The Tunnel as Urban Care-scape

Abstract

In this exposition, I introduce my artistic research method Touching by describing how repeatedly passing through a pedestrian tunnel over the course of several months, afforded a series of performative and caring gestures to emerge over time.

Using diverse audiovisual media, I explain how the tunnel evolved into an expanded scenographic research site. Its direct, pertinent impact on my daily rhythm prompted me to become still and receptive, evoking an awareness of my sensory and material engagement with more-than-human entities, objects and the environment. These diverse aesthetic encounters activated an ethical stance toward the world.

Gradually, the tunnel was transformed into a ‘carescape’, an exploratory site of caring activities that raised questions of response-ability and illuminated the temporal and spatial dimensions of care.