24.3.05
REPORT TORONTO WALKS
EXPERIMENT 1; 12-4-2003; 401 Richmond Street
Method: generative
To prevent all walks ending up in a loop on the sameness of the Toronto grid, the first experiment was done with walk algorithms that contained 4 (instead of the usual 3) directional instructions to enlarge the possible trajectories.
For us this was the first psychogeographical experiment on a grid. The for us most stunning fact was the fractal-like organization of the streets that unfolds itself when you get deeper into the urban fabric of streets & blocks; constructed from a patchwork of huge, crowded streets as the most visible level, that branch of into less broad, less frequently used, streets that reach into the interior of the blocks. These streets in turn branch out into even smaller streets, which in turn are connected to back alleys that might in turn be connected to the main street. By consequently taking short turns the extent of this semi-invisible network hidden behind the facades, only used by those who need to
The contradiction between the tidy main streets, the less regulated side streets & the rubbish heaps in the alleys is big & as we were told, politically engineered. The experiment also showed that you can very well get from one point in the city to any other point without using the main streets other than an occasional crossing, in practise you use the big ones, because it is just more fun. Jane Jacobs ramblings on the importance of a good sideway culture suddenly started to make much more sense.
http://www.socialfiction.org/psychogeography/dotwalktoronto.html
# posted by alvaro @ 12:24 a. m. 
