Score #1 - Kaitlyn Van Aalsburg

Score #1 by Kaitlyn Van Aalsburg

A postcard on an easel in a wooded landscape. The postcard depicts a hand holding a map. Pasted words on the postcard read:landscape through walking and imagining together. concerned literally with experiences not with theories experience the area increasing prompted, in part, by the ‘scale’ – the duration not walking merits mention what was formerly “exterior”

A postcard on an easel in a wooded landscape. The postcard depicts a hand holding a map. Pasted words on the postcard read:landscape through walking and imagining together. concerned literally with experiences not with theories experience the area increasing prompted, in part, by the ‘scale’ – the duration not walking merits mention what was formerly “exterior”

[score base: A card featuring part of Gwen MacGregor and Sandra Rechico’s Rejoinders (2012); photo and score: Kaitlyn Van Aalsburg (2021); score text: landscape through walking and imagining together./concerned literally with experiences, not with theories/experience/the area increasing/prompted, in part, by the ‘scale’ – the duration/not walking merits mention/what was formerly “exterior”]

Score #1 was a series of four walks over four seasons. (‘prompted, in part, by the scale - the duration’).

Spring Walks

Katy and Blake; 25 May 2021; Hawley, Pennsylvania.

A garage and a shed with an uprooted tree between them. A leafy forest is visible in the background through the buildings. (Photo: Blake Morris)

We begin with not walking. A conflict between the interior and the exterior takes precedent. An urgent appointment. It merits mention.

The side of a house with a rain gutter pictured centre. The sky is visible at the top of the picture.

The next morning we walk a small perimeter around the house. We stop often, looking closely.

The lower half of a male body, barefoot and wearing a longi standing on gravel. Grass is visible in the background. (Photo: Kaitlyn Van Aalsburg)

The textures shift: newly laid asphalt; freshly cut grass; gravel where the asphalt wasn’t replaced.

Two photos side by side. The bottom half of both pictures gravel. The top half of the right half has grass, while the top half of the left half has asphalt.

Two photos side by side. The bottom half of both pictures gravel. The top half of the right half has grass, while the top half of the left half has asphalt.

The exterior, framed through the infrastructure of the interior.

A wheelbarrow leans up against the wall underneath a deck. There are trees visible through the framing of the deck.

An asphalt pathway underneath a deck. Trees are visible in the background.

Next time we will expand the area. A slow summer stroll around a different periphery of the property.

Laura; 25 May 2021; Cardiff, Wales.

Mathilda; 1 June 2021; Greifswald, Germany.

Mathilda took the score out to ‘her favourite path’, one to which she ‘will gladly return at all seasons’. Wiedererkennungseffekt: a revisiting of ‘spots and places which [she] made [her] own during 52 scores and the sunrise walks’. A kind of ‘reminiscing rather than imagining’. To be revisited in all seasons.

a hand holds a piece of paper with the walking score written on it. In the background is a path, with green grass on either side and trees in the distance. The sky is a bright, clear blue.

Mathilda’s account: ‘An evening walk spanning 81 years, yet only one season. Imagining the landscape through the Score, without following the path it reveals. (It is my favourite: a place, formerly exterior, which I have made my own). I let myself get carried away in the hope of broadening my scale, but what I find are my own footprints. Memories of former Scores and Sunrise Walks from a time when with each walk, I felt the area increasing. Today I am reminiscing, rather than imagining. Untogether. Looking for new places and new faces, new seasons to come.’

Gwen and Sandra; Approximately 23 May and 10 June, 2021; Georgian Bay, Canada

two photos overlapping that show a blue lake under a blue sky. the viewpoints are from opposite sides of the bay.

two photos overlapping that show a blue lake under a blue sky. the viewpoints are from opposite sides of the bay.

Summer Walks

Julius; 22 June 2021; Eastbourne, United Kingdom.

a series of photos with text on a two page spread. the photos are of the beach and shore. The text reads:/concerned literally with experiences not with theories/ (a response to Score #1, Julius Smit - 22 June 2021) I step over from the constriction of the tarmac promenade, meet the edge stone and then onto the first wooden step of the beach stairs. Mineral meets cellulose under the shifting shadows. I am suspended between certainty and uncertainty. I am reminded of previous steps. Previous decisions and excursions to move from firm control to chaos on the ragged pebbles.I feel my steps are being led, moving from an abrasive corruption to a satin tranquillity. This is not the end of my movement but the beginning, allowing me to remember and forget. I break out from my idyll, daring myself to embrace decisions in a state of perpetual transformation. Am I prepared for this constant negotiation? I check back, once… and catch the warning on the shore… ‘WHY RISK 5G?’ …the area is increasing… …the area is increasing… …the area is increasing…

Kaitlyn and Blake; 16 Sept. 2021; Lackawaxen, PA

The end of summer.

Marked on a number of occassions.

As if we need extra time to process that final marker - point of no return - autumn equinox.

An end of summer walk.

The score a new marker for the seasons.

A new perimeter - snaking around the built environment - the expansive exploration of fall.

Kaitlyn, seen from behind, walks the rocks between the hilly lawn and the woody area beyond it.

A hand holds the walking score in font of black asphalt. In the background there is a red garage with a white garage door and white side door. Next to it there is a small shed. In the background there are woods.

A close up image of a mushroom that is orange and flat with a white stalk. It is surrounded by moss and further back twigs and leaves. A woman's boots and legs can be seen in the background.

A young girl in red trousers walks the perimeter of a property between street and an area of different kind of greenery. Stairs of a house can be seen in the background.

“concerned literally with experiences, not with theories”

Autumn Walks

Kaitlyn and Blake; 14 October, 2021; Lackawaxen, PA

‘walking and imaging’ the boundaries of the property’s changing lansdcape together. The scale of the change revealing itself over the duration. The soon to be ‘formerly “exterior”’ as we go into the score’s final season. Changes that continue in the ‘not walking’. Not walking opens the experiences now to theories, but we are literally not concerned with them.

A rusted pole leaning to the left at about a 120 degree angle with an orange strip tied around the top of it. It is in the middle of a forest with trees in the background. The forest floor is covered in orange, yellow and brown leaves.

A rusted pole sticking straight up on the left hand side of the landscape. It has an orange strip tied around the top of it. It is in the middle of a forest with trees in the background. The forest floor is covered in orange, yellow and brown leaves.

A close up view of a grey pole with an orange strip tied around the top of it leaning to the right at a 60 degree angle.. It is in the middle of a forest with trees in the background. The forest floor is covered in orange, yellow and brown leaves.

A house can be seen in the distance through trees. A large wooden pole is seen in the front right in front of the trees and rocks.

Asphalt driveway covered in scattered browning yellow leaves.

A wooden pole in the foreground; in the background three tree trunks in front of a larger bunch of trees. The ground is covered in brown, yellow and orange leaves.

Jackie; 8 October 2021; Ireland

Julius; 21 October 2021; England

4 different images of repositioned oaks. On the left and right side portrait orientation images of the top of the oak columns. In landscape orientation in the middle top and bottom of the page are pictures of the full oak circle. In between the four images a text reads: "I walked twenty minutes from my flat to the Manor Gardens, a municipal park at the other end of Eastbourne. Inside the grounds stands a sculpture called ‘Eighteen Thousand Tides’, made by David Nash in 1996. A group of sea weathered oak buttresses used to prop up groynes on the seafront have been reclaimed and positioned within a circle to offer a space to enter into for quiet and contemplation. What was once formerly exterior now contributes to an area as interiior. I walked around the outside of the circle, before entering into the space, then walked slowly around and in between the oak sculptures, aware of my steps breaking the silence. I then stopped and stood still, looking up at the textures of wood against a bright autumn sky."

Winter Walks

Julius; 1 February 2022; Eastbourne, England

Julius’ account:

'experience/the area increasing'

A clear sky with a keen south-westerly headwind accompany me during a coastal walk along the route of the Seven Sisters chalk cliffs, with views of hilly landscapes bordered by the English Channel. Everything is visible for a few miles from where I'm walking and it is the signs and markers on my route which trigger my thinking in particular along lines of an immersive expansion. How am I to interpret these notices and instructions for my own understanding?

Place names have always intrigued me with their derivations and connections, whether contemporary or historical. I stop at a memorial stone marking patronage and sacrifice, saving a landscape from commercial exploitation. Then, a heritage place name tells me I have reached a halfway point. In this chalk country, lime production was once very common, so another place name. Finally, the clear cut emotional instruction as a warning to those curious and daring. Four messages then on my walk which all point to increasing narratives under a wide open winter sky

A stone tablet in a embedded in a large rock pillar. The embossed text reads: “Michel Dene was bequeathed to the national trust by W A Robertson in memory of his brothers Norman Cairns Robertson Captn 2nd Batt. Hampshire Regt. Who died 20 June 1917 at Hanover Germany and of Laurence Grant Robertson 2nd Liuet 2nd Battalion King’s Own Scottish Borders who was killed in action in France during the battle of the Somme or near Deville Wood 30th July 1916.

A National Trust marker for Brass point. It shows a map of the river area and tells people they are at the halfway point of Seven Sisters. Green hills and a blue sky with some light white clouds can be seen beyond the marker.

A National Trust marker for Lime Kiln Bottom. Green and slightly dried grass can be seen beyond, as well as slightly cloudy blue skies.

A sigh warning people to Stay Away From Cliff Edges and brown grass visible beyond.

Kaitlyn and Blake; 20 March, 2022; Lackawaxen, PA

Katy and I missed winter. Well, we didn’t miss winter. But we did not walk it (together). It merits mention. We walked the spring equinox instead. Trespassingbeyond her property’s borders on to the adjacent, undeveloped land. We expanded into what was formerly exterior.

A woman's arm points into the woods. There are brown leaves on the ground and the trees are barren.

A white house can be seen through the trees in the distance. Small puddles of water are visible on the forest floor, which is primarily fallen leaves.

Tall, spindly trees shoot up from the forest floor, which is covered in brown leaves.

A red house is visible through tree trunks. There are rocks in the foreground.

Another angle of the forest, with spindly trees reaching up behind mossy rocks on a leaf covered orest floor.

The trees were still barren and the air was cold, but there was a sense of change. Personal change as well as the change of the landscape. Over 4 seasons of walking and imagining together, Katy and I found ourselves in very different places than when I first arrived to Fawn Lake Forest in May of 2021.

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