Instructed Walks

During the workshop, I introduced the participants to a variety of mobile applications, software, devices and techniques for them to experiment with. This enabled us to explore different aspects of performative walking. Depending on the type of reception and documentation, these techniques can be categorised as follows: photowalk, videowalk, audiowalk and cartography.

Above all, this workshop celebrates the technological legacy of Brazilian app developer and media artist Babak Fakhamzadeh. Our work lies at the intersection of performative walking and digital technologies. His best-known projects include two web applications: Derive App and PlaceCloud, as well as the walk-listen-create.org web portal.

The Dérive app is a digital tool offering guided walks in the Debordian sense. The visible artefact of a dérive is the online photography documenting the experience for users around the world.

The results were presented at the Johannesstift Diakonie’s annual exhibition in Berlin.