Fetishising the Brussels roadscape

Abstract

This explorative paper is an attempt to improve understanding of the material infrastructure and subjective affective investments into it. Building on the concept of “fetish”, it proposes a theoretical framework to analyse the entanglement of the functional, sensitive and social symbolic dimensions of Brussels’ “modern roads” to reinforce and stabilise a social imaginary of fast mobility. Examining technical reports, political discourses, press articles and cultural productions such as movies, TV broadcasts and photographs relating to the infrastructuring process, the paper reveals – beyond the case study – the aesthetic dimension of the modernisation of roads, which relates to symbolic investments in cars. The theoretical framework involves heuristic values when regarded beyond this specific Belgian context. It opens new possibilities for broader interpretations of the mobility infrastructure.

The Experience Economy in the Systems of Urban and Regional Transport - from a Change of Location to Positive Emotional Impressions during Movements

“…The travelling, in particular in the field of the means of transport choice, is not only the issue of the duration, even though the time is very important. This is also the issue of friendliness and attractiveness of the conditions of travelling; the manufacturers of cars are aware of that, and the car interior equipment was substantially enhanced as compared to the solutions a few decades before, and the cars themselves and travelling by them in many cases is related to positive emotional impressions [41]. This does not apply to the public transport within such a scope; in this case the significant changes introduced in recent decades, important from the passenger point of view during travelling, include the low-floor vehicles and solutions related to the IT technologies -applications for travel planning, information, and purchasing of e-tickets.…”

Towards ethical mobility behavior: The socio-ecological potentiality of ambiance-based mobility infrastructure design

“…rather an immersive, sensitive environment which, through its aesthetic dimension in particular, is central to the mobility experience. Moving away from the binary of mobility and mooring (Sheller et Urry 2006), scholars have been led to better consider in their methodology the changing phenomenological and aesthetical dimensions of mobility infrastructure (Lefebvre 1992;Bennett 2001;Sheller 2004;Rosa 2019;Pelgrims 2020a). Infrastructure is indeed involved in constant social and material processes that P. Merriman (2016) defines as continuous "mobile infrastructuring processes".…”

“…Finally, the practice of cycling infrastructure becomes a key practice in the constitution of an "aesthetic community" in the sense of Parret (Genard 2017;Pelgrims 2020a) -where belonging to the collective is "felt" in the immersive experience, both subjective and collective, of a livingtogether and a "vibrating-together" in silent co-presence on the infrastructure. Cyclists indeed mention the small gestures and glances that form the non-verbal communication linking cyclists together and making the cycling infrastructure, more than a material infrastructure, a social infrastructure for coming together and sharing in mobility (Sheller 2020).…”

Tension between Fast and Slow Mobilities

“…While the car was symbolically invested, the new conception of automobility infrastructure as an essential element for any aspect of a 'modern life' grounded the affective and aesthetic investments into the emancipating modern road. 74 It strengthened the assimilation of personal freedom with individual mobility which constitutes a key feature of the modern era since the Saint-Simonians 75 and had arisen from the comparison of the city to a living thing. 76 The aesthetic experience of the modern road-mediated through cultural productions such as movies and photographs-reinforce this perception of the modern road on a pre-reflexive level.…”

“…22 It is too simple to account for qualities, temporalities, rhythms, 23 vibrant materialities 24 and affective resonances across and through infrastructures, environments, vehicles and bodies. 25 First, from the perspective of the theories of ambiance and atmosphere, infrastructures are not simply static contextual settings for action but immersive environments that are central to mobility experiences. Speed-one of the aspects of mobility flows-partly depends on the sensory 'locomotor efficiency' of mobility infrastructure as space of movement.…”