10 - 10 - 10 Edgelands:

O'Brien & O'Brien

Operating at the intersection of fine art walking practice, psychogeography, critical animal studies and ecology, the practice of Deep Canine Topography seeks to reframe the humble act of the ‘walkies’ as a co-authored act of ‘making’ or ‘performing’ together. As part of the practice based element of my PhD thesis, Deep Canine Topography, 10 - 10 - 10 Edge-lands, is a further investigation of the methodologies of Deep Canine Topography (O'Brien & O'Brien 2018). This series operates as a visual and sonic essay for each walk and explores memory, deep topographical imprints, and entropy between wild and post-industrial spaces and sub-urban sprawl, on the edge of the city of Leicester and the county of Leicestershire. During the 2020 Covid 19 pandemic lockdown, as part of permitted exercise, we undertook 10 Walks, of up to 10 miles, within a 10 mile circle of our home, just outside of the city centre. Covid 19 restrictions, remained in place in Leicester longer than in any other UK city or region. Each title will take you to a different walk. Click return to return to the title page. Click Base Map to open a GoogleMap of the walk locations and GPS tracklogs (in a new window). Clicking on the round MAP circle, on the title page, will take you to the central exposition of my PhD: Deep Canine Topography.

Base Map

Methods:

For this set of walks, a new score was generated in direct response to the 2020 covid 19 lockdown. The aim was to undertake 10 walks, within a 10 mile radius of home of up to 10 miles in length. Many walks undertaken explored my own memories and deep connection to certain landscapes.

I utilised site writing and poetic techniques to introduce a text-based element to many of the walks, based on post-walk free-writing, also using sound, still images and video, all recorded on a smartphone. These walks were a collaboration between canine and human, negotiated routes, sometimes semi planned, sometimes spontaneous and surprising, allowing me (us) to explore familiar places from a new perspective, by attending to the details, physical marks and scars, topographical elements of landscape and my own childhood memories. Interestingly, My canine companion took on the role of confidant on these walks in terms of someone to talk to and share the experience with as I voiced my thoughts and feelings towards his indifferent ears. In a reciprocal move, he also often chose the direction of travel and drew me to areas and objects which interested him, and thus became of interest to me, giving an alternative reading of familiar landscapes. With exhibition opportunities suspended by the pandemic, I decided to use the Research Catalogue to construct visual, sonic and textual essays for each walk.

Equipment/materials:

· Mobile smartphone (apple iPhone 7)

· Outdoor GPS for iPhone

· iPhone camera (stills and video)

· Sketchbook

· iPhone voice recording and notes applications

· Google Maps

Discoveries:

These walks were a collaboration between canine and human, negotiated routes, sometimes planned, sometimes spontaneous and surprising, allowed me (us) to explore familiar places from a new perspective.

On reflection 10x10x10 appears to have been a significant turning point in the practice, being the first sustained attempt at investigating deep canine topography as a collaborative, human-canine methodology for exploring landscape. However, the walks exposed limitations in my own approach, still being quite human centred, with my companion acting as a guide, but his voice was not being adequately represented through my own clumsy attempts to interpreted his perspective.

Artificial Hills

Solstice

Looking for Grandpa's House

Tip

Tip