Drawing and Writing in the Atmospheres at Tram Stops

In this paper, I compare two of my artistic research projects about the atmosphere of the city by sketching at tram stops. Public transport stops may seem uninteresting, but they can be vantage points for complex urban atmospheres. Atmospheres are made up of subjective impressions, feelings, and sensations of the observer, as well as of the material and sensory qualities of the environment. In the context of public transport, our atmospheric perception is
influenced by our mood and travel experience, as well as by the properties of vehicles. Trams have some romantic and nostalgic flair beyond their merely utilitarian function of transporting from A to B. It can be due to their status
as the oldest means of urban public transport and due to the peculiarities of the technology: rail-bound overground trams evoke associations with trains and long-distance travel. As a means to study this mix of different atmospheres, I propose on-site sketching which is both an artistic practice as well as a visual ethnography method. As this method allows freely incorporating writing elements, I discuss how field drawing and writing work differently in my project and how it helps to understand the atmosphere of the city, trams and tram stops.