Peregrinus (Bede's Walk)

Peregrinus explores Bede’s Pilgrim Trail located in South Tyneside, a route which is bracketed by St Peter’s and St Paul’s monasteries marking the home of the Venerable Bede. The monasteries mark the sites where Bede devoted himself to the study of scriptures, often looking for deeper symbolic meaning in both biblical and secular texts.‘Peregrinus’ was the term used during the early Roman Empire to denote a free provincial subject of the Empire who was not a Roman citizen. In Latin, peregrinus means ‘foreigner from abroad’. The title also refers to Petrus Peregrinus one of the first key figures in developing an understanding of geomagnetism. His contribution to this field involves discovering methods for navigating with aid of magnets, which are used in relationship to the north and south poles as a means of orientating oneself within the landscape. Historically a pilgrim’s walk signifies an adherence to a belief system, whether it be driven a divine or existential pursuit. Through the use of photography and GPS route mapping, this project acknowledges the interconnected nature of experiences enabled through repeated journeys. These iterative walks follow the pilgrim’s path and draw parallels between the flaneur and the ancient notion of the pilgrimage as an allegorical journey.