Friday 16 September 2011

City Snapshots: Bus Rides

Luxury - in the city - is having no particular place to go, and no particular time to get there.


Put up your feet, but keep your brain engaged, and take random buses across the city on a psychogeographical drift. Bend the criss-crossing arteries and multi-coloured lines of fixed schedules to your will, and chase the setting sun.


If something - or someone - catches your eye, ring the bell and jump off at the next stop. Another bus will always be available to pick up the narrative.


You may not know where you are going, but you know where you'll end up. In a situationist playground, the bus is the merry-go-round.

6 comments:

Flexicover said...

Beautiful images. That blue is absolutely striking.

Owen said...

Keep on trucking ! Or should it be, Keep on bussing... Just out for a ramble around ? Have a great week Adam...

PS and I wonder where Peter is by now ? Across the Ural mountains ?

Lisa C. said...

Voted for your blog! Good luck!

Badaude said...

love this - beautiful photos! Michel de Certeau in The Practice of Everyday Life called public transport a 'travelling incarceration' which prevented any kind of pscyhogeographical interaction with the city but I like buses as they're (in London at least) frequently even slower than walking...

Adam said...

Badaude: I completely disagree with De Certeau's definition, certainly as far as buses are concerned. True, you may be divorced from the city underground in the Metro, but the bus offers perspectives on the city that you would never see from the pavement. Indeed, in his book 'Mythogeography', Phil Smith suggests beginning a drift by 'leaping into the first bus or tram you see'.

Badaude said...

To be fair, de Certeau was talking about trains. Apparently buses with open backs which you can jump on and off are about to return to London which makes things even better.

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