The project’s examination of walking is based on the theories of Walter Benjamin and Michel de Certeau, while overlaying three interpretive lenses to reframe the experience: Gamified Walking, Minimized Walking, and Grafted Walking.

Gamified Walking: Commodifying Public Space

In today’s streets, flâneurs are rarely seen, but a new figure has emerged: the playneur—individuals engaging with location-based games like Pokémon Go. These games bridge the virtual and physical worlds, transforming the city into a massive game board and making walking an integral part of gameplay. 

While many believe these games overlay virtual elements onto the real city, the truth is quite the opposite. Although they encourage outdoor activity and social interaction, the value and meaning of the entire experience heavily depend on the game world. In this case, the real world becomes merely an accessory to the game’s virtual universe. In other words, tools like VR, AR, and GPS have facilitated a new business model that commodifies public space.Pokémon Go, as the most prominent example (link to the full case study), illustrates how walking—used to be humanity’s most fundamental and free activity—has been monetized. The inherently aimless and unproductive nature of walking has been strategically redefined in game design to extract value from public spaces.

Minimized Walking: Challenges of Dwelling Spaces

The shortage of affordable and adequate living spaces is an increasingly pressing issue in major cities worldwide. High-density urban villages and slums have become commonplace, and more people are accepting these extreme conditions, whether willingly or out of necessity. This shift is driven by the para-living spaces on the internet as a form of compensation, where information has become the new "living nutrition." The wealth of online content, the rise of remote work, and the advancement of delivery services have significantly reduced the need for physical presence on the streets. 

Futuristic urban concepts like The Line further reinforce this trend by eliminating the necessity of walking. These designs drastically minimize the city's physical footprint by prioritizing vertical development and high-density living, fundamentally redefining urban mobility and lifestyle.

Grafted Walking: Signage and Distilled Media

Who are the flâneurs (or flâneuses) today? What are they seeking on the streets? As basic needs can now largely be met online, much like the wanderers of the 19th century, today’s urban wanderers primarily seek places to consume. Thus, decoding and encoding signs have become the programming that shapes the walking of city dwellers. 

Signage serves as a prime example of urban grafting. Historically progressing from billboards and neon lights to LED screens, the capacity and bandwidth for transmitting information has expanded. However, in recent years, a reversal has occurred: the amount of information of signs has drastically diminished. Today, signs are often reduced to just words, devoid of imagery or decoration, forming an urban interface as well as linguistic trickeries. While the media in virtual and online spaces have become increasingly rich, physical space media have become more simplified.