Algorithmic walking in the cold
I decided to take what the Latourex website defines as an “alternate travel” walk or what David Pinder calls “algorithmic walking”- and thought I would bring my wife along for the experience. Having studied some of the Situationists’ work, she had a vague idea of why we were going to do this but the 10F cold outside seemed to cool her interest.
In any case, last Monday we set off from our home in Fort Green, Brooklyn, making a right at the first intersection, then a left, then a right and so on. Within the space of 3 blocks we had noticed for the first time not only a huge public school- a block long-, but also an immense and beautiful French-speaking church! I realized instantly that being able to remove my focus from a future arrival point freed me to be much more aware of my surroundings. I found myself looking up more than usual and noticing details on the buildings we passed. The fact that we were engaged in this walk and that the streets were quiet and deserted- because of the cold and the holiday I suppose- made me feel like the streets were producing themselves for us, asking to be looked at and telling us that for once they could be the focus of attention. I found myself a little humbled by our surroundings.
As we were walking I asked my wife what she would answer if we happened to meet a friend who would ask where we were going, and she said she would reply “I don’t know”. I thought that was so simple and so powerful. The type of response that would catch people completely off-guard. Surely people who do not know where they are going are either crazy or lost, but why would you purposefully walk in such extreme cold without the intent of getting somewhere. The only people we crossed were two workers from the Brooklyn Navy Yard, who were evidently puzzled at our presence, and shook their heads as they walked by us. At this point, my wife who had been quiet for a little while, looked at me with a face that seemed to say “you know I love you but” and then asked me (I should say told me/shouted): “What the hell are we doing here?!”. My brain was almost completely frozen at this point and I tried to find a way out—we had reached the Navy Yard and could go no further, and it is in the process of trying to get back to “normal” life and thinking about how to get to a warm place that I realized some sort of shift in my mind- and it gave me pleasure to think that in some measure I had been able to be absorbed by the experience.
Despite my initial hope, we were not able to become “adventurers” in Simmel’s terms. The cold in a way kept reminding us of our situation, and to be totally honest, I would say that I had a vague idea of where the walk may take us- knowing how long we would be able to stand the cold- and I purposefully took a first right instead of a first left… On the other hand, perhaps the fact that we went on this walk in this cold is in itself a political act- a way of proving to ourselves that we should explore the “unrealized possibilities” that “ambulatory occupation of urban space permits”(Pinder, p. 401) – especially when conventional wisdom would have it that we should not be outdoors. This did create for my wife and I a sort of "thrill about being somewhere [we were] not supposed to be" in the way that Janelle Brown feels about "off-limits tourism".
I look forward to doing another “algorithmic” walk in warmer weather—and to see if the weather really has a bearing on my experience and/or what aspects of my personality would enable me (or limit me) in becoming Simmel’s adventurer. I guess that in the end, these types of walks can not only connect you to your city but in the process tell you a bit more about yourself.