Weekly Walking Assignment: Derek Hamm

Draw a shape on a map and attempt to follow the path.

Bruno Munari is one of my favorite artists, designers, and thinkers. Here he is articulating the role of design:

"Today it has become necessary to demolish the myth of the ‘star’ artist who only produces masterpieces for a small group of ultra-intelligent people. It must be understood that as long as art stands aside from the problems of life it will only interest a very few people. Culture today is becoming a mass affair, and the artist must step down from his pedestal and be prepared to make a sign for a butcher’s shop (if he knows how to do it). The artist must cast off the last rags of romanticism and become active as a man among men, well up in present-day techniques, materials and working methods. Without losing his innate aesthetic sense he must be able to respond with humility and competence to the demands his neighbors may make of him.

The designer of today re-establishes the long-lost contact between art and the public, between living people and art as a living thing. … There should be no such thing as art divorced from life, with beautiful things to look at and hideous things to use. If what we use every day is made with art, and not thrown together by chance or caprice, then we shall have nothing to hide."

The cover for a book of his work, called Air Made Visible, contains a unique shape. It seemed a fitting shape to try to attempt to walk in town, though its curved shapes in a town built so perfectly on a grid made it an interesting task.

A few takeaways:

- The path took me to places in town that, even thought it's a small place and I've been back many times, I hadn't been to in many years.
- Alleys were particularly interesting. My friends and I used to ride bikes and play in alleys all the time but I felt nervous heading down the first one, as though I was trespassing.
- One of the things I enjoy about living in a small town is how quickly you can transport yourself to wide-open space. Houses that feel very much "in town" have unimpeded views for miles.
- Though the town is small, circling a good portion of it still took around two hours.
- Businesses owned by entities outside of the town often were the most difficult to walk to or around.