Chapter 6 Pace and Time: Field Notes on the Art of Walking
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The paper examines the act of walking in relation to the measurement and experience of time. By considering ambulation as a basic spatial and temporal measure, the paper first discusses measurement techniques based on walking speed and pacing as intrinsic elements of what John Edward Huth has called “cultures of navigation.” I argue that despite technological advances walking has retained an irreducibly qualitative character, which on the one hand make it impossible to produce a unified standard system of measurement and, on the other, reveal a peculiar dimension of embodiment and a lived sense of time. Through an active engagement of the body and the mind with the world, walking creates a sense of place and connection to the surrounding environment in its temporal dimension. The paper examines this engagement by drawing on the reflection and experience of two prominent walkers and thinkers: Henry David Thoreau and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. In so doing, it sketches a phenomenological account of walking as the art of navigating and exploring the plurality of temporalities underlying the manifold “scapes” of our lives.