Summary of the Color Walking
Color Walking By Phia Bennin and Brendan McMullan is a small blog post that details the walks of the two authors. The idea is that the path of the walk is decided by the involuntary attention grabbing described in the article Recognizing Campus Landscapes as Learning Spaces by Kathleen Scholl and Gowri Gulwadi. Scholl and Gulwadi describe involuntary attention is a phenomenon that “occurs when individuals are presented with stimuli that are “inherently intriguing”. Interaction with natural environments (especially green nature) employs faculties of concentration not normally used – involuntary ones – thus allowing the neural mechanisms underlying directed attention a chance to rest and replenish. This in turn can benefit performance on other tasks, delay gratification, and perhaps even regulate levels of depression and stress.” Bennin and McMullan let a color that grasped their attention guide their journey through west New York City. The Idea of a color walk comes from a teacher named William Burroughs that wanted to inspire his students.(Bennin and McMullan) The color walk has several different possibilities. The walk can be done with only one color or jumping from color to color. Jumping from color to color more plays into the idea of involuntary attention. Bennin and McMullan chose to do a color walk that switched colors.
They started with the blues. The first blue that they were pulled to was the scarf of an older woman. The woman seemed intrigued by what they were doing and even let them take a picture of the scarf. She joked that the scarf would look better on someone else. The next direction our protagonists are pulled was towards a girl who had painted her finger nails blue. Her hand was also on a blue background of something that looks like maybe a pair of shorts. The blue background brings out the nails more but also spotlights the chipping of the nail polish. Next they saw a sign for the entrance to the subway. I am not sure how the New York subway works but this signs has the letters A,C, and E in blue circles and the word “West” and the number “4” are on the top. I believe that the station is called the west 4 and the blue line A,C, and E trains go through this station. The authors were going to get on the subway but had their attention was involuntarily pulled to a basketball court. The basketball court was populated by several guys wearing bright blue shirt which radiated in the sun. There was also an older white guy wearing the same color. My personal experience leads me to believe that the the same colored shirt guys are on the same team and the old guy is the coach but I am hesitant to say that because I have never seen coordinated league play at an outside basketball court and there does not look like there is enough people to play a full game. The blog post does not say anything about the magnitude of the game.
Nevertheless their walk continued. Things get really crazy now as they switch from blues to purples. They spot a lady with a purple shirt. They came for the shirt but stayed for the eye shadow. The lady was wearing purple eyeshadow that was said to sparkle by the authors. Next they were drawn to a pair of leggings that had leopard print but instead of the traditional colors, they were comprised of purple, blue, and white. They round out their walk with a switch to pink colors. They see a lady with a pink shirt that says legalize gay and also a guy with a pink mask which I am assuming is a gas mask of some sort for construction.
The most interesting part of the color walk was their conclusion. They said that after the walk, all colors popped more. Small details that usually unnoticed would be accentuated. The authors end the post by suggesting that the reader goes on a color walk. The authors also give some tips to get the most out of your walk.