Walking as Transdisciplinary Embodied Intervention: ABR, STS, and Art-Science Collaborations

This chapter considers the embodied practiceEmbodyembodied practice of walking as a transdisciplinary methodology for strengthening arts-based researchArts-basedarts-based research and science and technologyTechnology studies. AsArt art-scienceArt-science collaborative entanglements co-createCo-create on theoretical and practical levels, the potentialPotential for walking-withWalkwalking-with emerges as a form of transdisciplinary inquiryInquiry, satisfying many of the underlying dispositions held both by arts-based researchArts-basedarts-based research (ABR) and science and technology (STS) domains. STS have a developing complementarity to ABR approaches, including a/r/tography. As an evolvingEvolving practice-basedPracticepractice-based approach, a/r/tography may offer a practical lens into shared dispositions, facilitating the detection and configuration of criticalCritical public pedagogies which engage both transdisciplinary and culturally-driven questions. In this inquiryInquiry, the practices and materialsMaterial of two art-scienceArt-science educational initiatives are diffracted through (read-with) an a/r/tographic approach of walking in order to interrogate walking-with as a viable way to facilitate the mappingMap/mapping of emergent spaces for inquiryInquiry and practice. Such initiatives transcend traditional abstract disciplinary boundaries and offer intriguing pedagogical and artistic research sites to explore how embodied knowledgeKnowledge translates into authenticArt art-scienceArt-science educational contexts from which a/r/tographersA/r/tographya/r/tographer, STS, and art-scienceArt-science researchers alike uncover new meanings, methods, and wonderingsWondering.