Simonetta Moro

Peripatetic Box

peripatetic box whole peripatetic box legend peripatetic box seen from the side peripatetic box detail peripatetic box detail peripatetic box detail peripatetic box moodometer peripatetic box cover text peripatetic box top peripatetic box closed dress for walking dress map

Mapping the Self Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago

Conflux 08 Center for Architecture, New York

PERIPATETIC BOX– instructions for use

Have you ever experienced the feeling of being lost when arriving in a new city, and felt uncomfortable about it? Of not having a clue where to begin from? Of not knowing anything without finding any relief in the ordinary tourist guides?
The Peripatetic Box has been created to help you solve this problem, but most of all to suggest a new attitude to the foreign, the unknown or the uncanny, by learning how to

GET LOST AND FIND YOURSELF.

Whether you are a visitor in an unknown city, or a resident in a city you think you know already very well, or a case in between, the Peripatetic Box will provide a key to a new insight in the space of your wanderings.
Deambulation, wandering, walking, rambling…these are the actions with which you will start experiencing the city, and in parallel, the Peripatetic Box that you are going to carry along.
There are several ways to use the Peripatetic Box: some examples are listed below, but you are free to experiment with variations that best suit you. But before you begin, make sure you filled out your PERSONAL CARD located outside the Box.
1. Start with the QUESTIONS located in the lower-left corner of the Box; write the answer on the back of the card, and then go to the corresponding categories (PLACES; PEOPLE; INFRASTRUCTURES) to which the question refers. You can add more comments to these cards.
2. Find a place in the city that best represents the answer to the Question and mark the spot on the MAP, which comes with the Box. A number of blank cards and tracing papers are provided to allow you to draw your own route on the map.

1a. Begin by picking a card at random out of the CATEGORIES.
(e.g.: infrastructures/roofs) and focus on that element that the card indicates (in this case, by taking a record of all the roofs in the city, listing the different typologies, forms, functions etc.).
2a. Mark the spots of your observations on the map.
3a. Continue with other Categories cards, or alternate with the Questions cards.

1b. Start with an aimless itinerary, paying attention to the points of interest or “irritation”. Whenever you encounter something that triggers your curiosity, look inside the box to find the category or item that represents the thing you are observing.
2b. Write or draw something on the card. If you do not find any corresponding card, create your own card using the blank paper.
3b. Mark your route on the map, and the location of the “trigger”.
Etc.

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