Author: Mark Wihak
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Pedestrian Space
Pedestrian Space is a wonderful resource on a range of topics connected to walking. Created by Annika Lundkvist, Pedestrian Space is an NGO that “through media, communications and research, advocates and educates on walkability as a central aspect of sustainable urbanism”. The website has an extensive catalogue of materials, including a reading list, and connections…
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A Right to Roam?
Outside our cities and towns, walking in the countryside is impacted by the legal parameters of the jurisdiction one walks in. Nordic countries provide significant public access to land, with Norway allowing it under the concept allmannsretten. In Scotland, walkers have wide access to the countryside, including golf courses (though not the greens). Right to…
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Who & What?
My name is Mark Wihak and I’m the person behind Project Pedestrian. I’m a filmmaker and educator living on Treaty 4 lands in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Walking has been an important part of my life ever since I meandered down the back alleys to and from elementary school. My film (stories from) The Land of…
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Text Walking
Among the influences on Project Pedestrian is the Text Walking project of Calgary-based artist Baco Ohama, where she gathers text found while walking (signs, graffiti, posters) and uses them as sources for poetry, artist books, postcards, and videos. Baco and I met in the early 1990s in Montreal when we were both doing MFAs at…
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Matthew R. Anderson – Pedestrian
I had the pleasure of speaking with Matthew Anderson about his books The Good Walk and Someone Else’s Saint, walking on the prairies, and pilgrimage. It was my good fortune that Matthew was back in Saskatchewan to mark the 10th anniversary of the walk from Wood Mountain to the Cypress Hills that forms a significant…
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Shawn Micallef – Pedestrian
I had the pleasure of talking with Shawn Micallef about his book Stroll, Spacing magazine, and walking in Toronto. Shawn and I also recorded a walk in the neighbourhood around Dufferin Grove Park in Toronto, an area familiar to both of us. Shawn lives south of Dufferin Grove Park, and I lived near the intersection…
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She Walks
Zoe Tehrani is the person behind the website She walks in England, an excellent source of information about walking, with details about routes, tips (e.g. 11 Tips For Hiking In The Rain And Wet Weather), and a blog. She also has an entertaining Instagram feed and a YouTube channel, which chronicle her walks.
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Walkable cities
The American Geographical Society published a story on the world’s most walkable cities, and the winner is Milan, Italy! Two cities Project Pedestrian has spent extensive time in, Lyon, France (5) and Genoa, Italy (9), are in the top ten and we can understand why, we loved walking in them. 45 of the world’s 50…
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Cardiff Walks
The Canadian artist Janet Cardiff works in a range of mediums, often in collaboration with her life partner George Bures Miller. Cardiff started creating audio walks in the 1990s. Designed for specific locales, the audio walks guide you along, in your headphones the sound of voices whispering, telling stories, giving directions, recorded sound fx blending…
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Wanderlust
The American writer Rebecca Solnit‘s 2001 Wanderlust: A History of Walking is an essential book for anyone interested in thinking about walking. “Where does it start? Muscles tense. One leg a pillar, holding the body upright between the earth and sky. The other a pendulum, swinging from behind. Heel touches down.” Wanderlust is wide-ranging and…
Project Pedestrian 