Welcome,
My name is Eike and I live in Melbourne. I like to go on mini explorations. On this page I write about my journeys of unexpected outcome. I call them Curiosity Walks. You may ask yourself:
What exactly is a Curiosity Walk?
About two years ago I started doing improv comedy. When you are improvising, you don’t know beforehand who you are going to play or what the scene will be about. Nothing is scripted. At any time, something unknown or unexpected can happen. You are operating in this non-judgemental state where anything could be possible. It frees you so that you can be completely in the moment, allowing you to make the most amazing discoveries. It gets kind of addictive.
During a Curiosity Walk you take this state of having no plan and no judgment into the real world. You are giving yourself permission to go on a journey where you are guided by your curiosity. You don’t know where you will be going, who you will meet and what experiences you will make. Everything is possible. Being in this state lets you connect with people and places in different ways then you normally do. This allows you to make discoveries you never expected. It gets kind of addictive.
2015 was a very interesting year for me. I got more involved into improv and I went Chicago for a summer to train improv at iO (formerly Improv Olympic). One afternoon, my improv teacher Matt Higbee took us on an Intuitive Treasure Hunt, an IRL game originally developed by Janna Sobel. On an Intuitive Treasure Hunt you meet up with friends and go on a journey where you are guided by your intuition to find your personal treasure. During my part of the Intuitive Treasure Hunt, we went to the nearest supermarket and had as many conversations with complete strangers as possible. We had many amazing chats and some went quite deep. We met a lady from Hawaii who was in Chicago to visit her daughter, got the contact details from Sanjay from Hyderabad in India to catch up with an improv friend who is also from there and talked to Wilmer, a dancer from Venezuela who invited us to come flamenco dancing with him. The treasure that I found was realisation that everyone has a story to tell.
Inspired by my improv experiences in Chicago, I went on many walks in and around Melbourne. I met loads of interesting people, discovered many hidden places and had some fantastic experiences. I realised later that I was primarily driven by my curiosity. On my walks, I try to see world around me with as little judgement as possible, making me curious and open for exciting discoveries. I made this page to write down, remember and share stories of Curiosity Walks and the people, places and experiences in them.
The beautiful thing about Curiosity Walks is that anyone can do them. You probably did this when you were a kid. The problem is, we have forgotten how to explore and to be curious. We get caught up in our day to day life. Doing a Curiosity Walk can get you out of that again. So get together with some friends and start exploring!
You can even do it by yourself. Right now. There are no rules what a Curiosity Walk has to look like. Take a different way home. Talk to a stranger. Get off at a random tram stop and a explore the neighbourhood around it. Surprise yourself. The possibilities are endless.
If you feel you still can’t go on a Curiosity Walk, contact me and we will go together and make some discoveries. Also if you went on a Curiosity Walk, I would love to hear about your experiences and what you found. Drop me a line or two about your discoveries 🙂