First two walkers today

Two prompt and willing walkers were here at the gallery at 10 am. I scrambled to print the walking invitations (see posts below to read content of the invitations) and off they were.
One chose for the directed walk, the other for drifting. The day was perfect for a walk, a sunny yet comfortable 20 degrees Celsius.

After about an hour and a half, one walker returned and then the other.

In my attempts to welcome them back, I felt I needed to offer them tea, water or something to eat. Each walk deserves a little treat at the end. Perhaps I need to install a 'before' and 'after' room to allow the walker to shift from arriving before leaving again. Some kind of antechamber to start with. The room for afterwards would be a celebratory space with fruit, water, and light cake.

I asked each of them to leave a mark(s) on the map with push pins related to certain experiences they had on the walk, such as “Where I felt desire” and “Where I wanted to avoid going, but ended up there anyways” and a miniature white flag to designate the place where they finally ended the walk before heading back.

In an attempt to video tape their responses, I set up a camera on the balcony of the gallery and asked them both to answer some basic questions. Although they seemed more comfortable than I did in this situation, it seemed absurd to invite someone to experience a walk and then immediately put them in front of a video camera and ask them questions about it as if it was a formal interview. I was, however, reminded in the interviews how difficult it is to find words to describe how a body experiences. It is far easier to describe what one sees.

Looking back, it was their stories and recollections, the descriptions of the things they saw, felt, and heard that was the most memorable. One shared with me his being in a cemetery with brush blowing around between the headstones. I became a listener to their experience and could imagine them in vivid ways, as if I had also been there.

The other referred to experiencing what he referred to as, “the elusive obvious” in the city. And I could have sworn that their eyes looked different after the walk. More open, wide, curious.

Now, as I write…I wonder if some forms of documentation take one away from the sensory experience even when in the moment of its existence. Now writing about it, this event becomes a memory.