Abstract
Urban Hitchhiking – wandering with others
By Tuuli Malla, Lauri Jäntti, Encounter Arts, Finland & Anna Kholina, Aalto University, Finland
This article introduces the method of Urban Hitchhiking, a reflective practice of sharing a walk with strangers. We examine Urban Hitchhiking as a way of understanding people, space and place by comparing it to other methods that tap into the meanings and complexities of contemporary cities, such as the psychography and urban ethnography. What are the differences and similarities between these practices and urban hitchhiking? What kind of questions can it answer? What role does a performative aspect play and how is it manifested in the results? We present our own accounts of Urban Hitchhiking as two artists who developed the method and a researcher who practiced it, analysing our perspectives and findings. As a result, we outline four themes that characterise Urban Hitchhiking as a method of urban exploration: spatiality, performativity, gender and hospitality. Finally, we introduce the idea of an empathetic drift as a shared act of trust that emerges as a result of this method.
Author keywords
Hitchhiking, drift, empathy, ethnography, dérive, performance