Abstract

The last decade has seen an upsurge in the study of walking across a number of disciplines; many walking-related events and research groups have been established in the arts and within academia. This two-day conference, held at the University of Sunderland, organised by the research group W.A.L.K. in association with WALK ON, an exhibition at the Northern Gallery of Contemporary Art, aimed to provide a critical and discursive meeting-point for artists, writers, thinkers, and academics engaged in the study of walking, documenting the many diverse approaches to the study of walking. ON WALKING sought to examine and interrogate the practice and process of walking in all its cultural, ethnographic, poetic, and geographical ramifications. It brought together innovative and speculative ideas on walking, considering walking in relation to landscape, social, cultural, artistic, and geographical constructions of space.

Over 80 delegates presented papers at the conference. As well as from the UK, they came from as far afield as Canada and North America, South America, France, Spain, Italy, Holland, Hong Kong and Australia.