Hybrid walking as art: Approaches and art practices on revealing the emotional geographies of Tube stations

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Psarras, B. 2013. Hybrid walking as art: Approaches and art practices on revealing the emotional geographies of Tube stations. Proceedings of 2nd Hybrid City ‘Subtle Revolutions’ International Conference, pp. 415-422. ISSN 978-960-99791-1-5 [Article]

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Abstract or Description

Throughout the 20th century, urban walking has been regarded as an aesthetic practice and critical tool with great potential. In the ever-changing city, socio-economical transformations indicate various changes in its emotional attitude as well. The emergence of mobility plays an important role in our everyday life with various terminals, platforms and thresholds becoming our new spatio-sensorial vocabulary, as in the case of the Tube. Can such spaces act as urban samples for further emotional consideration? Based on the concepts of flaneur and psychogeography and considering past metaphors of perceiving the urban, this paper investigates the potential of a hybrid artistic walking method in order to set the foundations for an exploration of emotional geography of Tube stations. To achieve this, it sets up a dialogue between metaphors, contemporary practices as well as it highlights the potential of such spaces of transition by reflecting on the spatial features, the sensorial and in-between experience. On the final section, this paper embarks on a speculative approach of hybrid walking in the London Tube, based on an author’s idea, in order to illustrate potential tactics of revealing the emotional geographies of these spaces.

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Article

Additional Information:

The conference presentation has been funded by the department of Computing, Goldsmiths University of London, which the author would like to thank.

Keywords:

walking as art, flaneur, city, Tube stations, senses, metaphors, media art, sociology, visual cultures

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