The Tourist Gaze
Liv Burkhard
Departing from the question of what travelers can give back to a community – other than money – Liv Burkhard created a workshop concept, which aims to foster exchange between travelers and the locals of a tourist destination. It is a bottom-up attempt at challenging the social unsustainability of modern mass tourism and the increasing alienation, which comes with the touristification of one’s hometown.
She applied her concept to the city of Lucerne, where the workshop took place nine times. The participants collaboratively came up, documented, and tested alternative city tours, which then resulted in a radical, new city guide for Lucerne. The project comes to show how the practice of collaborative gazing can contribute to a decelerated, non-passive way of traveling and co-existing.
