Walking
Several years ago, one of my university assignments was to do a neighbourhood exegesis. This involved a two-hour walk around the neighbourhood, with a list of questions to help me notice important details. A couple of years later, I did a subject called Mission in the Australian Context. The major assignment was to do an in-depth Community Exegesis of either our neighbourhood or our faith community neighbourhood. This time I used my half-marathon training to run many of the streets in the local area. Each time I got back, I would mark down my path and any observations I had made. I tried to cover as many streets as possible in the 6-week time frame. There is nothing like walking, or running, to get a feel for a place.
When we moved to Brighton last year, an area of Melbourne we had no prior experience with, I restarted my walking and running explorations. Then we went travelling, first to Tasmania and then on an extended holiday to Noosa, and when I came back, I didn’t restart the project. When we move back next week, I plan to restart this project. I’m thinking about skipping the printed map marked up in highlighter and using City Strides.
A few photos and observations from my early explorations:
Walls along the railway line are covered with street art and graffiti. some of it more aesthetically pleasing than others.
Along with some scrawled messages for the passing commuters
There are a lot of decommissioned churches.
An interesting place to set up for outdoor entertaining
Empty blocks attract further signs of decay … graffiti, weeds and rubbish dumping.
Do you ever engage in a deliberate exploration of your local area?
4 Comments
Elisabeth
The church-turned-house + random roadside seating area are fascinating.
I love to be a tourist in my own town. At this time of year they put a lot of time/money into decorating for the holidays and it’s just lovely to explore all the shops, or drive slowly through residential areas to look at light displays and discover brand new streets/houses I’ve never noticed before!
San
I love that idea. I have used City Strides to try and run all roads in my neighborhood, but I haven’t finished the map. Thanks for the reminder to restart this… running/walking is such a great way to explore your own neighborhood!
NGS
There was an article about a man who was making it his mission to run down every road in our town and I thought that was ambitious! I generally only walk the same routes over and over again because I never know when my dog will decide she’s had enough and I don’t want to be across town when she goes on walking strike! But should explore my town more and maybe this will give me some motivation to do so.
Tobia | craftaliciousme
I love love love exploring the neighborhood and always finding new interesting scenes. If oyu are attentive enough they are always there you just need to see them. My new neighborhood however is a bit more polished and more reserved I guess. Downtown was more craziness. Or I havent found the spots yet. So I will keep exploring.
It sounds like you are going at it a bit more systemetically and scientific. Is there a certain roadmap to log down your finds? A checklist? And what do you do with the findings?