Wandelen en fietsen is goed voor de gezondheid. Maar wist je dat het nog gezonder is als je daarvoor trage wegen gebruikt? Deze zomer droeg onze Sideways-multimedia-ezel Donkyxote een toestel mee om over heel de tocht de concentratie fijne roetdeeltjes in de lucht te meten. Deze vorm van fijn stof wordt vooral uitgestoten door het wegverkeer en is erg schadelijk voor de gezondheid.

De Sideways Wandel Kunsten Karavaan werd door Radio 2 Limburg begroet tijdens de laatste wandeldag van de Sideways Expeditie.

Herbeluister hieronder het interview, maar vooral: iedereen welkom tijdens het slotweekend in Zutendaal op 15 en 16 september.

The Walking Artists Network presents ‘walkie-talkie too’ – a day of scratch walks and peripatetic perambulations.

‘Walkie-talkie too’ is the second walking event of the Walking Artists Network, established in order to aid/enable/force those who use walking in their practice to come together and think and talk and walk. All are welcome, however you do your walking – as an artist, commuter, ecologist, geographer, hiker, historian, urban planner, or just for the pleasure of it – please come along and add your feet and thoughts.

There is no pre-defined content or agenda beyond the goals of connecting with fellow walkers and sharing ideas – it will be about whatever the participants want to discuss, debate or try out on the day. We hope that the Sideways artists and symposium participants will bring ideas from the walk across Belgium, and from their individual creative practices and academic disciplines to investigate collaboratively.

We’ll begin the day with a short ‘open-space’ workshop to identify a range of themes, points for discussion and areas of common interest, and then take those ideas out for a walk – regrouping to share and document the results. These might be theoretical, philosophical, practical, experimental and argumentative (or any combination of these). The first ‘walkie-talkie’ (held in London in July 2011) generated walks and discussions around micro-navigation, slowness, getting lost, dead-ends and unpromising pathways and much more.

After a break for food we’ll hold a second 'open space' workshop, to extend and develop thoughts from the morning and bring in new ideas; we'll then repeat the process from the morning – going out and walking and talking, returning to document and share the results.

Notes

The Walking Artists Network exists to connect people who define themselves as walking artists, and everyone who is interested in walking as a mode of creative practice in related fields including, but not limited to, architecture, archaeology, anthropology, cultural geography, history, literature, performance, urban design and planning. We have an online directory of members at http://walkingartistsnetwork.org/members-2/ a mailing list at http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/WAN and an ongoing series of occasional meetings.

Open Space meetings are characterised by: a broad, open invitation that articulates the purpose of the meeting; a "bulletin board" of issues and opportunities posted by participants; a "marketplace" with many breakout spaces that participants move freely between; a "breathing" or "pulsation" pattern of flow, between plenary and small-group breakout sessions. http://www.openspaceworld.org/

Still calibrating, but hey: ultrafine particular matter is being mapped by DonkeyXote whilst on Sideways journey. Purple = high values, yellow = low values. Follow the progress in Sideways' mapping challenge. Measurements of Monday morning 3rd of September.

DonkeyXote also measures surrounding noise.

- past 10 minutes:

- past hour:

We gratefully thank the Ghent University ~ IDEA-project (www.idea-project.be) for equipping DonkeyXote.

TV Brussel stak de oortjes in en beleefde de pure poëzie van het Glasbakcollectief: de Weg. En met de Sideways WandelKunstenKaravaan legde TV Brussel een stukje van de tocht af en vergezelde men ons tussen het Laarbeekbos en het Maximilaanpark. Geniet mee van een zonnige Brusselse festivaldag!

20120901-tvbrussel from sideways 2012 on Vimeo.

De doortocht van Sideways door onze hoofdstad gaat niet onopgemerkt voorbij. FM Brussel trok alvast de wandelschoenen voor de tocht over de Groene Wandeling, de 'trage ring' rond Brussel. Herbeluister het gesprek hieronder en natuurlijk: welkom dit weekend op Sideways.

"Iedereen beroemd", de veelbesproken opvolger van "Man bijt hond" ging maandag 27 augustus van start op één. Reg Carremans, één van de aanwezige Sideways-kunstenaars, werd gefilmd voor een reportage in de allereerste aflevering. Kijk en geniet mee. En meer dan welkom om een dagje mee te wandelen op de komende Sidewaystocht of om het werk van onze wandelkunstenaars te bekijken tijdens de festivalweekends in Brussel (1 & 2 september), Turnhout (8 & 9 september) en Zutendaal (15 & 16 september).

Eén - Iedereen beroemd - De figuur wandelkunstenaar Eén from sideways 2012 on Vimeo.

Bram and Eleanor are about to embark on a journey across Belgium as part of Sideways 2012.

They are currently 12 kilometres from the border town of Menen in Western Flanders, Belgium.  Over the next 2 weeks, whilst walking from Menen to Brussels, they are undertaking a series of collaborative performances exploring our interests in place, translation, interpretation and the nature of collaboration itself.

We will broadcast these live performances directly to your computer. To receive the broadcast download the Field Broadcast pinger by clicking on the icon below this article.

Once you have downloaded the pinger our performances will appear direct to your desktop live, as they take place in real time.

Sideways on air!

De langverwachte puzzel van de festivalweekends is in elkaar geschoven en met plezier presenteren we jullie een wervelend programma van verschillende walkshops, interventies, kunstinstallaties, perfromances, gesprekken en wandelingen, nevenactiviteiten, volskpicknicks en uiteraard nog meer wandelen... dit alles gekaderd door onze twee symposia 'Setting Out' (Zondag, 19 augustus, Menen) en 'Moving On' (Zaterdag 15 september, Zutendaal) met sprekers uit binnen- en buitenland. Vergezel ons op elke festivallocatie te Menen (19.8) , Herzele (25-26.8), Brussels (1-2.9), Turnhout (8-9.9) and Zutendaal (15-16.9) en ontmoet zo'n 50 artiesten en hun projecten: Wayfarers [expeditie-artiesten die al wandelend werk creëren] en de Site Explorers [artiesten die ter plaatse werk creëren].

The long-awaited puzzle of the festival weekends is finally fitting and we are happy to present you a swirling programm of different walkshops, interventions, installations, performances, talks & walks, side-events, picknicks, more walking and more talking... and this all framed by our two symposia 'Setting Out' (Sunday 19 August, Menen) and 'Moving On' (Saturday 15 September, Zutendaal) with speaker from Belgium and abroad. Join us on each of the five festival locations in Menen (19.8) , Herzele (25-26.8), Brussels (1-2.9), Turnhout (8-9.9) and Zutendaal (15-16.9) and walk 'n talk with our 50 artists and their projects: Wayfarers [artists walking along the expedition, creating work on the go and Site Explorers [artists exploring the different layers of a location and creating site-specific work].

Klik door naar het volledige programma en we zien jullie graag terug op één van de festivalweekends:
Click through to the full programme and we are happy to meet you on one of the festival weekends:

Tijdens Sideways, kan je verschillende walkshops volgen, workshops die je op wandel nemen:
A variety of walkshops would like to take you sideways between 17 August and 17 September:

SOUNDSTORMING

Kom één week mee op de Sideways expeditie, experimenten met geluid in open ruimte >> Davide Tidoni
Join the expedition for one week for collaborative experiments with sounds >> Davide Tidoni

PADEN UIT NOODZAAK / PASSAGES OF NEED
Doorkruis Brussel te voet op zoek naar doorgangen uit noodzaak, olifantenpaadjes, openingen in afsluitingen, verborgen plekjes >> Jacuqeline Schoemaker & Jozua Zaagman
Cross Brussels by foot in search of informal passages created out of need, like elephant paths, short cuts, holes in fences >> Jacuqeline Schoemaker & Jozua Zaagman

MARCHER ENSEMBLE
Wandeling in de grensstad Menen doorheen dimensies van plaats en tijd in het hedendaagse Vlaamse landschap >> Hendrik Sturm & Guy Morel
A walk in bordercity Menen through multiples space-times in a contemporary Flemish >> Hendrik Sturm & Guy Morel

WALKING WITH SATELLITES
Persoonlijke kaarttekeningen creëren met de gps in de hand >> Jeremy Wood
Creating pedestrian sketches and personal cartographies using GPS satellite technology >> Jeremy Wood

THIS IS HOW FAR WE'VE COME
Ontdek verticale wandelpaden in de stad en beklim de muren en het straatmeubilair van Brussel >> Anthony Schrag / Kevin McPhee
Urban climbing and discovering new and vertical paths throughout the city of Brussels >> Anthony Schrag / Kevin McPhee

EDIBLE PLANTS, HERBAL EXPERIMENTS
Wandelen en eetbare planten opsporen om ze daags nadien tot zalfjes en olies te brouwen >> OKNO
Discovering edible plants along the way and create oil extracts and balsams the day after >> OKNO

SOUNDWAYS
Ontdek je omgeving via geluid, speel met verschillende microfoons en creëer je persoonlijke compositie >> Aifoon
Explore the surroundings through sound, juggle with different microphones and create personal sound composition Aifoon

KLANKLANDSCHAPPEN
Dompel je een namiddag onder in de klanken van de Kempen >> Aifoon
Emerse yourself in the sounds of the surroundings, for one afternoon >> Aifoon

DE WEG / THE WAY
Wandelperformance die je uitnodigt tot een muzikale groepservaring op een oude Romeinse heirweg in Brussel >> Glasbak
Walking performance inviting you for a collective musical experience >> Glasbak

DonkeyXote, the multimedia donkey and mobile office of the Sideways festival is preparing for the expedition for next month by collecting the hardware to mount on the donkey: A time lapse camera - checked! A sound recording system -  checked! A laptop - checked! A gps tracker/smartphone - checking! And solar panels, checked!

At the moment, artist Peter Ankh aka P.ankh is printing strings of Tibetan flags with quotes and messages in the spirit of Sideways. Each day of the expedition, a string of flags will be hung along the track and leaves a transient trace through the country. Passers-by who are equiped with a smartphone can scan a QR-code and read what happened that day during Sideways.

DonkeyXote received a portable aethalometer from the University of Ghent. This device which measures the air quality and will be linked with a microphone to measure the surrounding noise.

What we have learned about donkeys till now:
* Not all donkeys are used to walking
* Not all donkeys walk straight.. we had to do a donkey casting in order to check this quality, needed for the time lapse camera video recordings
* Donkeys are social animals; they look up each other's company. Donkeys can bark all night, if they have to sleep alone
* Many people have said to bring us a carrot if DonkeyXote doesn't want to continue to walk