The Miss Guides: A Cultural Walking Collective (with Natalie Doonan and Sean George)

The Miss Guides create performative urban walks rooted in Debord’s notion of psychogeography, as a way of using the physical body to reconnect with a city that has become foreign to us. We employ new media to resist the passivity it engenders and creatively engage with each other and our environment. We take photographs of places over time so that we can remember what has been covered over with each new layer of concrete poured. With the playful criticality of ambulatory archaeologists, we dig and dig until a multitude of half-finished stories and misplaced keys begin to surface. 

This work is a theatrical, site-specific urban walk that strives to uncover the city's forgotten past and overlooked present. A unique blend of historical tour and street theatre, this hour-long walk is rooted in the idea of Ruins as 'fragmentary remains', and attempts to piece together conflicting visions of the city by making unexpected connections between four diverse and surprising sites of past- and present-day ruin. From breath-taking attractions, such as Harbour Centre's Lookout, to contentious projects like the new Canada Line, The Miss Guides turn their lens on a city gearing up for international pageantry. Using the streets as their stage, The Miss Guides reveal the simple act of walking to be politicized and empowering: a way of both reclaiming public space in an increasingly privatized world, and remaining alert to the sights, sounds and smells of an ever-changing city. Walking the Ruins becomes an unforgettable way of encountering our everyday environment anew. From glamour to grime, Walking the Ruins is a sensorial experience -- triggering memories, inhabiting and laying bare the narratives of the city. Join The Miss Guides as they speculate on imagined spaces and lost futures.

This performance ran for four sold out weeks during the summer of 2009 (12 walks), and received extensive press coverage.

5 minute excerpt here: https://youtu.be/C2crxcPMNVw