Paper short abstract:

Contrasting two distinct mobility situations in non-urban and urban environments, my contribution highlights the (un)acceptability of collisions in the ways and rhythms of enacting traffic and in the resonating mobile togetherness of human and more-than human actors.

Paper long abstract:

How is it that we shape, frame and do moving in natural and urban spaces? Based on an understanding of mobility as an on-going relational positioning with our socio-cultural-physical-technologically forming environments, this contribution contrasts two projects on the more-than of traffic mobilities in non-urban and urban environments.

Firstly, the performance 'Changing Perspectives by Water Magic' conveys what it feels like to regularly travel in a dugout canoe in a tropical forest. Moving-with the River Ivindo in Gabon is to deeply experience-see-perceive-sense-think-hear the continuous story of transformative shape-shifting and more-than-human diversity in tropical river traffic. Secondly, with participants of my 'Dance your Vehicle: Becoming Sensicle' workshops, which were initiated as part of Lancaster University's Mobile Utopia activities and later took place also in France and Spain, we explored what happens when you bring together urban transport technologies, road traffic rules and human bodily intelligence in new ways.

Contrasting these two distinct mobility situations questions our understanding of 'traffic' as essentially about avoiding contact, whilst arguably being governed by our capacities to continuously resonate with our surroundings to ensure positioning and safety in our daily mobilities. It highlights that movement qualities affect how we intra-act, addressing performative methods and the role of bodyworkers in STS research as well as examining how mobility technologies can aid in augmenting (human) senses. The research also suggests that awareness of the sensorial more-than in mobilities can support non-dualistic perspectives in urban planning and build capacities and tools for collective, integrated, co-creative mobilities inspiring post-capitalist entanglements.