Paper short abstract:

Media Arts staff from Sheffield Hallam University discuss group cohesion through the activates of the Walking Arts Research Group and reflect upon walking as a vehicle for creative practice. Artistic outputs including film and sound work show another type of story-telling - the story of being there.

Paper long abstract:

The 'Walking Arts Research Group' at Sheffield Hallam University provides a collaborative space for creative practice investigation linked to a range of walking practices.

Creativity thrives in a stress-free, contemplative environment, something often eroded in the faced-paced digital world of the contemporary academic institution. This environment can have negative effects on inter-personal relations for both staff and students. The benefits of the group were found to include enhanced group cohesion, increased trust and understanding. Stories began with shared workplace experiences, and developed into stories of personal histories. From this new shared stories grow.

As media arts practitioners the artistic work produced during the walks provides another type of story. Art practice involves an act of immersive engagement with ones environment. The film is not a recording of the place so much as an encounter with ones environment that is explored through the medium of a recording device. Later, by means of artistic interventions, the art work builds a story of the experience and the memory of the encounter that is expressed through the artefact. From this process we find new ways of seeing. The art work is not an interpretation, nor does it require translation. It is an experience that communicates by its own means.

The paper, that expands a critique of the time-compressed work-place and the nature of creative practice, will be accompanied by short extracts of experimental film and sound art that have been produced through the activities of the walking group.