During the 'walk-shop', we explored walking tours as tools to encourage slower, closer and more conscious looking at, and engagement with the city - its unique neighbourhoods, streetscapes, architecture, histories, local cultures & contemporary challenges. To start with, we looked up at the world of walking tour online and discussed the ones that appealed to us. We explored and learnt from a range of walking tours/people/companies doing things differently in Mumbai and far beyond.
There were several walks focused on distinct themes and neighbourhood.In groups of 5 we planned, conducted preliminary research, and begin to build a walking tour spotlighting a theme/area/perspective of our choosing. In planning the walks, each group developed each individual walk's objectives, route and content including stories, visuals etc responding to their potential audience. Through this process we got engaged critically with the art & science, theory & practice, then & now, of creating meaningful public walk experiences using Freeman Tilden's pioneering text, Interpreting Our Heritage (first published 1957), in which the author introduced his Six Principles of Interpretation - which remain fundamental to any successful work in the fields of museum/art/heritage learning and engagement even today. In the 'walk-shop', a growing awareness and understanding of Tilden's principles allowed us as a group to shift our focus from simply creating good walking tour content to creating meaningully for our audiences!
The sessions was conducted in class on Day 1. Day 2 & Day 3 took us as a class to areas of the city that the groups choose to focus on. By the end of the week, we worked together to develop a plan for a future walking tour.