The Walkative Project

Join us on 26 April to our walk led by Daniel Durnin @danieldurnin TIME: 13:00-15:00 MEETING POINT: Canal side Paddington Station (near Hammersmith & city and circle line) @thewalkativeproject @sites_and_situations @rca_soah_research @rcastudentsunion @royalcollegeofart Tracing the quiet course of the Regent’s Canal, this walk offers a reflective exploration of London’s industrial past and its ongoing urban transformation. Moving alongside historic barges that were once central to the circulation of goods, now reimagined as sites of dwelling, the route unfolds as a living archive of labour, adaptation, and design. The surrounding landscape, where former warehouses and wharves have been transformed into spaces of cultural production, invites a critical reading of regeneration and heritage. Combining aesthetic attention with historical inquiry, this walk engages participants in a layered, sedimental encounter with the canal as both infrastructure and narrative space. Daniel is a doctoral researcher whose practice-led work investigates ecological knowledge through craft, material engagement, and situated fieldwork. His research focuses on rivers, wetlands, and marshland environments as sites where artistic practice can operate as a method of inquiry. Drawing on Material Engagement Theory and environmental humanities, he explores how making, movement, and landscape encounter generate forms of embodied knowledge. His projects often involve the construction of vessels and other site-responsive works that engage directly with marshscape ecologies. He is currently completing a PhD examining marshland imaginaries and speculative ecological models.

Thank you so much @kmbosy for the walk this morning, and to everyone who joined. We look forward to seeing everyone in our next walk in March! The walk started at the Docklands area near Canada Water where timber from this country was unloaded. In Canada’s vast, ancient, wetland forests the occasional first growth tree can still be found, having survived the harvest due to some perceived imperfection. The discussion considered the role of imperfection as a quality of environmental stability, in today’s blended (virtual and material) world, and bring Margaret Atwood’s analysis of poetic forms in the writings of immigrants to Jean Luc Nancy’s notions on the Sublime as a schema or an ethics. We will start at the boardwalk designed by artist Asif Khan ‘Rafter Walk’ (2024), which overlooks a rewilded wetland area (Canada Water Underground Station end). Canada Water is a fresh water lake and from here we will walk along the remaining inlet, Albion Channel, to the 1930’s bascule bridge at Surrey Water. The sinuous shape of this structure afforded a vertical movement that allowed ships to pass into the dock area. The walk continued along the Thames past the garden of the Brunel Mu- seum. The museum marks the entrance to Brunel’s foot tunnel (1843), the first under a waterway. At the Prince’s Stairs we walked down to Bermondsey Beach for the view of Tower Bridge (1894), a structure designed to accommodate the vertical reach of trees, shown by the masts of sailing ships. The discussion concluded with a short workshop thinking on the subjective (upwards) view, value, and the vertical dimension in moving image works. @rca_soah_research @sites_and_situations @royalcollegeofart

Join us Sunday 22 February at 11 am for a walk and discussion at the Docklands. Meeting Point: Canada Water Boardwalk (Underground Station end). Continuing with the theme of Water as Borders we are welcoming Dr Karen Bosy @kmbosy who will lead the walk, we will be exploring the Docklands area near Canada Water where timber from this country was unloaded. In Canada’s vast, ancient, wetland forests the occasional first growth tree can still be found, having survived the harvest due to some perceived imperfection. The discussion will consider the role of imperfection as a quality of environmental stability, in today’s blended (virtual and material) world, and bring Margaret Atwood’s@analysis of poetic forms in the writings of immigrants to Jean Luc Nancy’s notions on the Sublime as a schema or an ethics. We will start at the boardwalk designed by artist Asif Khan ‘Rafter Walk’ (2024), which overlooks a rewilded wetland area (Canada Water Underground Station end). Canada Water is a fresh water lake and from here we will walk along the remaining inlet, Albion Channel, to the 1930’s bascule bridge at Surrey Water. The sinuous shape of this structure afforded a vertical movement that allowed ships to pass into the dock area. The walk will continue along the Thames past the garden of the Brunel Mu- seum. The museum marks the entrance to Brunel’s foot tunnel (1843), the first under a waterway. At the Prince’s Stairs we will walk down to Bermondsey Beach for the view of Tower Bridge (1894), a structure designed to accommodate the vertical reach of trees, shown by the masts of sailing ships. The discussion will conclude with a short workshop thinking on the subjective (upwards) view, value, and the vertical dimension in moving image works. Please note that this is a hard sand beach with areas of pebbles and flat rocks. The walk will end at Bermondsey Gardens. Thank you so much Karen! @rca_soah_research @sites_and_situations @royalcollegeofart

Meet us today at the Societies fair at the Royal College of Art Kensington organised by by the @royalcollegeofart @rcastudentsunion and join the Walkative Society! The project’s aim is to explore the role of urban walking as a methodological approach to foster social change. This academic year we willl focus again on water and rivers as borders. We hope that you will join us in one (or all!) of our walks, all the best, presidents: @danieldurnin & @car_mariscal honorary president: @marisaferreirastudio founders: @jasparjosephlester & @simon_walkative Keep tuned for our 1st walk of the academic year! Date tbc soon

We are happy to welcome you to our 2025-2026 walkative project. The project’s aim is to explore the role of urban walking as a methodological approach to foster social change. This academic year we willl focus again on water and rivers as borders. We hope that you will join us in one (or all!) of our walks, all the best, presidents: @danieldurnin & @car_mariscal honorary president: @marisaferreirastudio founders: @jasparjosephlester & @simon_walkative Keep tuned for our 1st walk of the academic year! Date tbc soon In the photo: Introductory walk for the MA Sculpture 2025-26 cohort @royalcollegeofart @rcasculpture

Here is a small insight into panel 3 of the Spaces of Knowledge Symposium. Panel 3:  Walking and Social Justice
Moderated by Marisa Ferreira @marisaferreirastudio This panel discussed the potential of urban walking as a medium to advance social justice. Through an interdisciplinary approach to walking, presenters will explore how walking as a methodological approach can uncover social injustice, challenge power dynamics, and create forms of resistance in the city. By counter-mapping (in)visible injustices in urban spaces, presenters seek to reimagine alternative futures that foster more just, equitable, sustainable, and empathetic ways of living together. Ahuvia Kahane: The Ethics of Geometry   Shehrazade Mahassini: Walking the Archives/Infrastructural Liminality @shehrazademahassini   Dubravka Sekulic: Walking against organised abandonment, towards praxis   Krity Gera: Walking as Autonomy: Learning from informal gendered mobilities for a holistic understanding for experimenting with city streets   Screening of Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos’s film: Walking towards Spatial Justice @picpoet Convenenors: @jasparjosephlester @simon_walkative @marisaferreirastudio @car_mariscal @sites_and_situations @rca_soah_research @royalcollegeofart @thewalkativeproject @spacexrise

Thank you for everyone who made possible for the Spaces of Knowledge Symposium to take place. Our first two panels here. Panel 1: Walking as Method Moderated by Simon King @simon_walkative This panel discussed the potential of walking as a research methodology, both to open up a space (or spaces), for knowledge, and to yield new insights and directions that contribute to knowledge. The panellists, whose interdisciplinary touching points include philosophy, political theory, social science, hermeneutic phenomenology, art history and curation, will draw upon the methods in their recent walking projects to explore questions around, walking as embodied practice, processes and materiality, where and when the research is taking place, and research outputs. Esther Leslie: One Way Streets and Silicon Valleys: Walking as Resistant Research Method Natalie Bamford: Challenging the labour of participation through an evolution of walking for research Susanne Prinz: From Flânerie to Promenadology: Urban Walking as Creative Method Panel 2. Walking and Policy Moderated by Jaspar Joseph-Lester @jasparjosephlester The panel consideredmodels for the embeddedness of artists and designers in processes of urban regeneration and city making. We will focus on group walking as a method for policy development - as advocated by the Artists Placement Group (APG). Here we will explore how group walks can enhance the potential for art and design in urban environments through facilitating live exchange and collaboration across disciplines which ultimately goes to inform strategies for policy development around place, regeneration and new urban futures. Grace Crannis and Anna Vickery: Support structures: context, negotiation and spaces for artistic exchange in Local Government Elisabeth Del Prete: Westminster Walk: a dialogue between APG and contemporary public art practice Dan Phillips: Streets for Diversity - exploring how neurodivergent people experience our street. Convenenors: @marisaferreirastudio @jasparjosephlester @simon_walkative @car_mariscal Thank you @royalcollegeofart @sites_and_situations @rca_soah_research @spacexrise Wandsworth Council

The Spaces of Knowledge symposium started today, it will continue tomorrow at the York Gardens Library, Winstanley Estate SW11 2UG. It’s next week! link in bio for more info and booking 👆🏼 Day 1 - May 23rd, Symposium, 10.00-16.30 and Book Launch, 18.00-20.00. RCA Battersea, Research Tower, 7 Floor, 15 Parkgate Road, London, SW11 4NL. Day 2 - May 24th, Symposium and Group Walks, 10.00-16.00. York Gardens Library, Winstanley Estate, 34 Lavender Road, London, SW11 2UG. A two-day symposium that explores the role of urban walking as a methodological approach to foster social change and policy development featuring panel discussions, group walks and the book launch for Walking in Cities: Navigating Post-Pandemic Environments. Group walking is at the forefront of sustainable urban development and has the potential to be a powerful force to tackle social issues brought about by a globalised and urbanised world. Over the two days of panels discussion, performances and group walks we aim to connect leading researchers, artists, designers, urban planners and policymakers around four key areas: walking as method, walking and social justice, walking and policy development, walking and art practice; to propose new ways of shaping urban interventions that cultivate collective planning to foster a sense of belonging. The symposium draws on research undertaken by the Horizon 2020 research project Spacex-RISE (Spatial Practices in Art and Architecture for Empathetic Exchange), Walkative (RCA walking project, founded in 2013), RCA/Wandsworth Council Impact Fellowship (Art and Urban Regeneration: live exchange as a method for policy development) and the recent publication Walking in Cities: Navigating Post-Pandemic Environments (Routledge 2024). Covenors: @jasparjosephlester @marisaferreirastudio @car_mariscal @simon_walkative organised with the support of: @sites_and_situations @rca_soah_research @royalcollegeofart @spacexrise @rcastudentsunion @sites_and_situations @spacexrise @royalcollegeofart @rca_soah_research @simon_walkative @jasparjosephlester @marisaferreirastudio @car_mariscal

It’s next week! Please join us for our 2 day symposium 23-24 May. Eventbrite link in bio for more info and booking 👆🏼 Day 1 - May 23rd, Symposium, 10.00-16.30 and Book Launch, 18.00-20.00. RCA Battersea, Research Tower, 7 Floor, 15 Parkgate Road, London, SW11 4NL. Day 2 - May 24th, Symposium and Group Walks, 10.00-16.00. York Gardens Library, Winstanley Estate, 34 Lavender Road, London, SW11 2UG. A two-day symposium that explores the role of urban walking as a methodological approach to foster social change and policy development featuring panel discussions, group walks and the book launch for Walking in Cities: Navigating Post-Pandemic Environments. Group walking is at the forefront of sustainable urban development and has the potential to be a powerful force to tackle social issues brought about by a globalised and urbanised world. Over the two days of panels discussion, performances and group walks we aim to connect leading researchers, artists, designers, urban planners and policymakers around four key areas: walking as method, walking and social justice, walking and policy development, walking and art practice; to propose new ways of shaping urban interventions that cultivate collective planning to foster a sense of belonging. The symposium draws on research undertaken by the Horizon 2020 research project Spacex-RISE (Spatial Practices in Art and Architecture for Empathetic Exchange), Walkative (RCA walking project, founded in 2013), RCA/Wandsworth Council Impact Fellowship (Art and Urban Regeneration: live exchange as a method for policy development) and the recent publication Walking in Cities: Navigating Post-Pandemic Environments (Routledge 2024). Covenors: @jasparjosephlester @marisaferreirastudio @car_mariscal @simon_walkative organised with the support of: @sites_and_situations @rca_soah_research @royalcollegeofart @spacexrise @rcastudentsunion

Thank you Sofia Castelló y Tickell for leading our walk last month. We explored the presence of and challenges for aquatic life beneath its surface. We discussed animals including marine mammals, eels and mitten crabs. In such an urban waterway, where are the borders between humans and wildlife — and where should they be? “We started at the @royalcollegeofart Battersea and wandered along a stretch of water which has unexpectedly played host to 2 disoriented whales over the last 2 decades. It was so great to think and share about aquatic biodiversity, the lives of different species and the conservation challenges we face. The theme of the Walkative Project’s current programme is “borders” so we mostly focused on eels, marine mammals and mitten crabs who cross over between fresh and salt water. The format was unlike most of the lectures or presentations | give, and it lent a real sense of spontaneity and organic discussion. Such interesting questions as well, since many participants came from totally different disciplines” @sofiaatsea Dr. Sofia Castelló y Tickell is a British-Mexican marine conservation scientist who recently won an award for Excellence in Science Communication from the National Academies of Sciences. She is currently a Senior Teaching Fellow in the Department of Biological Sciences at Royal Holloway, University of London. She was previously based at the University of Oxford, where she was Interim Director for Conservation Optimism, following postdoctoral research on marine protected areas and human-made reefs at Exeter and Oxford. Her research focuses on social and ecological aspects of marine conservation, as well as effective and creative environmental communication. She also conducts creative work with environmental themes, including co-founding the Good Natured Conservation Optimism Film Festival and the Just Improv comedy troupe. @sites_and_situations @rca_soah_research

Meet us today 6 March for the lunch time walk on the banks of the Thames: The Life Aquatic: Exploring underwater biodiversity in the Thames Led by: Dr.Sofia Castelló y Tickell 6 March 2025 from 12 to 1pm Meeting point: RCA Battersea Campus, Dyson Building entrance Ending point: Same as starting point Join us for a lunchtime walk along the Thames, led by Dr. Sofia Castelló y Tickell. We will explore the presence of and challenges for aquatic life beneath its surface. We will discuss animals including marine mammals, eels and mitten crabs. In such an urban waterway, where are the borders between humans and wildlife — and where should they be? Dr. Sofia Castelló y Tickell is a British-Mexican marine conservation scientist who recently won an award for Excellence in Science Communication from the National Academies of Sciences. She is currently a Senior Teaching Fellow in the Department of Biological Sciences at Royal Holloway, University of London. She was previously based at the University of Oxford, where she was Interim Director for Conservation Optimism, following postdoctoral research on marine protected areas and human-made reefs at Exeter and Oxford. Her research focuses on social and ecological aspects of marine conservation, as well as effective and creative environmental communication. She also conducts creative work with environmental themes, including co-founding the Good Natured Conservation Optimism Film Festival and the Just Improv comedy troupe. @sofiaatsea @thewalkativeproject @royalcollegeofart @rcastudentsunion

Join us this Thursday 6 March for a lunchtime walk along the Thames. Walk: “The Life Aquatic: Exploring underwater biodiversity in the Thames Led by: Dr.Sofia Castelló y Tickell @sofiaatsea 6 March 2025 from 12 to 1pm Meeting point: RCA Battersea Campus, Dyson Building entrance Ending point: Same as starting point will explore the presence of and challenges for aquatic life beneath its surface. We will discuss animals including marine mammals, eels and mitten crabs. In such an urban waterway, where are the borders between humans and wildlife — and where should they be? Dr. Sofia Castelló y Tickell is a British-Mexican marine conservation scientist who recently won an award for Excellence in Science Communication from the National Academies of Sciences. She is currently a Senior Teaching Fellow in the Department of Biological Sciences at Royal Holloway, University of London. She was previously based at the University of Oxford, where she was Interim Director for Conservation Optimism, following postdoctoral research on marine protected areas and human-made reefs at Exeter and Oxford. Her research focuses on social and ecological aspects of marine conservation, as well as effective and creative environmental communication. She also conducts creative work with environmental themes, including co-founding the Good Natured Conservation Optimism Film Festival and the Just Improv comedy troupe. @wildthings.improv @royalcollegeofart @sites_and_situations @rca_soah_research @rcastudentsunion