A work by Russel Martin
Constitutional is a new project by Russell Martin, that started on Tuesday 13 February 2007. The project consists on walks taken by a small group of 4-5 persons, who might or might not know each other. These guests have been invited by Russell to join him for a walk across Hyde Park, starting at the top of Constitutional Hill. Each walk and accompanying conversation is unique, and is not documented in any form, other than in the memory or subsequent conversations held by each participant.
Image and quote courtesy of Russel Martin- all rights reserved
Both a walk and a conversation have another common effect – they each constitute. What is a constitution? It is the healthy functioning of the body; aided by a constitutional. It is an agreed list of rights that cannot be overridden by any Parliament – a protection of the individual body from the body politic. It is a process by which separate things are brought together and made into a larger body – an increase in size, scale, importance. A group of friends are constituted as such through the activity of talking or walking, of hanging out, of getting to know.
Neither the group, the conversation or the walk are ever complete. The walk and the talk and the group are processes, a practice that makes something happen without creating something individual or discreet. It has created a part of a limitless activity, an object without any corporeal existence. A walk is only happening when you are engaged in the activity of the walk; when you stop, you are not a walker.
Visit the website to find out more about Constitutional
You can also find out more about Russell Martin’s work at his website.
And here is a list of his recommendations:
39 Microlectures: In Proximity of Performance; Matthew Goulish
Peregrinations: Law, Form Event; Jean-Francois Lyotard
Situationist International Anthology; Kenn Knabb (Ed.)
Paris, Texas; Wim Wenders
Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads To Another; Philip Ball
We; Yevgeny Zamyatin
How Much Land does a Man Need?; Lev Tolstoy
The Concept of Nature; Alfred North Whitehead
Francis Alys, naturally
Pretty much anything by Charles Dickens
The Arcades Project; Walter Benjamin
