The City as Written by the City

Filed under Walk/Tour, projects

Event Information

Artist: Sarah Cullen

Participants travel thoughout a landscape or cityscape with a pendulum mapping device consisting of a pencil suspended in a small wooden box.

“The City as Written by the City: Marking the Human that Moves Within It” is a mapping project. Maps are made when the participant travels on peripatetic drifts (or constrained walks, bike rides etc. . .) carrying a pendulum mapping device. This device consists of a small box with a handle on top and a door on one side. Inside the box hangs a pencil which is weighted near its tip. Paper is placed on the bottom of the box, and when the pencil is activated, that is, when the participant is moving, it begins to make marks on the paper.
The resulting maps are chaotic swirling drawings, which do not look like much else, except perhaps each other. I call these drawings maps, yet they are not so much for reading as they are readings themselves. They are a form of “autograph”.
This project encourages people to walk or wander following no plan or route. As the participant drifts so does the pencil. This project also makes people aware of their movements and daily patterns, and where one chooses to walk.
I plan on constructing drawing/mapping devices with a camera attachment on top, so not only can the resulting image be pondered and analyzed, we can track the pencil’s progress and process.