Sensory indiscipline and affect: a study of commuter cycling

Abstract

The senses act as the interface between self and environment, but in a western context powerful multisensory stimulation is increasingly constructed as marginal, deviant or in need of management/commodification. This paper brings together work on the sensory with ideas around affective intensity to explore the regulation of the individual through the senses. The notion of sensory discipline is developed through an examination of everyday commuter cycling. Based on innovative, mobile audio diaries, the intensities of sensory stimulation for the cycling body are explored. The paper concludes that commuter cycling enacts a minor resistance towards efforts to reduce the intensities of everyday affective landscapes. In turn, this resistance suggests just how pervasive sensory discipline has now become.

Retracing trajectories: the embodied experience of cycling, urban sensescapes and the commute between ‘neighbourhood’ and ‘city’ in Utrecht, NL

“…This is especially the case when high speed is involved, resulting in feelings of 'euphoria' for some (Jones, 2012) but also making space seem more 'fluid', requiring quicker responses to changing circumstances (Virilio, 1986in Brown, 2010. The latter is even more the case when traffic rules and lights are ignored and people intersect and interweave on the street, creating 'organised chaos' (Pelzer, 2012).…”

“…A detour through a quiet and green environment, for instance, may very well be chosen with the purpose of avoiding chaotic situations and saving time. At the same time, it may be taken for reasons of ''more conscious contemplation of the surroundings, rather than reacting to immediate challenges and threats on the road'' (Jones, 2012) and even for getting to know the city better.…”

“…Before you know it, you'll get a door in your face''. Hester (31), adopts a specific 'riding style' (Jones, 2012) to ensure safety by making herself more visible to the traffic and keep a distance from parked cars.…”

“…However, the 'new mobilities paradigm' (Sheller and Urry, 2006) has introduced a cross-disciplinary approach, which takes seriously the complex interplay between movement, its representation and the embodied experience (Cresswell, 2010). This has recently resulted in an increasing number of ethnographic accounts of cycling as embodied practice (see, for instance, Brown, 2010;Jones, 2005Jones, , 2012Jones and Burwood, 2011;Spinney, 2006Spinney, , 2007Wood, 2010). This paper enriches these accounts by studying urban sensescapes, because the ''in situ corporeal experience from day-to-day'' (Degen and Rose, 2012, p. 3) remains mostly neglected in studies on cycling.…”

“…Our ethnographic methods, GPS-traced and video documented ride-alongs, play an essential role in this, as they form a novel means to study sensescapes. It is an attempt to combine and develop fieldwork approaches as mobile video ethnography (Spinney, 2011), and mobile audio diary (Jones, 2012).…”