Making the city:

Portents of a self-other-world

Abstract

This research investigated the ways in which art (specifically urban intervention) can serve as a mediator for the appropriation of spaces, both public and of transit for the individuals who comprise them, creating possibilities that go beyond the previous utilitarian conceptions, thus making them more than just a support of life, but a significant part of it. Combining practice and theory, an urban intervention action was developed, called "Confidências no Ônibus" (Confessions on the Bus), that sought to alter the relationship between the researchers and its participants with the city, in particular with public transportation, where the action was carried out. To this end, the research drew on theoretical contributions of different fields of knowledge, especially art (Bourriaud, Certeau, Debord, Fabião and Jacques) and psychology (Abreu, Hillman, Moreno and Romano), seeking a collectively built indisciplinary knowledge from a study group called "Saber entre Afetos" (Knowledge between Affections), formed by artists and psychologists, mostly psychodramatists who are also in touch with the arts. The relationship of the passenger with the public transport is discussed here, which the researchers notices to be permeated with by what he calls a "diluted presentiality", marked by the automatism and lack of availability, and devices to deepen this presence. The research's starting point is dualities, such as activity and passivity, individual and collect, objective and subjective, to then blur these barriers, creating territories of habitation in the between, understanding the collective public transport as one of these spaces in the middle, but should not be disregarded for it.