Exploratory walk & positioning the signage

The Exploratory walk involved the spring semester, KU Leuven Alt-shift elective, students in the identification of the potential places to visit during the future Sensorial walk; a place-making activity being planned as part of ACalmPlace event. During this exploratory walk, the students were guided through different sites in the area, for them to familiarize with the neighbourhood, and be inspired to brainstorm potential paths and/or interventions. During this time, one of the activities proposed intervention was also tested.  The students were asked by the KUL partners to bring a ceramic bowl to the exploratory walk and test out some characteristics of an installation idea. The proposed idea was for the “Sensorial walk” participants to bring a personal bowl, where they would put a paper with their written thoughts about the walk. The bowls would then be placed to float one by one into the pre-existent basin in the middle of the ACalmPlace site. Many bowls would then float together and find each other, clashing to produce meditative sounds in the garden space. The bowls would represent the diversity of the inhabitants in Schaerbeek, and become a strategic artifact used to invite the neighbourhood. The act of asking for bowls was an excuse for the event planners to get to know the locals. Unfortunately, due to technical issues, the water was not available in the fountain just one week before the ACalmPlace event, and so instead of placing the reflection on the bowls, the participants were asked to write them on red ribbons and place them on a stick to be planted in the grass around the fountain.