Final Project: Typologies of Walking/Not

 Corrected by a Teacher

Typologies of Walking/Not: Final Project

Medium: Walking-based performance, red flair pen, red chalk, and iPhone photography

Link

Walk 1 (Park): Red 

Walk 2 (Stores): Yellow

Walk 3 (Drive to work): Purple

Video Link:

Artist Statement/Reflection

How do we hold systems accountable?

   As a former K–6 teacher and now a future art teacher, I have spent years surrounded by rubrics, feedback, and grades. I have written thousands of comments meant to guide students. But too often, grades become measures of worth, power, and control. They are shaped by systemic pressures rather than genuine learning, Focusing on students grades as a way to measure the schools worth and my own dangling funding and other things in front of public schools. In the schools where I taught, underfunded and overburdened, grading hid much larger issues.

So I flipped it.

   This walking-based intervention redirects the familiar grading language and uses it to critique the very systems that shape our learning environments. Using red chalk and sticky notes marked with feedback, I walked through my neighborhood that I grew up in and know, especially those impacted by educational neglect, infrastructural decay, and institutional failure. Instead of evaluating students, I evaluated the space around me. 

If we expect children to revise their work and schools to meet certain standards, why aren’t our systems asked to do the same?

   The project draws heavily from Situationist ideas of the dérive, which is the wandering not to arrive but to observe, notice, and feel. I also was influenced by détournement, which is the act of hijacking dominant symbols and turning them back on the structures that created them. Just as McKenzie Wark writes in The Beach Beneath the Street, the dérive allows us to remap our cities not by utility, but by affect. My walk remaps Tucson through critique, care, and confrontation.

The feedback I left ranged in grades, adding additional feedback using that educational language. Each one represents a poetic form of critique. Within the beach beneath the street, I was strongly influenced by chapter 3, The Torrent of History, which gave us a story reflecting on the idea of how reusing and rewriting existing ideas (détournement) can challenge who controls knowledge and history. It connects to my project because I use grading, a tool from my past, to question and critique broken systems in public spaces. I am reclaiming the idea of the red pen, much like the authors reuse stories, to use it to poetically critique rather than grade students. 

   Each comment was temporary. The notes written on sticky notes will slowly get tattered, torn, thrown away, faded, and decomposed. The chalk will move with the weather, disappearing with the wind, sun, and rain over time. I documented every intervention through photographs, which I am compiling into a digital zine and public archive. These images do not just capture neglect, they expose the emotional residue of growing up and working in these spaces.

Areas of critique (rubric categories): equity and inclusivity, infrastructure & accessibility, support for human well-being, voice & representation, and cleanliness & care. I mainly focused on how the space impacts those who live around it, especially the children I usually teach.

Walk 1:

Walk 2:

Walk 3:

Reflect & Process:

This was an incredibly fun project to do, though it involved a lot of trial and error. I was inspired by Andy Goldsworthy’s use of natural, temporary materials and wanted to incorporate that sensibility while putting my own spin on it. I chose to work with chalk because, like Goldsworthy’s materials, it is impermanent and responds to nature over time.

I began with a dérive, a drifting walk around my parents’ neighborhood where I lived for 18 years. I let myself wander intuitively, taking notes on my phone whenever I felt a connection to a space. I focused on identifying places that either succeeded or failed in several areas: equity and inclusivity, infrastructure & accessibility, support for human well-being, voice & representation, and cleanliness & care. I especially looked for spaces that reflected the lived experiences of students I once taught.

However, I ran into issues. Chalk does not work on every surface, and I did not want to risk damaging private property. So I adapted. I used a felt-tip pen and sticky notes as alternatives. I also experimented with chalk pencils and river rocks, which are commonly used by Tucson’s rock painting community. I loved the idea of using rocks as canvases, but unfortunately, the red markings would not show up. It was important that it was red, so I had to pivot. I tried different rock textures and colors, but only white worked, which defeated the purpose.

One detail not visible in the photos or video: I used tape on the back of some sticky notes to help them stay in place. Over time, they will fall off, get torn or crumpled, and fade under the sun, just like how real grades can be forgotten as life moves on. I plan to return later to clean up the remaining notes and possibly reuse the materials.