3. Theoretical Framework

3.1 Videowalk: Exploring the Format

I would like to begin with a concise historical overview to the still-emerging format known as Videowalk. I Have divided it into three sections: First we discuss walking itself as an art form, then we will review Audiowalks as the natural precursor to videowalks and finally the emergence of the videowalk itself.

3.1.1 Walking as a type of art.

Walking has been elevated to an art form by numerous artists who have infused it with intentionality and conceptual depth. This transformation of walking into an artistic act can be traced back to the practices of Land artists in the 1960s and 1970s. Artists like Hamish Fulton and Richard Long have positioned walking as a central element of their work, using it to explore, document, and interact with the natural landscape and urban environments.

Hamish Fulton, known for his walking-based art, has dedicated his practice to the experience of walking. Unlike traditional landscape artists who capture nature from a distance, Fulton immerses himself within the environment, allowing the landscape to dictate his artistic journey. His works, such as 21 Days in the Cairngorms (2010), do not manipulate the landscape but rather document the act of walking through diverse terrains. These walks are transformed into art through photographs, text, and sketches that reflect his experiences, emphasizing the process over the final product and highlighting the intrinsic value of the walking act itself.

Similarly, Richard Long's work revolves around the act of walking, which he uses to create art directly within the landscape, such as arranging stones in a line or creating circular patterns, or documenting the path he has traveled in photographs and maps. His piece A Line Made by Walking (1967) perfectly encapsulates this idea: it is simply a photograph of a straight line in grass, created by the action of walking back and forth. Through this, Long transforms a simple, physical act into a profound artistic gesture, playing with the boundaries between sculpture, land art, and performance.

Furthermore, the concept of walking as art is not confined to rural landscapes. Urban walks, influenced by the Situationists' dérive, encourage wandering through cityscapes to understand and experience the urban environment in new, unexpected ways. The dérive, or drift, proposed by Guy Debord and other Situationists, was aimed at challenging the conventional navigation and understanding of urban spaces, promoting an aimless wandering that allows for the discovery of the psycho-geographical contours of these environments.

Francis Alÿs further explores the performative aspect of walking in urban settings through works like The Green Line (2004), where he walked through Jerusalem dripping a line of green paint to trace the 1949 Armistice Border. This walk, while simple in action, is loaded with political, social, and historical implications, showcasing how walking can serve as a powerful tool for commentary and intervention in the social fabric.

Whether through the solitary treks of Hamish Fulton and Richard Long or the politically charged pathways of Francis Alÿs, walking transcends mere physical activity to become a medium for artistic expression and exploration. Walking as an art form is not a precursor to videowalk necessarily, but an interesting counterpart where the act of simple displacement through space, triggers the artwork.

Hamish Fulton. A 21 Day Walk (2010). Illustration. Cairngorms, Scotland.

Richard Long. A line made by walking (1967). Photograph. Tate.

Francis Alÿs. The Green Line (2004). Video.

3.1.2 Audiowalks

To understand the emergence of the Videowalk, we need to talk about its natural predecessor, the Audiowalk, which can be traced back to two divergent roots: the world of acousmatic music and the visual arts, each shaping the format in distinct ways.

In the context of acousmatic music, an audiowalk transcends the traditional concert hall, inviting participants to immerse themselves in a landscape of sound that is detached from visible sources. Originating from the practices associated with musique concrète, as pioneered by figures like Pierre Schaeffer and Luc Ferrari, this approach to audiowalks emphasizes the atmospheric content of a landscape, whether urban or rural. The essence of this practice is to capture the natural ambiance and subtle sound nuances of an environment, allowing listeners to perceive their surroundings in a profoundly different way. Unlike the visual narrative-driven approach, acousmatic audiowalks encourage a deep listening experience that is abstract and introspective, focusing on the sound itself rather than a guided narrative.

The exploration of landscape through sound is not a new idea but finds roots in earlier attempts by composers to encapsulate the essence of a place through music. For instance, the work of John Cage, particularly pieces like 4′33″ (1952) and Imaginary Landscape (1939-52), reflects an early engagement with the concept of ambient sound and its role in shaping our perception of space. Cage's approach, often embracing elements of chance and silence, invites listeners to reconsider the boundaries between music and environmental sound, an idea that resonates with the principles of acousmatic audiowalks. The listener's engagement with the undirected sounds of their environment becomes a form of art, mixing the composed and the naturally occurring.

In the scope of visual art, audiowalks transition into a narrative-driven experience, a shift significantly attributed to the innovative works of Janet Cardiff. Her audiowalks extend beyond the auditory exploration, creating immersive, story-driven environments. Cardiff's installations, described as deeply personal and individual, position the participant not as an abstract observer but as the central character within a soundscape. Her approach, blending the real with the surreal, challenges participants to engage in what she calls "a continual metaphorical reading," navigating the thin line between reality and constructed narrative, thus reshaping their perception of the surrounding space.

The transition from Cardiff's early works to her subsequent projects illustrates the evolving nature of audiowalks. Cardiff integrates narrative elements that guide the listener through a physical and psychological journey. This approach amplifies the immersive quality of the walks and introduces a new dimension to the experience, where the guidance of a narrative voice adds layers of context and emotion to the surrounding environment.

The highly adventurous artists' group Blast Theory further expand the boundaries of audiowalks. Projects like Fixing Point (2011) and Rider Spoke (2007) incorporate elements of interactivity, personal narrative, and the exploration of historical and emotional landscapes. In Fixing Point participants traverse a physical space while uncovering audio recordings that uncover personal histories and memories, blending the act of walking with a journey through time and remembrance. Rider Spoke, on the other hand, offers a more interactive experience, inviting participants to cycle through city streets, engaging with "locative media" to discover and contribute to a collective narrative landscape. Similarly, Duncan Speakman's A Hollow Body (2014) presents a cinematic experience where participants, guided by an app, embark on a narrative journey through London. This piece exemplifies how audiowalks can transform an urban exploration into a highly personal and evocative cinematic narrative.

This evolution from pure sound to narrative immersion sets the stage for the advent of videowalks, where visual elements are woven into the fabric of the walking experience, further expanding the potential for artistic engagement and narrative depth.

“The format of the audio walks is similar to that of an audioguide. You are given a CD player and told to stand or sit in a particular spot and press play. On the CD you hear my voice giving directions, like “turn left here” or “go through this gateway,” layered on a background of sounds of my footsteps, traffic, birds, and miscellaneous sound effects that have been pre-recorded on the same site as where they are being heard. This is the important part of the recording.”

“The virtual recorded soundscape has to mimic the real physical one in order to create a new world as a seamless combination of the two. My voice gives directions but also relates thoughts and narrative elements, which instill in the listener a desire to continue and finish the walk.”
Janet Cardiff, in The Walk Book (2005) p.15.

Documentary about Rider Spoke (2007) by Blast Theory, on its Sydney edition in 2009. The piece toured over 20 cities.

"this is not a history walk or tourist guide. Rather you should imagine walking through a film where you are the main characters; the streets, narrow alleys and inhabitants of London acting as your backdrop.”

Duncan Speakman about his cinematic experience A Hollow Body (2014). On his website

3.1.3 The emergence of Videowalk

The transformation from audio-based experiences to videowalks marks a significant evolution in the field of interactive art. While audiowalks leverage the listener’s imagination and auditory senses, videowalks incorporate visual stimuli, creating a more comprehensive sensory and narrative engagement. This transition can be largely attributed to the pioneering work of Janet Cardiff, whose approach expanded the potential for audience interaction within real-world settings.

Janet Cardiff's foray into videowalks can be traced back to an experimental moment in her living room, which she describes in her compilation The Walk Book (2015). While casually filming a conversation and then replaying the footage, Cardiff experienced a disorienting alignment between the recorded and real-time environments. This disconnect between visual expectations and reality sparked the idea to transpose this sensation into an art form, leading to the creation of the first videowalk titled In Real Time (1999) for the Carnegie International exhibition. This new format invited viewers to navigate a physical space while simultaneously watching a prerecorded video of that same space, merging boundaries between the present and the recorded, the real and the manipulated.

The essence of Cardiff’s videowalks lies in their ability to immerse participants in a layered narrative that develops within a delicate visual and auditory experience. By holding a screen and following a prerecorded path, participants find themselves at the crossroads of past and present, fiction and reality. This interplay challenges participants to reconcile what they see on the screen with what they encounter in their immediate surroundings, engaging them in a continuous process of interpretation and reevaluation.

In Alter Bahnhof Video Walk (2012), created for dOCUMENTA(13), Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller employ the videowalk format within the setting of the old train station in Kassel, Germany. Participants, provided with an iPod and headphones, navigate the station under the direction of Cardiff and Miller, experiencing a blend of reality and fiction. This merging creates a disorienting yet engaging experience termed by them as "physical cinema", where the boundaries between the recorded and the immediate blur, confusing past and present. The work compels participants to reconsider their perception of time and space as they move through the train station, guided by the narrative and their own movements in sync with the video. The process transforms the participant into an active element of the narrative, redefining their role from passive viewers to active contributors in the storytelling process. Alter Bahnhof Video Walk exemplifies the capacity of videowalks to deepen engagement with physical spaces by intertwining them with layered narratives. Through this piece, Cardiff and Miller offer a reflection on memory, presence, and the human experience, set within the everyday yet symbolically rich environment of a train station. The work stands as a significant example of how videowalks can alter our understanding of and interaction with familiar spaces.

This approach to storytelling and spatial engagement also resonates with broader trends in interactive and immersive media, particularly in the genre of interactive documentaries. Videowalks, like interactive documentaries, dismantle traditional narrative structures and invite the audience to play an active role in the story. They represent a form of "living documentary," where the line between creator and audience, subject and object, becomes increasingly blurred. Participants are not just passive consumers of content; they are co-creators of the narrative experience, navigating through a physical and narrative landscape that requires their active engagement and interpretation.

“I was sitting in the living room with the video camera taping as Georg and I were having a coffee, moving the camera around the room. Then I replayed it and found myself unconsciously following the pan of the recorded shot and being disconcerted when George, having gotten up, wasn’t in the shot where he was supposed to be.

I realized that it was the same kind of strange situation as the telescope pieces we had done where the architecture remains the same but the people and cars change. The viewer becomes like the robotic head of the telescope moving to align the prerecorded video to the physical world.

When Madeleine Grynsytejn invited me to do an audio walk for the Carnegie I suggested that I try a new format, a video walk. It was a complete experiment but it opened up the walks to a whole new discourse and level of experimentation for us. The story became a narrative using the idea of the audience / participant as a “rat” in a maze, testing the limits of reality. “
Janet Cardiff describing her first Videowalk, In Real Time (1999).
In The Walk Book (2005) p.277

Janet Cardiff and Georg Bures Miller, Alter Bahnhof Video Walk (2012).
dOCUMENTA(13), Kassel.

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3.1.4 Choosing the format

I found the videowalk to be an incredibly appealing option. It bears a semblance to augmented reality (AR), yet it functions inversely. Instead of augmenting reality, we acknowledge what's already present within it. This aspect strikes me as a particularly intriguing tool for site-specific work, providing a straightforward method to involve the audience in the artwork, especially now that almost everyone has access to a smartphone.

In my earlier videowalk Mind Palace, each participant embarked on their journey independently from others, and the videowalk can still be experienced by going to PARKS and starting from the designated location. However, with Corporate Unconscious, I aspired to embed the videowalk within a more complex experience, one that also encompasses a significant performative component. Although the video can still be viewed and utilized by navigating the space, the experience without the performative elements would be incomplete. This change in my approach shows an intention to not just guide participants through physical space but to engage them in a layered narrative, making the space itself a part of the process and inviting the audience into a deeper, more interactive relationship with the work.

3.2 Site-Specific Art and Spatial Narratives

My journey into the world of site-specific performance art began years ago, emerging from a profound fascination with how spaces can dictate and drive creative expression. This fascination is not merely academic; it's visceral. When I enter a new space, I come with no preconceived notions of what I will create. Instead, I immerse myself fully, spending hours walking through, touching, and interacting with every inch of the environment. This process is critical to my practice; I believe that a space should propose the artwork, providing not just visual elements but also a temporal structure and format for the piece.

My incursion into site-specific art has been marked by several key projects, each deeply influenced by their respective environments. The foundation of my "composed" theater company, Oído Medio, was a pivotal moment in this journey. We, a collective of composers, actors, and visual artists, were united by our desire to transcend the conventional paths laid out by our university disciplines. We intended to create performances that were not just set in but fundamentally born from their locations. Our debut project, ASEPSIS (2018) conducted at the Goethe Institut Santiago, served as a significant exploration into the interaction between space and narrative. The library's sterile, neo-brutalist architecture provided a stark canvas for our exploration of themes such as isolation and the boundaries between public and private knowledge. The performance leveraged the space's unique features — its openness, soundproofing, and even the materials within — to create a multi-sensory narrative experience that questioned institutional roles and personal freedom.

INSOMNIO (2019), our project in Galería Espora, Santiago, discussed the consequences of urban development and the disruption of intimacy in a space that has become uninhabitable. Set in a building overshadowed by the city's growth, this work emphasized the narrative potential of abandoned or transitional spaces, using light and repetitive movements to weave a story of sleeplessness and displacement.

In 2021, my exploration expanded with Mind Palace, a videowalk in Parks Bullerdeich, Hamburg. This project marked a significant evolution in my site-specific approach, combining physical movement through the space with digital narrative layers. Inspired by ancient mnemonic techniques, the work invited participants to engage with the space as a repository of personal and collective memories, challenging them to reconstruct narratives from the fragments presented to them. Mind Palace exemplified my belief in the power of site-specific art to transform our understanding and experience of everyday spaces.

My approach to site-specific art has been significantly informed and inspired by the works of established artists in the field. James Turrell’s manipulation of light and perception has always fascinated me; his installations transform architectural and natural spaces into immersive sensory experiences that question viewers' perceptions of reality and illusion. This manipulation of the physical environment to alter human perception resonates deeply with my own artistic objectives. Doris Salcedo’s installations, deeply rooted in her Colombian context, utilize spaces and objects to narrate stories of loss, memory, and trauma. Her ability to infuse spaces with profound narrative weight has been a critical reference point for me, demonstrating the power of site-specific art to confront and heal collective wounds. Furthermore, the collective projects led by SIGNA have showcased the collaborative potential in transforming public spaces into places for interaction, dialogue, and reflection. Their work, bridging the gap between science, art, and community, underscores the multifaceted interactions that can arise within well-considered environments.

My experience with site-specific performance art has been a constant discovery of the symbiotic relationship between environment and narrative. This journey, rooted in a deep connection with each space I encounter, has reshaped my artistic practice and my understanding of the role of space in storytelling. The projects with Oído Medio, and my personal research represent more than artistic endeavors; they are manifestations of a belief that spaces are not passive settings but active elements that shape and are shaped by the narrative.

Goethe Institut Santiago. Inside the metal cage, the library.

Diagram of the disposition of musicians and performers in ASEPSIS (2018), by Oído Medio. Musicians were installed in the offices and performers surrounded the library

Oído Medio, INSOMNIO (2019).

Diagram of the two rooms inside Galería Espora, in INSOMNIO (2019). The audience were pedestrians passing by on the street.

Short documentation of my first videowalk Mind Palace (2021)

3.3 Engaging Audiences in a Constructed Reality

3.3.1 Illusion and Engagement: The Rubber Hand Effect in Theater

In theater and immersive experiences, the Rubber Hand Illusion offers a fascinating analogy for understanding how audiences engage with scripted realities. The illusion consists of a psychological phenomenon where people rewire their brains to think a rubber hand is actually theirs. The process involves synchronizing both tactile and visual stimuli, giving a moment for our heads to think the hand we have in front is ours. This phenomena works as a metaphor to what happens with immersing audiences in constructed realities. By starting with a captivating event or interaction that resonates with the audience's senses or emotions, and satisfies certain scripted events, artists can build on the psychological link. This bond places the audience in a state of active awareness, tending to perceive the entire experience as something scripted.

These narrative games between reality and fiction are also present in Angelo Solari's Audición 1 (2014) where the performance involves a literal reading of a musical score. This piece cleverly incorporates stage directions, such as "a man walks by in the background," that do not actually occur, enhancing the participant's sense of augmented reality. When moments of synchronicity between the narrative and real-life events do happen, they reinforce the illusion that everything within the experience is carefully composed.

Angelo Solari's work, particularly in Audición 1 effectively employs this concept by blending scripted actions with elements of augmented reality. In his performance, seemingly mundane instructions or actions take on a significant role in anchoring the audience's experience, priming them to anticipate and believe in the constructed narrative framework. This initial scripted interaction acts as the tactile stimulation in the Rubber Hand Illusion, establishing a baseline of trust and suspension of disbelief that persists even as the performance weaves between the scripted and the spontaneous.

The broader application of this principle in theater and immersive art lies in the careful calibration of audience expectations and experiences. Just as the Rubber Hand Illusion relies on the precise synchronization of sensory inputs to achieve its effect, immersive performances must balance scripted elements with opportunities for spontaneous audience engagement. By initially grounding the audience in a tangible connection to the narrative, creators can more effectively navigate the fluid boundary between fiction and reality, enhancing the depth and impact of the experience.

This technique is not isolated to Solari's work but finds resonance in the broader history of theater and performance art, where illusion and the manipulation of perception have long been central themes. The work of the Argentine-Italian director, librettist, and theorist, Luigi Pirandello, notably explores these techniques. In Six Characters in Search of an Author (1921), Pirandello uses a modernist approach: The plot begins in a theater, where a rehearsal is underway, and the characters are unfinished creations of an author who has abandoned them. Pirandello's meta-theatrical approach invites the audience to question the nature of reality as presented on stage, in a similar way to Solari's interest in the constructedness of theatrical experience.

Short documentary about the Rubber Hand Illussion, BBC.

Score extract of Angelo Solari's Audición 1 (2014). "You" is the participant of the piece, and the other is a performer who sits in front of you. Shown with permission of the composer.

3.3.2 Whe should invent reality before filming it

Documenting realities as if they were real, is a technique that has been used widely by the genre of mockumentary. It invites us into a reflective dialogue on the nature of truth, fiction and how we read the world around us. Pierre Huyghe’s approach, underscores the necessity of constructing a world as the foundation of his projects. This methodology highlights the immersive nature of his practice but also the significance he places on the narrative and experiential dimensions of the worlds he makes.

In works like A Journey That Wasn't (2005) and Streamside Day (2003), Huyghe blends documentary elements with staged scenarios, leaving audiences questioning the existence of the subjects and events depicted. For instance, in A Journey That Wasn't, the line between the real expedition to find an albino penguin and the staged representation in Central Park is intentionally ambiguous. Similarly, Streamside Day documents a fabricated holiday in a small town, exploring how new myths and traditions can be created, accepted, and integrated into collective memory.

"Now we don’t know if I went there, if I saw this island, if I saw this white creature. Maybe I did, maybe is a special effect, people don’t know. What is important to me is to create wholes in the map. By doing so, you bring back some myth, create a zone of no knowledge"

This approach deliberately cultivates spaces of ambiguity, inviting viewers to navigate the uncertainty between documented reality and constructed narrative.

Transitioning from Huyghe's philosophical and practical approach to art-making, the mockumentary genre emerges as a tool with which similar questions of reality, fiction, and the viewer's engagement are explored, but within a more explicitly narrative framework. A mockumentary, by design, adopts the stylistic and structural conventions of documentary filmmaking to present fictional events or characters as if they are real. This genre thrives on the tension between the viewer's awareness of the artifice and the authentic documentary form's persuasive power.

An early example of the mockumentary format can be seen in This Is Spinal Tap (1984), a film that satirizes the rock and roll lifestyle with such verisimilitude that it becomes hard to judge the differences between the absurdities of its fictional band and the real-world eccentricities of rock musicians. The film's success lies in its ability to mimic the documentary style so convincingly that the absurd and the plausible become intertwined, showcasing the genre's potential to comment on reality through fabrication.

The Office (2001), both the British original and its American adaptation, represents the mockumentary genre in mainstream television. Originally written by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the series represents mundane realities of office life through a fictional lens. The Office uses the documentary format to enhance the comedic and sometimes poignant moments of its characters' lives. The show's brilliance lies in its capacity to engage viewers with the authenticity of its setting and the relatability of its characters, all the while maintaining a critical, humorous distance facilitated by the mockumentary format.

"As I start a project, I always need to create a world. Then I want to enter this world, and my walk through this world is the work"

Pierre Huyghe in an Art21 interview, 2007.

"Now we don’t know if I went there, if I saw this island, if I saw this white creature. Maybe I did, maybe is a special effect, people don’t know. What is important to me is to create wholes in the map. By doing so, you bring back some myth, create a zone of no knowledge"
Pierre Huyghe in an Art21 interview, 2007.

Pierre Huyghe. Streamside Day (2003), film still. Film and video transfers; 26 minutes, color, sound. Marian Goodman Gallery, Paris/New York. © Pierre Huyghe.

"In articulating his process, Huyghe offers a succinct encapsulation of his methodology: "I occupy both sides of a divide: I build up a fiction and then I make a documentary of this fiction. The point is: we should invent reality before filming it"
Huyghe in an interview with George Baker, October, no.110, Autumn 2004, p.106

This is Spinal Top (1984), film promotional poster.

Documentary about The Office and the Mockumentary, Jesse Tribble's Youtube Channel.