Pedestrian: Walking as Meditation and the Lure of Everyday Objects
Pedestrian is an artwork for the web which evokes urban space through the experience of walking and encountering ordinary objects. A walk through the city becomes a meditation on space, time, and human interaction.
A meditation on perception and place, "Pedestrian" explores the capacity
of ordinary objects to trigger altered states of memory and reverie. A
series of loosely connected episodes examine particular intersections of
place, time and substance. "Pedestrian" employs the mundane to reveal
the magical.
Pedestrian is an art work for the Web which evokes the resonance
of urban space through the experience of walking, and in an
encounter with ordinary objects. A meditation on perception and
place, Pedestrian explores the capacity of the commonplace to
trigger memory and reverie. A walk through the City becomes the
vehicle for a meditation on space, time and human interaction.
Pedestrian is composed of two regions: "The Reverie of Space" and
"The Reverie of Objects". Each region provides a distinct visual and
narrative experience through the interplay of text, [moving] images
and sound. "Reverie of Space" explores the social dynamics of eye
contact, muses about the fluid relationship of time and space,
examines words as the visual background of urban culture, and
celebrates the magic of night. "Reverie of Objects" investigates
commodities and consumption, and the suprising transformation of
humble or debased objects through reverie.
Each of these "urban fictions" reflects the experience of navigating
a charged metropolitan space. The "urban fictions" of Pedestrian
celebrate the complexity and unpredictibility of urban space and
recreates that dynamism in virtual space. In its own cheerful chaos
and diverse profusion, the Web is perhaps the ultimate City.
http://www.walkerart.org/gallery9/beyondinterface/weintraub_fr.html