Open City is an ongoing project involving artists Andrew Brown, Katie Doubleday, Simone Kenyon and writer Emma Cocker, which explores how people live in, journey through and experience the human and built environment.

We are interested in exploring models of non-habitual behaviour, in projects where the public are invited to readdress their position within their city through invitations, propositions, site-specific actions and performative events.

 Drawing on the 'investigation led research' undertaken by the group within the project Emma Cocker and Katie Doubleday propose to present a performative paper which will be delivered as a directed walk through the streets of Yokahoma. The presentation will explore how moments of slowness, stillness, obstruction and blockage can be investigated as ways to create points of anchor and location within the urban environment, or in order to affect a psychological shift in the way that space is encountered and understood.

Slowness is often presented as antithetical to the velocity, mobility, speed, and freedom proposed by new technologies and the various accelerated modes in which we are encouraged to engage with the world. We are interested in drawing attention to the potential within existing moments of stillness within the city and creating opportunities for others to create their own spaces, gaps and pauses.

http://www.thinkingfeet.blogspot.com/