Sensory ethnography on mobility in the city of Madrid experienced from a minicruiser

Abstract

This paper proposes a critical sensory ethnography about the experience lived while riding a minicruiser (small skateboard) through the streets of Madrid. More specifically, this ethnography has attempted to record the different rhythms and affective atmospheres that are experienced as bodily sensations when moving through the city in a minicruiser. Four recordings were made using a personal point of view camera, each lasting one hour in four areas of the city of Madrid with a different morphology, to which was added the recording of the event Se Baja la Cabra. In addition to the recordings, I registered my experience in each of the sessions through field notes. The findings showed common points between some of the areas, but also great contrasts, such as those between the Arganzuela area (which allowed greater enjoyment and playful experience) and the Castellana-El Prado axis (tremendously hostile to displacement). The analysis of the experience of different affective atmospheres linked to different areas serves to pose questions about how infrastructures (city planning) affect the rhythms and the felt experience of those who move through the city.