Doctor of Philosophy Idrobo Carlos

91000 €

Hermeneutics of Walking. Walking as Motif, Practice and Reception Strategy in Modern Arts, with special consideration of Finnish Art

Tieteellinen tutkimus / siihen pohjautuva työ | Kaksivuotinen

This project examines the aesthetic experience of walking as motif, artistic practice, and reception strategy in modern arts, with special attention to Finnish artists. Its materials range from paintings to photographs, to performances and installations, in which walking is entangled with questions of cultural and personal memory, identity and belonging. While the current research on walking emphasises the spatial dimension and within in pressing issues like sustainability and ecology, cultural and social interactions, as well as the transformation of rural and urban environments, this project ventures into aspects of walking that have not received enough attention like how its temporal dimension along other formal aspects like body posture, speed, rhythm of steps, or style are supposed to be entangled with symbolic, philosophical, psychological and historical overtones; or what role can play walking for the experience and interpretation of artworks and other aspects of spectatorship and research into arts. Special attention will be given to walking experiences in Finnish art from the so-called Golden Age to the present day, which sadly remains relatively unknown or disconnected from the history of walking art. Consequently, this project is also conceived as the development of a hybrid field between art studies and philosophy under the name Hermeneutics of Walking, with an investigation programme structured around the triad of artwork-artist-spectator and focused on how the formal aspects of walking are transposed into motif, artistic practice, and reception strategy. Through this programme I aim at showing how depictions and practices of walking may reflect or counteract developments in culture, society, and technology, and how can they shape the spectator’s sense of being in the world. The outputs of this project will be four research articles and the organisation and hosting of a two-day workshop on Hermeneutics of Walking with four keynote speakers.