I took a walk with Kristina Rothstein, together-apart, she in Vancouver, Canada, and I in Edinburgh, Scotland. We made a film which responded to a prompt by Kel Portman and was accepted to be part of his assemblage.
Kristina is on instagram @imatarockshow
Radical Gestures is a film based on a walk devised by Kristina Rothstein @imatarockshow based on visiting little free libraries. I walked in Edinburgh and Kristina walked in Vancouver at the same time. We both embarked with a book and let something about that book be our guide. Psychogeography in action!
Here is a link to Kristina’s blog about the walk. It has a lot more interesting information about the walk. She writes:
The “personal is political” message really resonates with the free libraries, significant sites of resistance against consumer culture. I find them an inspiring example of community building, and places where spontaneous and serendipitous interaction between strangers is possible.
We arrived at a little free library roughly every half an hour, swapping our book for one which had some connection (colour, theme, words on the cover). One of us randomly chose a page number. From that page, we each used the text to direct and inform the next segment of our walk – what to look for, what to think about and what kind of route to take.We repeated this several times, and the video and audio were created in collaboration during and afterwards. with
The Little Free Library on the title image can be found at Granton Parish Church, 55 Boswall Parkway, Edinburgh, EH5 2DA. Others were at St Columba’s Hospice, 15 Boswall Road, Edinburgh, EH5 3RW and at Starbank Park, Laverockbank Road, Edinburgh, EH5 3DA (there are two here, both in the upper section of the park: one for children on the west side and one for adults on the east).
Walking in Pairs is a Walking the Land project led by me, Tamsin Grainger. You may be interested in Walking in Pairs 1 Walking in Pairs 2 Walking in Pairs 3 Walking in Pairs 4 Walking in Pairs 5
This walk was made in March 2026.
4th in the Walking in Pairs series with Kristina Rothstein in Vancouver, Canada and Tamsin Grainger in Edinburgh, Scotland. Walking together, apart. December 4th 2025. Our theme: Freedom / Constraint
Kristina (9.45) : It was a chilly rainy day. I walked from my house to Queen Elizabeth Park, a large municipal arboretum which includes ornamental gardens, duck ponds, a pitch and putt course, frisbee golf course, restaurant, and tropical conservatory. It’s on the highest point in Vancouver, an extinct volcano, and is varied terrain.
This is my only regular walk site that I have visited for Walking in Pairs, and I felt like I could radiate and transmit information to Tamsin the whole time because of feeling so grounded. My impression was that she was also in a familiar location. I went to the highest point, where I gathered some audio for five minutes or so, rain on my umbrella, rain on leaves, probably some traffic, rattling a metal sculpture, a freshwater underground pipe, an exhaust vent from the conservatory.
Tamsin (17.45): It was a chilly December evening in Edinburgh, a city built on an ancient volcanic landscape. There was no rain. Free-moving clouds only allowed me to see the full moon every now and then.
What route to take? On leaving the flat where I was staying, I soon came across North Leith Church, and though its grounds enticed me, lit as they were by an eerie light, I was unable to explore them because of a series of padlocks and ties. The plaque informed, Built 1818 by William Burn replacing the old St Ninian’s Church on Quayside Street. I’ll go to where it used to be then, I declared to the evening, and set off.
Where was Kristina walking? What was it like where she was, in the morning light over the other side of the Atlantic? Who did she meet and what sounds was she hearing?
K: I entered the golf course, which is always deserted at this time of year and has some very wild, tucked-away areas. A fallen branch from a tree had been cut up, and I arranged some pieces into a pattern. I had had an idea to weave twigs or long grasses through a fence that runs along the golf course, and ventured into an area that I thought would be undisturbed. It was very wet and dirty, and I was not sure if the fence actually went through, so I walked back towards the golf course where I had thought instead to make a shape in the thick covering of wet leaves on the ground. I drew an arrow—a point of exit or escape—using our theme of freedom and constraint. I liked how it looked so I cleared the ground more and found twigs to line the arrow to give it more definition. This was challenging, given the rain, cold hands, and wet earth.
T: I joined the towpath at Coalie Park, a familiar location in the daylight, but not at night. It is not so much a park as a walkway beside the Water of Leith with municipal planting and wild greenery.
Collecting items which drew my attention, I arranged them on a shiny and durable surface that was part of a new skateboarding ramp. Collectively they spoke of my walk, our collaboration, themes, and the place itself. I was careful not to break anything, but juxtaposed them in a different way, forming a bouquet of natural branches and leaves and adding a necklace I had found earlier. My work was lit by street lamps which allowed the bauble to glitter. The background reflected in the same way that slices of the moon were being reflected in the water.
K: I sent my arrow photo to Tamsin, and when I saw the one she sent to me, I returned to the site of my earlier wood sculpture where I thought I might make an assemblage of my own. Instead I found the fallen leaves from a ginkgo tree, which reminded me of the colours in her piece, as well as pine boughs and some dandelion type flowers, which also echoed colours she used. I gathered a bunch of these, took them to the arrow and augmented the piece I had made.
T: After sending an image of it to K, I responded to hers by dismantling mine and using the same sticks to form the outline of an arrow shape, allowing the earth to show through as she had. Not very happy with it, I returned to my metal surface and formed the arrow shape using more of the same lime tree leaves I had already used (ones that were littering the ground around my feet). Where hers was empty on leafy ground, mine was formed of leaves on a smooth surface.
K: At this point, I had a lot of mud on myself and it was almost time for another audio gathering so I went to a small stream that runs through the golf course and recorded the sound of water as well as the sound of pebbles in the stream clinking against each other.
T: As agreed, I made an audio recording 30 minutes in and must have left it on by mistake because there was 42 minutes of traffic noise, rustling, and water gurgling to listen to later! On finding railings and a metal bench, I used a branch to play rhythms and tunes, the sound ringing out across the water. I could hear snippets of conversation from the joggers: “Then I had some parmigiano left so I used that. Are you a parmesan fan?”
K: Being engaged in an interactive activity created a sense of togetherness in a “beyond physical” way, that was probably more true than on previous walks for me. We retained minimal interaction, with only a few prompts planned ahead of time and one shared photo.
T: This was a satisfying way to deepen our collaboration, one in which we actively allowed our artwork to influence each other’s.
This is a Walking the Land project.
You may also enjoy this blog about our first second and third walks together, apart.
Kristina on Bandcamp with her audio walks and more, including Unwanted Belmont.
Kristina Rothstein and Tamsin Grainger took a third walk, together yet apart in October 2025.
We walked at the same time as each other, Kristina in Canada and Tamsin in Scotland, agreeing that the location would be woods, and the subject, mapping. Stopping at 20, 40 and 60 minutes, we drew and/or recorded verbal maps on site and then followed up with artwork that included collage and video.
The top two images above were taken by Kristina Rothstein in Canada and the two below by me, on our Woods Walk.
The top two images above were taken by me, and the two below by Kristina Rothstein in Canada, on our Woods Walk.
The three illustrations above show Kristina’s maps of words, memories and dogs respectively.
This video shows images (photographic and hand-drawn in pencil), from Tamsin’s walk in Scotland, together with recorded audio maps of the natural species found in the woods, and the rubbish that threatens to engulf them. It also includes two collages made using the InCollage app and paper/glue/scissors.
This is a Walking the Land project.
You may also enjoy this blog about our first walk.
Kristina on Bandcamp with her audio walks and more, including Unwanted Belmont.
For our second walk together-apart, Kristina Rothstein and I walked in Tokyo, Japan and Edinburgh, Scotland respectively. 2nd October 2025. The agreed location was the city, and coordinated stops were scheduled for the beginning, middle and end. We were looking for found words to make into a poem.
The walk started at 7pm Tokyo time, on the last night of my three and half week trip to Japan. Japan does not use daylight savings time, so it was completely dark. It was a clear night with a half moon. I started my walk at Luke Jerram’s “Museum of the Moon” installation at the Shimokitazawa Moon Festival, located at the Shimokita Senrogai Open Space. Shimokitazawa is a hip neighbourhood on the west side of Tokyo with lots of small independent shops, cafes and bars and very narrow, vibrant streets. I have only spent 10 days there but it is the distract of Tokyo that I know best.
There were many young, excited visitors to the moon installation, taking selfies and buying snacks. I did not plan a route, but a general circuit. I walked along a greenway for 5-10 minutes, which is lit and moderately travelled. After that I headed into residential streets. In sharp contrast, almost all were completely deserted, even at this relatively early hour. Tokyo’s narrow residential streets discourage traffic, so I saw no cars and only a few pedestrians. I passed a few bikes and one cat. I heard many chirping insects as if in the countryside. I crossed several level crossings. Some streets continued in a long straight line, but most were on an irregular grid. After over half an hour weaving through these quiet backstreets, I emerged back to the bright streets of convenience stores, restaurants, apartment buildings, hair salons, and grocery stores.
The sensation of the walk was strange. To wander with no destination in the evening in an unknown city was unusual for me. While on busy streets I observed people from more of a distance than I usually might. It was also odd to be on such quiet residential streets when I was not walking to one of those residences.
I imagined Tamsin in a part of Edinburgh that perhaps she didn’t visit often or didn’t know as well as other parts, seeing streets as if a foreigner. I felt a sense of many more residents walking those backstreets, an urban bustling that was perhaps more evenly spread out than what I experienced. I imagined the shift from moonlight to daylight and back. In this unfamiliar setting I found it a bit easier to receive impressions and ideas than to transmit my own, though I certainly tried.
Moooooooon
Light and bright, it hypnotizes and drags crowds to its orbit, hands rearranged to hold the moon up in the sky
Stepping stones. Cobble stones.
Stepping stones. Cobble stones.
Open. Kien. Café & kimono bar. Beer & coffee.
Mushi mushi, Japanese kitty! Oh you are a shy kitty. Off on your Night business my friend. I love you. Sayonara.
“I have no idea who James is.
And now it’s available. awesome!”
Siren-like tones ring
Ding ding ding ding at Level crossings clang clang every three minutes.
Dog walk bark
Then. So quiet
Leaves whisper and the chirp of crickets
Chirp chirp chirp
sussuration, or stridulation
words I just learned
One of my favourite sounds to sleep to
Is everyone tucked away at home or are they out on the town, eating drinking fun in a Myriad of tiny spaces where you can get a fresh botanical soda or an experimental music tape or Ramen handcrafted by a man who lives upstairs or take a selfie in front of the moon projection
“You really feel like you’re somewhere different”
Play table tennis
Recipe shimokita
Caution crows
Underground rock Café stories
Just One Cat
Up To Per Person
DING DING DING DING
Prohibitions and manners around Shimokitazawa Station:
No smoking
No littering
No graffiti
No street vending
No parking
No skateboarding
No nuisance
“And so many even, oh!”
bird song or the hum of an air conditioner or the whistle of an exhaust pipe or a tiny delivery van, the silence of headphones.
Clang. Chirp.
And now it’s available. awesome!
Three images above by Tamsin: U or a smile; hoolet’s eye; Laverock – skylark
11.30am
///galaxy.belong.eating *
U (or is it a smile?) And me walking. T’wit t’woo Owl - hoolet in Scots. Circular O, eyes seeing, not in the dark, but across space, from Scotland to Japan, Tokyo to Edinburgh. You to me to you. And back again. Up a long straight street, I turn left and head into a busier area. South Laverock Avenue – Laverock being Scots for skylark - the birds are not heard here nowadays, nor, I suppose, where you are in downtown Tokyo. In the past, though, it used to be a favoured spot for larks, so an 18th c merchant named his house after them and now there’s a whole area called Laverock this and that. Like the lark singing and spiralling up high, I’m signalling to you, seeing if your thoughts are uppermost so I can detect them, looking, linking up these two walks with our feet, time, and intent.
Three images above by Tamsin: MAN; mans profile; SWALK (sealed with a loving kiss)
12 noon
///roofs.asking.sulk
White ring with a black centre and an arc to its left. Second silhouette of a male head in profile (previously, MAN on the front of a car in strong, square, manly letters with a roaring lion logo, in case we don’t get the picture). I'm on a busy shopping street with lots of cars and outlets. The next shop flirts with me: ‘Hello Gorgeous’. Walk In, the hair salon says, but I don’t. I’m headed to a café: Sketchy Beats (you started at one in Japan, I’m ending at this one) arriving at 12.05. It was shut.
A little further down the road a shop read, ‘Tokyo’.
Kristina Rothstein on Bandcamp
Walking in Pairs is a Walking the Land project
* /// denotes What3Words – locations of the walk
Walking without a donkey 