Active travel in a time of Energy Descent?! ;-)

I always wanted to write about Knowle West Media Centre and the fruitful work they have done in the community, but never found sufficient time to really sit down and get concentrated on the materials they provided to me.
Finally I'm home and this is a good place to leaf through and start with.

Reading blogs the other day by Rob Hopkins of Transition Culture and the exchange between his responses and Alex Steffen's critique of Transition at WorldChanging is quite interesting. They provide two different views on Transition and raised a vehement debate among each other's supporters, which needs more devotion to get explicit understanding. However, one point is quite amusing to me when Alex offered to fly over to UK to have a debate with Rob face to face next year, while Rob replied I no longer fly and your coming here would be, at least in climate terms, somewhat conterproductive. That reminds me my own experience of travel, particularly the recent trip to UK.

I was on a research trip for ecological art development in UK. Many people I met and interviewed are environmental-minded souls. A lot of them told me they give up flying and don't travel abroad any more. Since I just flew a long way from Asia to UK, those remarks always made me quite jittering and feeling guitly. So it took me of surprise when I came across a handbook by Knowle West Media Centre provided by KWMC staff Misty, the "Active Travel -- supporting you to become MORE ACTIVE!" It immediately grasped my attention.

The booklet is beautifully handled and designed, with a cover page of grass-green background and bright red hand-written titles, some silhouettes of activities against a simple but idyllic patterns, nicely knitted together, delivering a soothing atmosphere.




Inside it uses very lively words and smart designs to keep you follow their thread of message. In fact the booklet is to promote travel by walking or cycling, riding a horse or on roller skates! To quote from the handbook: ... anything that is people powered! No wonder it is "ACTIVE"! You have to be very active to take the trip of travelling around by those means! It is a humorous way to deliver the message while making impressive sense on readers or audiences.

On the back page of the booklet, it gives such instructions:

How To Use This Handbook
● Keep it safe and use it whenever you need motivating
● use our handy quiz to work out what is realistic for you
● Use it together with support from the AT team
● Take one step at a time; be proud of what you do, not what you don't do

I feel particularly inclined to the last line, about being proud of what you do, not what you don't do. It shows the sympathy with people who are not ready yet but willing to take a try. No accusing fingers to shy off the hesitant but warm-hearted support. It also shows an attitude of building up positive responses instead of rejective feelings. THAT is really something won my heart over.

walking as an artistic tool or method ....

Walking must be some kind of meditation for some artists, I guess.
Richard Long, maybe?
There seems to be a long tradition of walking in the countryside or the wildness in UK. Although now they walk dogs more often.

I heard from John Jordan that James used to lead a few groups of people walking in the city until the two artists decided to make the walk into a beautiful piece of work which is the fabulous opera piece along with a walk in the city: "And While London Burns".

I took the walk three times. First time quickly lost my way after getting into the Underground Bank Station and go round and round and round ....
I had to emerge from there to the ground and frustratedly walked along the Thames to listen to the audio. The river, the sound and the story made a strange combination, sometimes attached and sometimes detached, making the whole experience even more surreal. I knew I need a guide.

The second time I asked Claudia's help. She came as a guide. We shared the MP3 that I have, and listened to the story by using only one side of the earphone. So we had to walk like Siamese twins. :D However, wandering through the big high-rising buildings and seeing enormous amount of people and computer screens in the offices is thrilling. We still lost directions a few times but overall it is quite good and we ended up in front of the monument. Time was too late to get in and climb up.

Two days later, before the interview with John Jordan, I made the final trip to the Monument and listened to the audio while climbing up the stairs. That was the ending point of the whole work. Standing at the height of the tower and looking around all in front of you, brings another latitude of understanding and feeling. I can not but think, this is a very clever work. It even makes the audience perform on the stage of the city without self-consciousness. The audience is the actor, and the streets of the city are the stage; those high-rising buildings are the backdrop, and the pedestrians and automobiles become the living props. What a grand scale of the performance!

* * * *
some afterthoughts:

The physical presence is very important in this work,
as well as the integration of knowledge, senses, and movement or action.

For someone like me who gets lost a lot, it is a journey of building up a complex neurological web with intertwined linkages of right and wrong, virtual and real, at the same time.