RUNNING FORMATIONS
i like to feel that i am in possession of my city

Amy Feneck has been working with a group of runners belonging to the women's only jogging network, which has members and meeting places across Glasgow.

Through meeting, running and talking with the women, learning their local knowledge of the city, their reasons, motivations and experiences of running, Amy became interested in how the network formed an alternative, flexible structure operating formally and informally throughout particular areas of the city.

As an outcome to her residency at the CCA, Glasgow, and in collaboration with some of the runners from the network, Amy has developed a running route from the outskirts of the city towards the periphery of its centre.
With starting points at Castlemilk (South) and Springburn (North), the runners will simultaneously run along the route, only stopping when the two groups meet.

This event will happen on the 7th April 2008, further information and documentation of the project will be available after this date

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Central to Fenecks interest is the conflict between collective activity and autonomy. The running group can be seen as having both attributes; collective in its action of perpetual, repetitive motion, unified towards meeting its shared goal of completing the designated route. Unified further through the simultaneous action of the partner group. Yet within this collective group, temporary sub groups and hierarchies develop, based on physical fitness levels and socializing preferences; who to run with, who to pace yourself with, who to talk to.
In a wider context, the running group can be further seen as acting autonomously, using the action of running as a self-governing rule to create a visual mark against the urban backdrop.

Feneck explores the conflict between collective and autonomous action in a further arm of the project. In line with the designated running routes, a fly poster will be anonymously distributed throughout the city. The poster displays a single piece of text recounting a personal experience of running from one of the runners Feneck interviewed during her residency.

The act of fly posting, where an image or text temporarily marks the architecture and urban landscape, parallels the transitory presence of the runner in the city, unifying both activities, each acting as realizations of the urge to mark or connect with the landscape in which we find ourselves.

In the context of Amy Feneck's continued research into the use of public and private space, both the choreographed run and the placement of posters can be seen as attempts at occupying urban space, claiming use and ownership of the built environment.