About a dozen “hikers” — including six Colgate students –gathered at the corner of Lex and Astor Place in Manhattan on a recent Saturday, smart phones in hand and exploration in mind.
The group was with art professor Cary Peppermint, who had created what he called Indeterminate Hikes, a custom application for Android smart phones that led participants to various locations — or “scenic vistas” — in the East Village.
At each spot, the application would offer a cryptic message about the locale, and hikers were invited to spend a meditative moment before taking photos with their phones.
For Peppermint, the project was intended to cultivate the imagination of nature, wilderness, and sustainability in a networked, cosmopolitan environment.
What it did for Abi Conklin ’13, who is a studio art major and Japanese minor, was redefine what is meant by the term wilderness.
“There was a blurring of the line between ‘wilderness’ and ‘civilization,'” she said. “At each vista we would take a few minutes to look around and appreciate the area, take some pictures, and scout for things and sounds typical of the urban ‘wild’– domesticated pets, car alarms, or couples squabbling.”
Photos taken during the hike were stored on a database that participants can access and discuss. Besides a web presence, the project also was included as an installation in the Whitney Museum of American Art 2010 ISP Exhibition.
Peppermint’steaching and research at Colgate spans new media theory and practice with an emphasis on digital-ecological art. He teamed up five years ago with Leila Nadir, a post-doctoral fellow in environmental studies at Wellesley College, to create the ecoarttech collaborative.
He secured funding for the New York City trip through the university’s Beyond Colgate program, which provides opportunities for students to extend their coursework through travel to museums, research centers, and other destinations.
Spencer Cavallo ’12 stretched his legs and the range of his studies during the hike. A physics major, he admits to not being especially gifted in the arts.
“It was a good outlet for me to experience something as far away from my physics major as possible,” he said.
Cavallo said the hikers often drew inquiring looks from passers-by as they took their “30 breaths” at each spot. One group of onlookers became a bit belligerent before breaking up in laughter and walking away.
“We considered it a true brush with the wild and were grateful to have used our survival instincts (playing dead) to get away unscathed,” Conklin said.
For all the Indeterminate Hikers it was a walk on the wild side, armed only with an app, in the midst of the most cosmopolitan of cities.