Emmanuelle Waeckerlé is a London based academic, artist, composer and improviser
interested in the materiality and musicality of language. She is Reader in Fine Art and
Relational Practices and director of bookRoom at UCA Farnham.
Her practice and research evolve across multiple interconnected work zones – conceptual
writing, performance, new musical composition, artist-publishing, curating (here.here concert
series, Cosy Nook). Her music and scores are distributed by Wandelweiser editions. Latest releases include Walking in Air, Performance Research ‘On Air’, with Will Montgomery (Sept 2022) - The Way We Blend Podcast (July 2022) - Walking in Air in Thornton Heath, Le centre des livres d’artistes (2021) - Photobooks &, Matt Johnston, edited by E. Waeckerlé (Onomatopee, 2021) - A Direction Out There: Readwalking (with) Thoreau (MA BIBLIOTHÈQUE, Edition Wandelweiser, 2021).
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Walking in Air in Ditchling
lodge hill
Saturday 28th May 2022, 11.30 am.
Lambing is a critical time in the farming year beware ponds deep water (opening and closing gate) caution
deep water
walking in air uphill to lodge hill CAUTION DEEP WATER lambing season
(slightly out of breath)
walking in air
on unfamiliar ground (out of breath) breathless
one step at a time
gentle breeze soft grassy ground
two small planes high up in the sky cloudy with
speckles of blue two small planes chasing each other
I am walking in air
between earth and sky my breath the air my breath of air joining
one to the other
following a small path grassy path at the top of lodge hill on a small plateau a small path
made step by step by those walking it
breath by breath by those breathing it groundless ground
boundless ground invisible silent endless
boundless groundless air I am walking in walking through walking with
arresting view of the downs green grounded downs against cloudy sky speckles of blue moving slowly
gentle breeze brushing against the skin of my arms my face
I am walking in air step by step breath by breath thinking about the walking and the air I am walking in
speaking about walking on dry grass and the air
I am walking in step follows breath follows
step follows breath follows step
follows the grassy path circling around the barrow at the top of lodge hill a circular path
endless path
no beginning no end
like the air I am walking in breathing in breathing at breathing out breath follows step
grounded ground for my feet groundless boundless invisible ground for my thoughts for my lungs
.
freshly cut grass crisp
under the sole of my feet as I am walking in air on the barrow at the top of lodge hill big open sky
gentle breeze
I am walking in air murmuring as it brushes my ears
I am walking in air
tracing a path
step by step breath by breath
a continuous path
crossing itself in between two little mounds of dry grass
that I have positioned at about twenty steps
normal walking steps from each other as I am walking in air circling step by step the first little mound and crossing to the other side
in diagonal so that I can circle the other mount
from an opposite direction and crossing the line joining them again
so that I can circle the other mount of grass from left to right
until my steps take me across the line the straight line that joins them
so that I am now circling the other mount from left to right until I am
crossing again and again and again the straight line that joins the two mounds
of grass so that I can circle each one in turn before crossing the line that
joins them directly thus creating a path without beginning nor end
walking in air on an endless path
that I created between two small mounds of dry grass
by repeatedly crossing the line the straight line that joins them doing so
after circling each one
my feet following this continuous path between two grassy points breath following
steps eyes following steps
scanning the trees the bushes the blackbird flying past the small plane high in the sky more trees bigger trees
the south downs in the distance more trees
my feet know the path leaving my eyes my ears my skin my muscles my mind free to be
in air to think of air
to feel the
air around as much as in side me a wood pigeon crosses my view as I am walking in air
elderflowers in full bloom as I am walking with air
on this continuous path between two small mounds of dry grass about twenty steps apart
a few more steps and breath until I reach the point where I began
a cheering crowd in the distance uncanny timing.
(whispering) I am standing in air
my feet firmly on the ground my eyes
closed my ears
wide open
(whistle)
(whistle)
my breath couldn’t resist the urge to respond
with a gentle whistle
of air
the urge to belong the urge to feel to prove my connection
to it all
the birds don’t care but I do.
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a small path
Three scores for walking in air
a small grassy path
made step by step
by those walking it
breath by breath by those
breathing it _________undless boundless
ground invisible si
walking in through with air
a circular path endless path
no beginning no end
like the air I am breathing in
breathing at breathing out
a continuous path crossing itself
between two little mounds of dry grass
creating without beginning
nor end an endless path between
breath following steps
eyes following steps scanning __________
the small plane high in t
he s
I am standing in air
feet firmly on the ground
eyes closed ears wide open
my breath couldn’t resi
the urge to respond
the urge the urge to prove
my connection ________
grounded ground
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The Walking in Air project spent the weekend of 28-29 May at Ditchling Museum of Art+Craft. Participants were Will Montgomery and Emmanuelle Waeckerlé (the two project organisers), artist / composer Ryoko Akama and poet Carol Watts. We walked separately and together, finding different ways of bringing the element of air into contact with the activity of walking.
Here are some of my traces of this local fieldwork. I chose to walk to Lodge Hill a small ridge hill topped by a Bronze Age barrow, and improvise a text on air, breathing and thinking in the present moment. The recording of which I subsequently transcribed, then later redacted to three short poetic blueprints and possible scores for Walking in Air in Ditchling or elsewhere.
Traces of preliminary Walking in Air fieldwork undertaken during lockdown 2020 have been published in Walking in Air, co-authored with Will Montgomery, Performance Research ‘On Air’, Vol 26 issue 7 (Sept 2022).
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