Sara Wookey

Walking Los Angeles: From documentation to performance and back again

Often referred to as a city where nobody walks, Los Angeles’s urban sprawl is often disorienting for the visitor as well as for the long- term resident. Therefore navigating a city so vast and confusing on foot becomes an absurd act. This absurd gesture of walking in Los Angeles is the catalyst for the performance and media-based work that artist Sara Wookey has recently created with the city and the premise of her presentation. Her recent project BEING PEDESTRIAN, an alternative tourism campaign in collaboration with artist Sara Daleiden and the Community Redevelopment Agency of LA, will be highlighted. This project is an example of her interest in amplifying the role of the body as a spatial and sensory tool for navigation while prompting social, perceptive and playful behavior in a city where people are often hesitant to walk and to be in public space. Folded into her discussions will be excerpts from her article, Walking LA : From Documentation to Performance , published in the International Journal of Art & Technology (V2 N3 2009).