Anne Devine is an American endurance walking artist who lives within the Caitskill Mountain Park in upstate New York. The area was made famous in the 18th century by the Hudson River School of Artists. The mountain’s lakes, reservoirs and rivers provide the water for New York City. It is an area rich in apple orchards and Anne is currently developing work on the Westwind organic apple orchard. Anne’s 5 year walking forecast offers a future for walking whether you are wealthy or not.
Anne choses two themes for her 5 year walking forecast both of which she feels will be catalysts for an increase in walking and the numbers of walkers. She feels that with mounting household debt, and hikes in the price of oil, that walking will become more of a necessity, for a large number of families in America. On the other end of the wealth scale, popularised by Sir Richard Branson’s desire for space tourism, and the Russian suggestion of launching a space hotel, that there will be a huge uptake in walking in space, and in trying out walking in weightlessness.
Talking Walking is Britain’s leading walking podcast website, with more than 45 recorded interviews since 2008. It was Rethinking Cities‘ Andrew Stuck’s idea to request 5 year walking forecasts to be made by telephone. Each thought leader was invited to make their forecast by telephoning a number to leave a voice message, that Andrew had set up to be recorded. Each of these responses have subsequently been edited and will be published as podcasts. Each week until Christmas 2013, a 5 year walking forecast will be published on the Talking Walking website.
This article previously appeared on the Rethinking Cities website.