John Schott’s idea for a term-long festival had some serious legs—and it all grew out of the simplest of curiosities: how to think creatively about a common physical act.
WALK! A Festival of Walking, Art & Ideas lasted all of spring term and included a series of discussions, performances, and exhibits open to members of the Carleton and Northfield communities.
“The festival is different from the typical classroom endeavor,” says Schott, a cinema and media studies professor. “You’re experiencing the world around you. It’s engaged learning.”
Schott’s interest in walking as a means of exploration is not new, as students who travel with him on off-campus programs can attest. For example, in Rome, he instructed students to walk in the direction of a sculpture’s sight line, only to change course once they spotted a different sculpture. Another group adopted a pickpocket’s point of view—walking closely behind people or mimicking their movements—and then documenting how the experience felt.
WALK! offered a similar invitation, says Schott, who invited his Carleton colleagues to add their own creative flourishes to the festival. “We wanted people to imagine their own approaches to walking—whether simple, complex, or art.”