Sonia Overall: Distance Drift
Distance Drift is a form of interactive walk I have developed for playful, collaborative, communal walking during lockdown. It is a space to walk alone or in a social bubble, connecting with other walkers through social media.
The first Distance Drift took place on 4th April 2020 in response to a discussion on Twitter, where a small group of archaeologists were considering the effect of lockdown restrictions on their shared walking practice. One of them suggested using my Drift Deck – a pack of cards with walking prompts – as shared focus for their separate walks. I offered to be ‘dealer’, drawing a card at random and posting it on Twitter for participants to respond to. We agreed a start time of 10am and the hashtag #DistanceDrift to create an interactive thread.
The first session was an experiment, not only in terms of method and managing the posts, but also in participant responses. A pattern emerged of participants following the prompt, taking a photo of where it took them or an observation about process, and sharing the image in a responding tweet. The event proved popular and we agreed to reconvene the following Sunday. After the second drift, it was clear that there was an appetite to continue. I offered to provide a walking prompt or score for each session, expecting, with the naivety of the UK’s lockdown 1, that this would last a few weeks. I am writing this in February 2021, and Distance Drift has meet every Sunday since its inception.
Participation fluctuates, with a core of regular walkers, occasional visitors and new arrivals. While many participants are in the UK and Ireland, others have joined from France, Spain, Germany, Canada, North America and India. Prompts are designed to function indoors or out, enabling those shielding or in strict lockdowns to take part. To walk synchronously, participants join at the 10am start time; asynchronous participants can follow the hashtag to walk at any time, posting responses in the thread.
Prompts so far have ranged from simple scores such as colour walks, walking by numbers or hands-free scavenger hunts, to more complex prompts responding to specific texts. Levity has been crucial to the project, which aims to be fun and accessible. Some of the most playful scores so far have involved pareidolia, mascot walking, reinterpreting place through the lens of Hitchcock films, and in a recent collaboration with regular Liberty Rowley, walking divination by fortune telling fish. Distance Drifts have also run within the programmes of the LRM’s First Sunday, 4WCoP, Margate Bookie, MargateNOW and CHAT 2020 festival of archaeology. The project has featured in two podcasts to date: Walkie Talkies[i] in the UK and Project Four33 in Canada[ii].
New Distance Drifters are always welcome. If you would like to join in, follow @soniaoverall and #DistanceDrift on Twitter to receive the prompts.
[i] Paul Carney. ‘Distance Drift’. Walkie Talkies. Sport and Active Health, Canterbury Christ Church University: https://anchor.fm/cccu-walkie-talkies
[ii] Stephen Donnelly and Karey West. ‘Walking through the Pandemic’ ArtsEverywhere, Guelph, Ontario: https://artseverywhere.ca/2021/02/04/four33-episode-4/?fbclid=IwAR0w1oe6aqiY445Z8wg1Tj6JfcgeD5DWMSydkLQF8mmGFOHX__7aCh39dyg
I so admire your commitment to the Distance Drifts, Sonia! It is a great achievement to be continuing with this weekly project throughout the year. Your attention to playful and accessible approaches is wonderful.