Author:
Fischer Jeannine-Madeleine
Abstract
AbstractIn this article, I explore how the sensory perception of urban environments translates into an activist practice of care. Based on a case study from my digital ethnography, I argue that activist artist and architect Doung Anwar Jahangeer’s performative “City Walks” are aimed at experimenting with, questioning and reframing perceptions of marginalised places in Durban. Re-interpreting and re-experiencing public attributions of meaning to locations through walking allows for a sensory re-appropriation of places labelled as poor and dangerous. Conceiving of sensing as an active process, I argue that sensorial ways of caring transcend boundaries of normativity, space and time in the city. I show how urban walking practices of care have the potential to partially realise future visions of spatial and social justice through sensory engagement with the city.
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
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