What?

The core assignment for this course will be spending time outside, in a habitat or neighbourhood of choice, moving at a pedestrian speed,* and allowing your attention to be solicited by elements of the environment with which you are walking.

Time outside

Go outside for at least 30 minutes. You may choose to walk, roll, saunter, or stay in place. If you choose to move, do so at no faster than a pedestrian speed. You may go out alone or with a companion, but never with headphones as to not isolate your sensory apparatus from your surroundings. Consciously tune in to the practice.
Have your attention solicited. This assignment is framed around the concept of the education of attention, which occurs through solicitation of your attention by various aspects of the environment in which you roam.
Record encounter. This can be done via photograph, sound clip, video, or drawing a picture (other mediums are possible, please check with instructor to ensure that your desired medium is a good fit for this step), though it must not include spoken or written words. Do this to whatever extent you feel comfortable. Try to record at least three encounters each time you are out.

At the end of the week

Post records of encounters. Choose between 5 and 10 encounters from your week’s attentive repetition practice to post in your Log.

*Walking is not an accessible activity to all humans. We will use the word “walk” here as shorthand for moving at pedestrian speed or remaining in place, should that suit you better. If you expect you will primarily be remaining in place, please speak with your instructor to ensure the assignment can be fit to your circumstance.

**Should taking a walk in your chosen research assemblage not be possible or practical for whatever reason at some point during the semester, that is okay. Please practice somewhere else instead and return when appropriate to the habitat or neighbourhood of your choosing.

Why?

With this assignment, course participants are asked to be intentional about creating possibilities for noticing through making and holding time and space. Making and holding time and space to attune to our surroundings is a phenomenological exercise, achieved through first experiencing and then formulating “a direct description of our experience as it is” (Merleau-Ponty, 1962, vii). In this case that formulation will be expressed via non-linguistic media (photo, audio, video, drawing).

Making and holding time and space in this way “can loosen what we know and open to what we do not” (Neimanis, 2017, 42), allowing previously unknown, invisible, inaudible, unthought, or unthinkable relations to surface in an familiar setting. Dolleen Manning (2018) explains phenomenological practice with a question: “[i]nstead of being in your head, […] what does it mean to be in this body in the world, and how do I encounter other bodies, and what is the knowledge that comes from that?”

Where?

When you begin the assignment and choose a habitat or neighbourhood, ensure that it is somewhere that will be easy for you to access multiple times per week, as selecting somewhere that is out of the way could make engaging in this assignment burdensome. You may, for instance, choose to visit the riparian habitats in town (Kelowna), of which there are many, or decide that you will do this assignment around the vicinity of your home or favourite coffee shop. The later option may encompass many types of habitat (including those which are primarily paved in concrete). The majority of your attentive repetition practice should be conducted in the habitat or neighbourhood of your choice, which will be your research assemblage of interest for the duration of the semester**. This is where you will cultivate your arts of attentiveness.

When?

Attentive Repetition is a reoccurring assignment. Steps 1 through 3 are to be done two to three times per week (aim for three) for the duration of the semester. Through the repetition of and commitment to this practice we are making and holding time and space for our perception to expand, deepen, and diversify in a specific context.

Evaluation

Your attentive repetition practice will be weighted at 30% of the final course grade. Due to the nature of this assignment, you will be the person most qualified to assess your practice and progress. As such, each time you make a Log entry (at the end of each week, beginning after class on Day 2 and continuing until Day 23) you will self-assess the robustness of your Attentive Repetition practice during the walks you took that week week, assigning yourself a 0, 1, 2, or 3, according to the rubric provided below and writing a self-assessment statement in answer to the reflection questions. Here you can see an example of a semester’s worth of weekly self assessment reflections.

Grading rubric

Reflect on the following questions and assign yourself a grade from 0 to 3 for the week’s Attentive Repetition practice accordingly.

How did my Attentive Repetition walks go this week?
Was I tuned into my sensory apparatus?
Did I feel present for the practice?
Did I notice anything I had not notice before?

Incomplete: 0

I did not go out for walks or add any recorded encounters to my log this week.

Insufficient: 1

I felt isolated from my surroundings. I conducted my practice with little to no intention.

Sufficient: 2

I felt some awareness of attention to my surroundings. Only intermittently was I engaging in intentional practice.

Excellent: 3

I felt constantly aware of human and more-than-human relationships to and within my surroundings. I was regularly engaging in intentional practice for the duration of my walk.