Arlander, Annette. 2024. “Walking in the Woods.” Global Performance Studies 7 (2). https://doi.org/10.33303/gpsv7n2a122
The following video essay is a compilation of excerpts from videos created with the same technique at various locations filmed many years apart. Only one-minute snippets are included in each example. The only video material made specifically with this essay in mind is the introduction and the conclusion, recorded in a park in Stockholm. In everyday life today most of us are surrounded by moving images, films, videos, animations, gif-files and the like. These videos were not made following usual film or TV conventions. Although it is simplifying to use terms like ‘film conventions,’ they nevertheless influence our expectations of what could and should be done with moving images. Experimental film aside, it is customary to plan a film or performance based on what one wants the audience to experience, to choose one’s means based on the effect one wants to achieve, rather than to create material out of curiosity: but what happens if I don’t commit to these rules or restrictions?
The background for these videos is in task-based performance. The video images were mainly recorded to document an action, a walking performance, even if they were also made to become material for independent video works. The video works were edited for a viewer, of course, and the following video essay is made for you, dear viewer. The choice of technique, however—using a small action camera on my forehead—was not originally made with the viewer in mind. I wanted to experiment with movement, and to do it in as minimal a way as possible with the tools I had at my disposal. In my ordinary practice, I create repeated images with a static camera over long periods of time, partly to show landscape as a process, partly to avoid ‘pretty pictures’. Keeping the same framing of the image, using the restriction of a fixed set up as a tool, and letting the changes in the environment play their part becomes a chance procedure of sorts. In these walking videos, where no repetition was possible, the uninterrupted movement and the focus on the road or path provides a similar restriction, a generative limitation. Or that was what I hoped for, at least.
Walking is a strong and recognizable action, and it is perhaps the real topic of these experiments, although the landscapes I move through are fascinating, too. If I wanted to create a film or video depicting these landscapes in a more nuanced manner including their history and specificity, I would probably use some other tools. Walking with a camera on one’s forehead is a strange and simple method, and the moving images it results in are strange and simple as well: at best meditative, at worst boring. The idea of combining several images within one frame is an attempt to increase the action in the image, to make it more exciting. It is a kind of mixing of several image flows instead of the customary tool for condensing visual material, that is, cutting or editing away everything except the highlights. When choosing brief excerpts of the half-hour long videos for this essay, I did just that: picked small snippets, but limited my choices to the beginning of each video.
Why all these explanations? Perhaps to make it easier for you, dear viewer, to give up your expectations on what moving images should look like and enjoy these brief extracts for what they are: demonstrations of a series of experiments within an evolving performance practice.
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Approaching the Pine (double 1)
1 min.
As an attempt at ‘performing landscape’ by moving through it, I have made some experiments with walking, using a small action camera on my forehead, in contrast to my usual practice of performing for a static camera on tripod. In this video essay, I will demonstrate with brief video clips and a voice-over narration the development of a practice where I insert a walk in one direction into a walk in the other direction. Reflecting on such walking as an embodied exploration of the environment, I propose to consider what purposes it might be used for. Although these experiments were made as sketches for artworks, most of them—including this small walk in Kronobergsparken in Stockholm, which you see now—remain just that, sketches or drafts: experiments in recorded walking.
Walking in Nida (2017)
1 min. (orig. 22 min 22 sec)
My first experiments with recorded walking took place in September 2017 in a residency in Nida on the Curonian spit in Lithuania in the Southeastern Baltic Sea, where I performed with pine trees in various ways (Arlander 2018). To create an impression of the pine woods on the sand dunes and of the crisscrossing forest paths traversing the man-made forests that were planted to keep the sand dunes in place, I walked with an action camera on my forehead and combined five walks within the frame of a sixth walk. This edited version, Walking in Nida (Arlander 2017), I considered an artwork, and it is the only one available through the Distribution Centre for Finnish Media Art of all my subsequent experiments in recorded walking.
Pitkä Ikävä – Walking in Örö (north to south) sum (2021)
1 min. (orig. 35 min 34 sec)
A few years later, in November 2021, I returned to the technique of walking with a camera on my forehead on the military island of Örö in the southwestern archipelago of Finland, where my main activity was performing with the pine trees twisted by the wind (Arlander 2025a). As a complement to the stationary practice of writing to pine trees (see, for example, Arlander 2022), I wanted to create some kind of representation of the landscape on the island. I chose the cobblestone road crossing the island from north to south, named ‘Pitkä Ikävä’ (the long boredom or the long longing) by the soldiers once stationed there, and walked with my action camera several times from one end of the island to the other and back again. While editing the material, I first added several videos into the same frame as I had done in Nida. Four versions of the walk were inserted in a walk from north to south, Pitkä Ikävä – Walking in Örö (north to south) sum, that you just saw.
Pitkä Ikävä – Walking in Örö (south to north) sum (2021)
1 min. (orig. 35 min 34 sec)
And four versions of the walk were similarly inserted in a fifth walk from south to north, in Pitkä Ikävä – Walking in Örö (south to north) sum, which you see now. The practice where a previous attempt serves as a starting point for the next one, where one is first trying a method that one has used before, and then transforms the method to suit the new circumstances, is one way of understanding how ‘the journey is directing itself’ (Wits School of Arts 2023). Combining the multiple variations of the same walk was not that interesting, however, despite shifting light conditions and differences due to timing. The uniformity and ‘boredom’ of the one path traversing the island was hidden, rather than accentuated by the variations. Therefore, I decided to try to combine movement in opposite directions, walking back and forth as it were, a method which I later used on several other occasions.
Pitkä Ikävä – Walking in Örö (south to north)
1 min. (orig. 35 min 34 sec)
I inserted a recording of a walk from south to north on Örö into a recording of a walk from north to south, and vice versa, trying to synchronize the duration. Because timing the walk exactly was difficult, both walks begin and end by a sequence of standing still to facilitate synchronizing. This way I created two double videos, with the idea of showing them as a two-channel installation, next to each other, a diptych of sorts. And therefore, the inserted image is off-center to the left in the video Pitkä Ikävä – Walking in Örö (south to north) or ‘double 1’, which you see now, where the walk south to north is inserted into the walk north to south. This was the first time I experimented with the effect of walking ‘there and back,’ although ‘there’ and ‘back’ are interchangeable in this case.
Pitkä Ikävä – Walking in Örö (north to south) double 2 (2021)
1 min. (orig. 35 min 34 sec)
In the second part of the diptych, the video Pitkä Ikävä – Walking in Örö (north to south) or ‘double 2,’ which you see now, the inserted image is respectively off-center to the right. In my view, the diptych demonstrates the experience of walking back and forth on that one long road more accurately than the multiple variations in the first experiment. I considered this diptych a completed work, unlike the other experiments, and proposed to show it in an exhibition on the same island with the help of QR codes leading to the videos online. That proposal was never realized, but the diptych might still be shown somewhere someday (for the full diptych, see “Walking in Örö” in Arlander 2025a, https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/761326/1456870/94/116). These experiments, where inserting multiple variations in one frame served as a starting point for inserting the walk ‘there’ into a walk ‘back’ and vice versa, also show how ‘the journey directs itself.’
Walking in the Woods (Bodafors 1 North) (2022)
1 min. (orig. 18 min 2 sec)
Next time I experimented with recorded walking was in August 2022 during a residency in the town Bodafors in southern Sweden (Arlander 2025b). I began with the method I developed on Örö, by walking in opposite directions on the same path. This I did on two distinct forest paths outside town, inserting the recording of a walk in one direction into the recording of a walk in the other direction as I had done previously, this time inserting the images in the center, though. And as I had done on Örö, I began and ended the walks by standing still for a while to facilitate synchronization. The first part of the first double video, Walking in the Woods (Bodafors 1 North), which you see now, was recorded on a small path traversing a larger circular sports trail.
Walking in the Woods (Bodafors 1 South) (2022)
1 min. (orig. 18 min 2 sec)
In the second part, Walking in the Woods (Bodafors 1 South), I walk the same path in the opposite direction with the video recorded in the other direction inserted into it. The path moved through a varied terrain with hills and bogs and a seemingly ‘real’ forest despite the vicinity of town, although the shifts in the landscape become visible only gradually during the walk. The forest as environment becomes quite tangible, but what to do with it? Repeating the old method did not suggest any further developments; this time the journey did not direct itself towards anything new.
Walking in the Woods (Bodafors 2 right) (2022)
1 min. (orig. 16 min 3 sec)
Looking for variation, I tried to record one more walk on another forest path to the north of town. This path started directly from a street, ended close to the place where it began and was almost circular. I named the walks based on the direction of the movement in the beginning, the first one Walking in the Woods (Bodafors 2 right), which you see now. The walk could as well have been titled ‘medsols’ (with the sun’ or clockwise) however. I was disturbed by the angle of the sun, which revealed my shadow in some of the images. This reminds of autobiographical cinema (Martin 2015), which was not at all my aim in this case.
Walking in the Woods (Bodafors 2 left) (2022)
1 min. (orig. 16 min 3 sec)
The walk in the opposite direction on the path, Walking in the Woods (Bodafors 2 left), which you see now, could be called ‘motsols’ (‘against the sun’ or counterclockwise). This playing with an action camera was an attempt at finding another way of approaching the environment than my basic practice of looking for pine trees to perform with, trees to sit in or on and write or talk to, in front of a video camera on a tripod. Action cameras are usually meant for recording sport endeavors or spectacular movement, action, as the name suggests, with a wide-angle objective. My way of using the camera was therefore a kind of misuse, trying to ‘normalize’ it, not exploiting its full potential. The mere fact of the camera moving along was interesting enough for me.
Looking for Treja 1 - double (2023)
1 min. (orig. 12 min 5 sec)
The third time I took to my action camera was again in a residency, in July 2023, in the valley of river Treja near Mazzano Romano northeast of Rome in Italy (Arlander 2025c). There I walked in the woods on the slope following the river from the old medieval town first upstream and then back downstream. Here, too, the walks were an effort to grasp for alternative ways to work with the environment, because I could not find suitable pines to work with nearby. The first walk on 11. July, edited routinely in the same manner as in Bodafors, resulted in Looking for Treja -1-double, which you see now, with one direction again inserted into the other direction.
Looking for Treja 2 - double (2023)
1 min. (orig. 12 min 5 sec)
Looking for Treja 2 - double, which you see now, was the complementary walk back. Despite a whole world of approaches to walking and a lively discourse of walking artists (Heddon and Turner 2010, Heddon and Turner 2012), soundwalks (Walk Listen Create n.d.), and related fields like eco-acoustics (International Society of Ecoacoustics n.d.) and field recordings (Soanes 2023), I find it hard to place these experiments in context. All these areas are unfamiliar to me, partly because I have not foregrounded walking in my practice. Surely a large part of what I do is walking around looking for the right place or tree, and then walking repeatedly to that tree and back, if I choose to make time-lapse videos. But neither walking nor listening is the main activity as it is in sound walks or audio walks or walking-as-map-making and more. For me, walking is a tool that usually remains invisible, not emphasized, as in these experiments.
Walking with Treja 1 - double (2023)
1 min. (orig. 25 min 35 sec)
The second attempt in the Treja valley on 15 July, with slightly longer walks resulted in Walking with Treja 1 - double, which you see now, with one direction inserted into the other, as before. In these walks, I was more concerned with the camera angle and the framing of the image: how much of the path and the foliage could be seen on the rather narrow and steep path? Or how to avoid my feet becoming visible if directing the camera downwards to show more of the path and possibly a glimpse of the river. However, to my disappointment, neither the sound nor the view of the river Treja was discernible in most of the recorded material.
Walking with Treja 2 - double (2023)
1 min. (orig. 25 min 35 sec)
When looking at the material afterwards, including Walking with Treja 2 - double, which you see now, aspects that were self-evident during the practice seem noteworthy, like the strong bodily presence of the invisible performer and the sound and rhythm of the steps. Besides the image bumping and swaying with the movement of the body and the oscillating focus between frame and center when one image is inserted into the other, the slightly dizzying effect of looking at two movements at the same time contribute to the ‘restlessness’ of the videos. That ‘restlessness’ is an action, of course, or perhaps rather an activity. Like the walks in Bodafors, these walks in the Treja Valley rest as discarded material in my archives, waiting for future use.
Approaching the Pine – Stockholm – double 2 (2023)
2 min
What about the possible use or purpose of such a practice besides artistic production? Is there some added value in exploring one’s environment with a camera on one’s forehead, other than maintaining one’s health by walking in the woods? Based on my experience with these walks, there is an extra bonus in the concentration brought by the act of recording, a heightened sense of awareness, even a sharpened perception in the performance. Unfortunately, as with many other types of video works, creating them is often more satisfactory than watching them. The practice outweighs the outcome, as it were.
When presenting some of these experiments for the Artistic Research Working Group of Performance Studies international (https://psi-artistic-research-working-group.blogspot.com/), the idea of juxtaposing two walks in opposite directions on the same path seemed the most interesting aspect. In the context of the PSi #28 conference, the series of experiments, where one attempt served as a starting point for the next one, also showed how ‘the journey directs itself’, although only to some extent. For a meaningful development some new ideas are needed in response to a new environment.
A video essay with brief one-minute excerpts of these various walks and a voice-over changes the effect of the videos, of course. Rather than the repetitive, at best hypnotizing or meditative rhythm of continuous walking through constantly shifting woodland in real time, this narrated walk has jumped from one place to another; from a military road on an island in the north of Europe to a river valley in the south via forest paths somewhere in between. It comes to an end with a snippet of a ‘concluding walk’ in the middle of Stockholm with the narrator’s explaining voice as the only guide. Thank you for joining the journey, and why not try this near your home, for example, filming with your phone.
Arlander, Annette. 2017. Walking in Nida. https://www.av-arkki.fi/works/walking-in-nida/
Arlander, Annette. 2018. “Resting with Pines in Nida – Attempts at Performing with Plants.” Performance Philosophy 4 (2): 452–75. https://doi.org/10.21476/PP.2019.42232.
Arlander, Annette. 2022. “Writing with a Pine: Addressing a Tree as Audience.” Näyttämö Ja Tutkimus 9: 103–20. https://journal.fi/teats/article/view/127615
Arlander, Annette. 2025a. “Meetings with Remarkable and Unremarkable Trees.” Research Catalogue. https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/761326/761327.
Arlander, Annette. 2025b. “Wood Art Residency Bodafors.” https://ponderingwithpines.com/wood-art-residency-bodafors/.
Arlander, Annette. 2025c. “Mazzano Romano.” https://ponderingwithpines.com/mazzano-romano/
Heddon, Deirdre, and Cathy Turner. 2010. “Walking Women: Interviews with Artists on the Move.” Performance Research 15 (4): 14–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/13528165.2010.539873.
Heddon, Deirdre, and Cathy Turner. 2012. “Walking Women: Shifting the Tales and Scales of Mobility.” Contemporary Theatre Review 22 (2): 224–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/10486801.2012.666741.
International Society of Ecoacoustics. “What is ecoacoustics?” https://sites.google.com/site/ecoacousticssociety
Martin, Adrian. 2015. “A Certain Dark Corner of Modern Cinema.” In Performance and Temporalisation: Time Happens, edited by Stuart Grant, Jodie McNeilly, and Maeva Veerapen, pp. 180–189. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137410276_14.
PSi Artistic Research Working Group. n.d. https://psi-artistic-research-working-group.blogspot.com/.
Sones, Zoe. 2023. “A Beginner’s Guide to Field Recording.” Indie Tips, July 7. https://indietips.com/a-beginners-guide-to-field-recording/.
Walk Listen Create. n.d. “About.” https://walklistencreate.org/about/
Wits School of Arts. 2023. “PSi Conference 2023”. https://www.wits.ac.za/wsoa/psi-conference-2023/.