Sunrise Walks – Augmented Topography

Sunrise Walks – Augmented Topography is a walking performance and experimental archive carried out on March 9, 2025, in Paris, as part of Sunrise Walks – British Summer Time. Three photographs, taken 15 minutes before, at the exact moment of, and 15 minutes after sunrise, document the luminous and temporal transition from night to day.

Through augmented reality overlays, each image is embedded in an augmented cartography of reality, integrating GPS data, orientation, solar elevation, and movement speed.

This walk engages in a dialogue with an ongoing project, Bambou totémique mouvant, where a staff accompanies each journey, accumulating found elements along the way. Two forms of traces intersect:

• A sidereal trace, where light marks the cosmic cycle.

• A material trace, where walking transforms matter through successive additions.

Between ritual repetition and the uniqueness of the moment, this performance questions the memory of movement: is a ritual a loop or an intensification of the instant?

📍 Paris, Rue de Bagnolet → Rue de Charonne
📆 March 9, 2025

Participation in Sunrise Walks – British Summer Time

Documenting the Experience

On March 9, 2025, in Paris, I took part in Sunrise Walks – British Summer Time, a collective walking ritual synchronized with the solar cycle. Following the defined protocol, I captured three photographs at key moments of sunrise, each precisely oriented towards the rising sun to document the luminous and temporal transition from night to day.

The images were taken at:

• 07:01:30 – 15 minutes before sunrise, Rue de Bagnolet, in a suspended nocturnal atmosphere, before the city transitions.

• 07:17:07 – At the exact moment of sunrise, Rue de Charonne, as light begins flooding the urban space.

• 07:31:57 – 15 minutes after sunrise, along my continued path, as dawn fully asserts itself.

Each photograph is augmented with a data overlay, displaying orientation, GPS coordinates, sun elevation, and contextual parameters. These are not just metadata; they actively materialize the moment, the space, and the act of walking, inscribing them into an augmented topography of reality.

Methodological Framework & Walking as Inscription

This documentation belongs to an artistic and experimental approach, where walking and observation structure the perception of time. The experience unfolds within two interconnected temporalities:

• A sidereal temporality, governed by the solar cycle.

• A corporeal temporality, embodied through walking and documentation.

By using an augmented reality compass, the performance connects contemporary digital tools with archaic forms of time measurement. The process itself becomes a marking gesture, an ephemeral way of inscribing light into a ritualized sequence.

Interplay Between Performances & Layered Inscriptions

This walk also intersects with another ongoing performance, Bambou Totémique Mouvant. The third image reveals the presence of a totemic staff, which evolves through each journey, accumulating rubber bands found along the way.

Thus, the documentation of sunrise is not isolated but part of a broader artistic process, where multiple inscriptions overlap:

• One inscribed within the cosmic rhythm of the sun.

• The other through the material accumulation of objects collected while walking.

This superimposition of logics raises a fundamental question:
What defines an archive of experience? Is it a documented moment, or an ever-evolving process?

The convergence of a celestial cycle and a daily gesture invites reflection on the coexistence of repetition and singularity within a single performative act.

Ritual & Temporal Questions

Sunrise Walks is a collective ritual, a loop that exists beyond individual participation. It repeats annually, yet within this large cycle, each walker experiences it only once.

However, even within this singular occurrence, an internal repetition unfolds:
Three sequential photographs form a miniature cycle within the larger cycle.

This perspective questions the role of the body within temporal inscriptions. In ancient times, clay tablets fixed time into matter, while today, digital archives store time as data. My walk generates a moving script, a trace that does not erase but transforms with every step.

Ultimately, this experience raises a final question:
Is a ritual a loop, or an intensified concentration of the instant?

Conclusion

Sunrise Walks – Augmented Topography is a performance exploring time, movement, and the act of inscription. It questions how walking interacts with celestial cycles, how technology reconfigures our perception of space, and how ephemeral acts can become archival material.

Ridha DHIB