was  Rumney,  rather  than  Debord,  who  claimed  “I  don’t  have  time  to  write.”)  Like  Rumney’s  study  of  Ven-­ice,  any  study  of  the  walking  games  must  remain  unfinished.  The  infinite  variety  of  ways  they  play  out  requires  they  be  enacted  rather  than  merely  explained.

Walking  on  Colors,  W.S.  Burroughs  (“Ten  Years  and  a  Billion  Dollars,”  The  Adding  Machine:  Selected  Essays)

Untitled,  Yoko  Ono  (twitter.com/yokoono)

Intersection  Game,  The  Diggers  (The  Digger  Archives,  www.diggers.org)

Untitled,  Sufi  Origin  (Peter  Lamborn  Wilson’s  Sacred  Drift)

.walk,  Wilfried  Hou  Je  Bek  (cryptoforest.blogspot.com)

Easy,  Alan  Kaprow  (imoralist.blogspot.com)

The  Map  is  Not  the  Territory,  Guy  Debord  (“Introduction  to  a  Critique  of  Urban  Geography,”  Situationist  International  Anthology)

Following  Piece,  Vito  Acconci  (metmuseum.org)

The  Circle  Game,  Robert  MacFarlane  (Psychogeography:  A  Beginner’s  Guide)

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bryan.sonderman@gmail.com