Zedding fame
I don’t think this photo is anything particularly spectacular. Usually when I zed I’m looking to show people what I’m seeing in the city, be that peeling paint or giant bananas out of windows. This was taken on my first experience of zedding as a group and I took this random shot of people. This week it is on page 17 of the New Statesman!
I’m a published photographer. I totally get a kick out of that. You can't see the pic on the online version, you have to limp your way to WHSmith for the pleasure of seeing my name written really small next to it
Liam rang me while I was making my breakfast this afternoon. Every muscle in my body aches as a result of my attempt to keep up with the Urban Earth people who were walking across Manchester last night. I had to give up in Blackley, my lungs couldn’t take the pace. Estimating on Google, I think I walked 6 or 7 miles (that’s about 10 km to my readers in Europe) At the time, I felt a bit pathetic for dropping out before the 18km half way dropping out point, but hey I was sick over Christmas. So, I was wincing every time I moved when the phone rang as I was in the middle of overdoing toast.
“We’re famous!” announces Liam without preamble.
I respond dumbly for a while thinking he is talking about the urban earth thing but no, it turns out that the New Statesman have decided to write about Liam and me going for walks.
Not just me and Liam going for walks, some other people too. People, I suspect, equally as obscure as me and Liam. Psychogeography appears to be everywhere I look lately (but maybe I just look in funny places) There are blogs, books, conferences, greenbelt talks, videos, articles in the New Statesman. What amuses me is, Liam and I didn’t set out to engage in the “study of specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organised or not, on the emotions and behaviour of individuals" (Situationniste Internationale 1958.) We went with a quirky idea Rosie had, and decided to visit Boggart Hole Cough because it had a funny name. And now we are part of a movement because the New Statesman say we are.
For me what is striking about zedding isn’t that it’s a study of anything. It’s about play. It’s about living in the moment. It’s about noticing the thing right in front of you. It’s about going somewhere for no other reason than seeing what’s there and giving your attention to it. It’s about being liberated from caring what other people think; so what if I’m interested in your playground that isn't there anymore, never seen a woman pretend to be a roundabout before? It’s about an openness of mind, I don’t think funny things happen to us because we are zedding, I think we notice funny things because we are zedding.I think we have fun zedding because we make zedding fun, and if this is true, what can you do with your walk to work tomorrow?