The Walk Book offers some associative aids to Janet Cardiff’s binaural audio walks, in which participants are equipped with a portable CD player or video camera, and directed through a site.
These works draw on aspects of performance art, installation and sound art, creating a ‘physical cinema’. Cardiff creates immersive, experiential events which frequently have a strong narrative component that plays out in a three dimensional soundtrack, allowing the audience to become part of the story.
This book follows the logic of the walk, encouraging readers to veer off track, and peruse the chapters in non-linear order.
Cardiff’s sites are not static, but are sets of possible references and relationships between the inner space of the walker (or, in this case, the reader) and their external environment.
This publication also includes a CD of accompanying sound pieces, which interact and develop the text.