Exercise. Literal and creative.
Aimless wandering and its role in curiosity.
As part of continuing to develop my curiosity gym, OneDayCurious, I’ve started designing some physical experiences.
I’ve long been a fan of an aimless walk – just leaving the house, getting a train somewhere and wondering around (intentional spelling mistake), its what created Edges of London – my intention to visit the end of every tube line to see what’s there (mostly a Costa and a minicab firm), and its gotten me through some extremely hard times, as well as saved me from complete boredom.
I’d argue that going for an aimless walk has not only helped my career, it has saved my life.
In the same space as aimless walks are themes like flaneurism, which I was introduced to by Abbie Kramrisch, and psychogeography – so my footsteps are following well trodden paths – but these later ideas are not just about the act of walking, but more about the practise of observing.
(Sidebar: I don’t read nearly enough – my knowledge is not academic or rooted in previous people’s work, I sort of follow my gut and heart and head, and then discover other people who have done brilliant (and much better and deeper) work in this space before, which reassures me that I’m doing something interesting. My tsundoku means I have plenty of books I bought which are “let’s read more about what I’m scratching the surface of, that some said I should read more about, but it’s often the “go deeper” stage rather than “get started” stage, and I’m a “starter” more than I am a “deeper”.)
It’s a sort of situational mindfulness. Looking up, taking in the sights and sounds and smells and sense of the place you’re in. It is the opposite of being on a smartphone or commuting. It is browsing, stopping to ponder, look closer, go deeper down a rabbit hole.
OneDayCurious aims to just slow people down and encourage this mindful observation a little, and as I design more exercises and techniques, a little model or continuum is developing:
TIME – the first stage is simply to force yourself to make time. Five minutes a day, 15 minutes, whatever it takes – just give yourself time where you don’t have to get something tangible done.
OBSERVE – the hardest stage, which takes practise, and practice. Being open to actually seeing things. Taking those things in. To start, you’ll notice what you expect to see. As it develops, you’ll notice things you hadn’t ever expected.
CLOSER – then leaning in, looking at the detail. Life is a fractal, you can never stop getting closer to something and finding out more. Look at what makes up something else. Go beyond simple observation to really seeing.
WHY – and then the deepest and most enlightening, but also most involved stage, asking why, and trying to understand why. This often requires pulling right back to see the wider picture at the same time as looking in detail, and it requires time, closing the loop.
OneDayCurious is currently really only focusing on step two – observe, but I wanted to see if I could do something with step three, in a playful manner.
So I’ve started designing a walking tour. You know – those things where someone walks around with an umbrella in the air telling you things about stuff. My tour has a difference, I’m not going to tell you anything – you have to discover the stories for yourself. It’s a sort of guided journey to observe and create, over two hours, which ends with sharing over a beer.
I’m going to be looking for volunteers to pilot the first walks in the coming weeks. If you’re in London, leave a comment and I’ll get in touch.
Why am I doing this? I don’t know.
I’m just sort of following an instinct and a sense of curiosity – what might happen if I take a bunch of people wandering around London for an evening. But I guess that’s absolutely in the spirit of this, in a sort of circular meta way.
