Random Walk
Random Walk is a workshop where the participants explore the city based on dice rolls, capturing and collecting photographs of what they encounter along the way. Surrendering yourself to randomness and walking aimlessly through the city, encourages the participants to actively search for things that catch their eye—be it fallen leaves, the colors of road signs, weather phenomena, or anything else—and take photographs of these discoveries. The collected images are plotted along the route, shared with others, and used to observe the diverse facets of the city as perceived through different lenses.
Why Randomness? Internet companies like Google use sophisticated algorithms to curate and deliver information and advertisements tailored to individual users from vast amounts of data. However, this prioritization often comes at the cost of serendipity, favoring profit-driven content over chance encounters. This system has also been criticized for creating “filter bubbles,” where people are exposed only to like-minded individuals, contributing to political polarization. Legal scholar Cass Sunstein has proposed that one solution for such polarization is to expose people to unexpected information, leading to new discoveries and encounters. But what does it mean to encounter the unexpected? Artist James Bridle defines this as “surrendering to randomness.” Bridle suggests that confronting uncontrollable systems and breaking away from human-centered tools and programs to reconnect with the world around us can be the key to create new values. Similarly, philosopher Hiroki Azuma argues that the chance, encounters and exchanges experienced by tourists can disrupt existing human relationships and memories through what he terms as”misdelivery” or “rewiring.” This workshop takes this idea further, proposing that incorporating randomness into everyday life can also generate misdelivery, fostering new discoveries and interactions. Furthermore, the act of exploring the city randomly, actively collecting data based on personal interests, and sharing it with others allows participants to reflect on themselves and the contexts behind their perspectives. At the same time, it can serve as a form of resistance to the quantification, commodification, and homogenization of individual actions under surveillance capitalism. Through this Random Walk, I propose that instead of passively consuming information tailored by algorithms that quantify personal data, we should sometimes surrender to randomness and actively seek out information.
photo by iotoyamaguchi