Undesigned World: what educating through walking means in the Anthropocene

Abstract

For this essay, we draw from a collaborative experience between two educators and thirty students in a course called Designed World, taught at a public university, to explore how attention and intention develop within the practice of walking across “patchy landscapes” (Tsing 2015, 20) or the anthropocentric landscape, and how they can assist thinking about the design of “possible worlds” (Haraway 1991). This essay adopts an interdisciplinary approach that integrates ecofeminist theory with ideas of Romantic empiricism and relates them to aesthetic education and theories about walking. This journey to new places of learning – beyond the indoor structure of the classroom or studio – begins with becoming attentive to the complexity around us. Attention is a lack of intention (Masschelein 2010, 48). In contrast to most design activities that begin with an intent to produce a desired outcome, and a rich methodology, such as Design Thinking, there is no method here and no sequence to follow. Instead, the goal is to allow the present to be sublime to us so that we open ourselves up in a vulnerable way to being changed by that through which we move. This form of teaching helps us practise attention, presence, and responsibility. We do not expect anything in return. The simple act of walking can help us navigate an indeterminate time and place and create a social art and commons.