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A Chance to Catch a Breath: Using Mobile Video Ethnography in Cycling Research

2011; Routledge; Volume: 6; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/17450101.2011.552771

1745-011X

Justin Spinney,

Diversity and Impact of Dance

Abstract Abstract Under the rubric of transport much previous research on everyday mobility has focused on understanding the more representational and readily articulated aspects of everyday movement. By way of contrast, emergent theorisations of mobility suggest that an understanding of the less representational – those fleeting, ephemeral and often embodied and sensory aspects of movement – is vital if we are to fully understand why and how people move around. Accordingly, the ability of conventional methods to complement new research agendas, particularly those related to issues around the sensory, affect and embodied experience has been called in to question. This paper contributes to the burgeoning literature on mobile methodologies by critically discussing a theoretical and methodological journey towards mobile video ethnography in the context of a project researching cycling in London, UK between 2004 and 2006. In doing so it highlights three ways in which mobile video ethnography can contribute to research in the new mobilities paradigm: video as a way of 'feeling there' when you can't be there; video as a way of apprehending fleeting moments of mobile experience; and video as a tool to extend sensory vocabularies. It also critically discusses the limitations of video as a text and the importance of embodied experience, interpretation and audiencing to its success as part of a mobile methodology. Whilst emphasising the need for caution, the paper demonstrates the way in which mobile video ethnography can contribute to a new mobilities agenda by facilitating more situated understandings of daily corporeal mobility which highlight an alternative time‐space politics to those inscribed in road spaces. Key Words: Mobilitymethodvideoethnographycycling Notes 1. I use the term 'less representational' here to distinguish these elements of practice from the non‐representational. My point being that whilst these sensory and affective elements might be harder to apprehend and represent, they are, in many cases, profoundly significant and full of intent. This does not mean that I am suggesting that the sensory and affective can be represented 'intact', rather that some forms of representation may evoke them better than others. 2. The Ph.D. project built upon research undertaken for a Master's degree which looked at sensory and representational aspects of road cycling (see Spinney, 2006 Spinney, J. 2006. A place of sense: A kinaesthetic ethnography of cyclists on Mont Ventoux. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 24(5): 709–732. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). The central research question for the thesis asked what structures and makes movement meaningful in the context of cycling in London. In order to answer these questions the thesis not only explored different styles of cycling in London through a series of case studies, but also the different actors (for example planners, engineers, NGOs and Borough officials) contributing to the material provision of cycling infrastructure and discursive constructions of cycling. 3. Many critics have long associated vision with mastery and hegemony in Western societies (see for example Howes, 1991 Howes, D. 1991. "Introduction: To summon all the senses". In The Varieties of Sensory Experience: A Source Book in the Anthropology of the Senses, Edited by: Howes, D. 167–191. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. [Google Scholar]; Classen, 1993 Classen, C. 1993. Worlds of Sense: Exploring the Senses in History and Across Cultures, London: Routledge. [Google Scholar]; Rose, 1993 Rose, G. 1993. Feminism and Geography: The Limits of Geographical Knowledge, Cambridge: Polity Press. [Google Scholar]). The argument goes that vision is synonymous with visualisation resulting in a representationalist theory of knowledge and the world which allows detachment and domination to arise (Ingold, 2000 Ingold, T. 2000. The Perception of the Environment: Essays in Livelihood, Dwelling and Enskillment, London: Routledge. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], p. 282), which in turn is embodied in particular ways of seeing such as the masculine 'gaze' (Rose, 1993 Rose, G. 1993. Feminism and Geography: The Limits of Geographical Knowledge, Cambridge: Polity Press. [Google Scholar]). 4. As one of the referees of this paper pointed out, it was video artists rather than researchers who pioneered many aspects of video ethnography by recording, reflecting and writing about their daily routines. As a result video ethnography has epistemological and methodological roots which are distinct from more positivist research methods. It is also worth noting that using video as a research method has only become more plausible because of continuing innovations and the affordability of portable and digital devices. 5. It is here that the first caveat to using video should be made. It can be very time‐consuming and the researcher needs to gain a degree of competency with the equipment if the technology is not to get in the way of the research process. Not only did I experience a number of technical issues but achieving good camera positioning and lighting was also a learning curve of trial and error and a number of rides had to be videoed more than once due to poor camera positioning or technical failure. 6. My approach was to run through both edited and non‐edited videos of riding with participants in the hope that their interpretations took precedence. However, in some instances I foregrounded my own interpretation through editing video due to the time constraints of watching unedited video. I also played a role in interpreting the narratives of participants in terms of the wider goals of the project; their narratives of embodied movements and affective registers were purposely juxtaposed with abstract notions of cycling as instrumental and utilitarian. A reflexivity to interpretation is thus no less important when decoding video, rather it is if anything more important because of the extra content and detail which video can provide. 7. The ability to come back to review people's movements also facilitated any further analysis of the images by me when writing through the research. Up to three years on from filming the rides, watching the videos brings back an awful lot of context and detail which would have been lost otherwise. In this way, video acts as a superior memory aid over other forms of field‐noting. 8. According to Ford and Brown (2006 Ford, N. and Brown, D. 2006. Surfing and Social Theory: Experience, Embodiment and Narrative of the Dream Glide, London: Routledge. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), flow is a form of peak experience which is characterised by a high level of confidence and control and a '…sense of rhythm and flow, with a sense of being on "auto‐pilot", free and absorbed in the moment' (p. 159). 9. This then is in part a question of how far interpretative frameworks reside within culture or embodied experience. There is scant room for a full discussion here (see Ingold [2000 Ingold, T. 2000. The Perception of the Environment: Essays in Livelihood, Dwelling and Enskillment, London: Routledge. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]] for a definitive account or Spinney [2008 Spinney, J. 2008. "Cycling the city: Movement, meaning and practice. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis". Royal Holloway: University of London. [Google Scholar]] for an account related to cycling specifically) but what I would say in line with Ingold is that the ability to perceive a sensation as positive or significant is structured via the building up of a repertoire of bodily skills and dispositions – body knowledges or 'habitus' – which enable that sense‐data to be managed. Thus cultural models are seen not to exist outside of the activity itself and body knowledges are acquired '…not through formal instructions, but by routinely carrying out specific tasks involving characteristic postures and gestures…' (p. 162). As a result, whilst 'all' subjects maintain the physiological ability to sense in a similar way, the ability to make sense is unevenly distributed. Consequently if, 'people from different backgrounds orient themselves in different ways, this is not because they are interpreting the same sensory experience in terms of alternative cultural models or cognitive schemata, but because, due to their previous bodily training, their senses are differently attuned to the environment' (Ingold, 2000 Ingold, T. 2000. The Perception of the Environment: Essays in Livelihood, Dwelling and Enskillment, London: Routledge. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], p. 162). Such a line of argument validates Cresswell's (2006 Cresswell, T. 2006. On the Move, Oxford: Routledge. [Google Scholar]) related point that in turn, '…representations of mobility are based on ways in which mobility is practiced and embodied' (p. 4). This I think is a key tenet of the pre‐representational in that the original movement takes precedence over any representation of it. This makes sense, otherwise how would any representation come into being? Crucially then, sensations can be construed as meaningful without mediation by representations (Bourdieu, 1977 Bourdieu, P. 1977. Outline of a Theory of Practice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], p. 87). If there is one conclusion to be drawn from this, for me it is that as Ingold (2000 Ingold, T. 2000. The Perception of the Environment: Essays in Livelihood, Dwelling and Enskillment, London: Routledge. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) states, any attempt to separate the discourses of the senses from their actual practice is unsustainable: 'for what is discourse, if not a narrative interweaving of experience born of practical, perceptual activity? The meanings to which it gives rise…are not added on top of lived bodily experience, but lie in the ways in which the strands of this experience are woven together' (p. 286). Interpretation then is both embodied and discursive. 10. Mountain‐biking, trials, BMX and to a large extent messenger films, particularly the short no‐budget films made by the riders themselves, can be situated within what has been termed the 'cinema of attractions'. In this form of film‐making, the spectacle and performance which the image displays are emphasised over any role the image might play in the flow of narrative (Wayne, 1997 Wayne, M. 1997. Theorising Video Practice, London: Lawrence & Wishart. [Google Scholar], p. 102). In doing so, this form of film‐making '…orientates the image towards an open acknowledgement of the spectator' (p. 102) and thus spectacle. A number of elements characterise this genre, such as the use of a single camera, low camera angles, a rider‐focused misé en scene, a lack of dialogue and fast editing (Wayne, 1997 Wayne, M. 1997. Theorising Video Practice, London: Lawrence & Wishart. [Google Scholar]). As a result the end product tends to be a relentless sequence of 'attractions' one after another which emphasise skill, bodily technicity, danger and spectacle. 11. For a more detailed account of mobile rhythms in relation to mobile methods see Spinney (2010 Spinney, J. 2010. Performing resistance? Re‐reading urban cycling on London's South Bank. Environment and Planning A, 42(12): 2914–2937. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and also Boyle (2004 Boyle, P. 2004. "Mapping the lines: An exploration of mobility and urban spaces amongst bicycle couriers. Unpublished MA thesis". Ontario: University of Windsor. [Google Scholar]).