Making and Remaking of Experiences and London
During a police raid over a cockfight, Clifford Geertz, instead of identifying himself as a researcher to the police, ran and escaped from the police with his Balinese informants. Prior to this experience, his informants had largely ignored him and regarded him as an outsider. Lee and Ingold provided a compelling explanation for this: "We cannot simply walk into other people's worlds, and expect thereby to participate with them. To participate is not to walk into but to walk with — where "with" implies not face-to-face confrontation, but heading the same way, sharing the same vistas, and perhaps retreating from the same threats behind" (2006). Lee and Ingold highlight the importance of "the movement of the whole body" in interacting with and making the environment a person walks through. While Airbnb experiences may not build the same kind of rapport Geertz experienced, the act of walking side by side with the hosts indeed revealed their relationships with London.
Another project that is useful for understanding the nuances of each Airbnb experience trip is Misha Myers' "Walk with me, talk with me’: the art of conversive wayfinding" (2010). On her walks, Myers listened to and performed walking tours in London based on three pre-recorded guides. Her goal was to focus on "the knowledges produced through conversational walking shape" (2010: 59). While all of the walks were pre-recorded, and therefore, supposedly predetermined, Myers' walking environment introduced lots of contingencies that challenged the structuredness of these trips.
Using Lee and Ingold as a framework for understanding, I'll demonstrate how walking with my hosts brought me into their worlds. Using Myers, I demonstrate how although “each route is pre-determined, [they are] also undone by the particularities of ‘just this body in just this place’ at just this time” (2010: 67). Each trip was a process of space and experience making and remaking. To get a glimpse of the trips, when available, listen to the recording as you navigate through the maps and words.
Structured: Architectural London
G is an Australian-born photographer who has lived in London for more than 30 years. In addition to being a published photographer who works with architects, developers, and engineers, he also teaches at City Lit, running photography courses covering architectural photography, night photography, and interior photography. He is an expert of photography, architectures, and arguably, the City of London.
The other four guests included one self-employed recruiter, two of her daughters, and one of her daughters' friends. They lived about an hour away from London, so coming to London "was a treat" for them. All of the three girls were aged between 10 to 17 and were all interested in photography.
Our tour was very structured, as the map above shows. In the 2 hours long trip, we saw more than 30 different architectures and were given historical details and design information on all of them (details can be found on each point on the map). As we walked through the square mile, G directed our attention to different architectures, gave us plenty of time to shoot from different angles, and gave us tips on how and when to take photos of these buildings. We were even told to touch (and hug) one of the pillars of a building to get a feel (no pun intended) for the architecture's character. Instead of focusing on transferring photography related knowledge to his guests, G emphasized the architectures and their relationship to London exponentially more. During our interview, G mentioned that sometimes his guests might not even bring cameras with them. I asked him what he thought about that, and he said:
Look, I don't think it matters because I'm not going to set up barriers . . . it's just a social thing. It's getting to know people and giving people a sense of what it's like to be in London and giving them your experience. Photography just becomes a way of visualizing that. It's a way of reading the city. It's a way of looking at it.
G wanted to invite his guests to see London through his experiences and his eyes:
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I want to describe my London. It's my experience of London. It's what I think about the buildings, and I make that clear. There are buildings that I like, and there are ones that I don't like. It's a great privilege to be able to give that information, to tell someone what you think without, you know, very few people contest that.
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We got a glimpse of G’s London. But the act of walking, as Miller suggested, invited us to “merge [our] experience, [our] narrative, with those of the stories [we] hear . . . [we started] to write [our] own story” (2005: 162).
I combined the information on a pamphlet we were given, the routes we took, and the buildings that were pointed out to us to make the map. The structured map shows what the trips are supposed to be: structured and informational. They are supposed to be a unidirectional experience where G imparts his knowledge and experience unto his guests. Like Linked, one of the walks Myers went on, “the communication is [supposed to be] only one-way, from the (edited) speaker to the listener” (Butler, 2006: 898). But in reality, the experience became interactive and tangled depending on the “inquisitiveness and courage of the walker” (Myers 2010: 61). At various points, I wandered off ahead or behind the group. My wandering off forced the group to stop for me. The 15 year-old's desire to capture “Instagrammable pictures” of themselves shifted the gazes of our eyes and cameras at times. The ten year-old's excited proclamation of a “beautiful architecture” brought our attention to an architecture that was excluded from the planned trip. The unexpected cold weather prolonged our dwelling in a few of the buildings. The construction of Gherkin temporarily jeopardized its celebrity status among London architectures. These spontaneous and unpredictable factors disturbed the predetermined route, but they also gave all of us the opportunity to "make our London." We were guided by “the kinaesthesia and sonesthesia of shaped place, encountered and learned by the moving, sensing, experiencing body” (Feld, 1996: 105).
When I asked G what roles these trips play in his relationship with London, he said, “They have been important to reclaim my relationship with London. I'm going through a rough separation right now, and they remind me that London belongs to me, still." His answer was not only deeply personal, but also betrayed the structured-ness of these trips: even to him, the trips are never really just about presenting a static route.
Curated: A Blogger's London
S is a lifestyle blogger and a college student. From her profile’s description, this experience fits Airbnb’s emphasis on “localness” very well. To S, the trip is about London as much as it is about revealing all the blogger spots that are usually kept as secrets. The map above reflects what S promised to do on her profile: “we’ll walk through both famous streets and secret ones you would normally see labeled simply as ‘London’ on Instagram by bloggers.”
From the map, you can tell that it was a confined and well thought out tour. It was curated. S didn’t just pick Notting Hill because it was the only place she knew —she chose it because she knew London well, she knew her audience well, and she knew the experience she wanted to deliver well. She knew how to walk the fine line of “touristy” and “local” while throwing some "authenticity" into the mix:
I love Belgravia, but I can’t take people there because all the streets look the same, like, you know, it’s all white. Yeah. Also, Notting Hill is like the movie it’s like half touristy half not, um and also because everything’s within walking distance. I only know Belgravia wouldn't work because I know Belgravia super well. It’s not the kind of tourist-friendly place at all. It’s sort of like a very private, residential place. It's local, but it's not enough.
They want a local’s perspective. So they don’t like touristy stuff. People are so fed up of like Trafalgar Square and things like that. They want something which only locals will know, and that’s like when I show them like local high streets and things that only you’ll know if you live in the area. They sort of like that. It’s something a standard tour won’t give them. Only Airbnb can do that.
The trip was not only curated in the sense that all the spots were thought out, but S also expected her audiences to experience Notting Hill in a very specific way.
While we were on the trip, S asked us multiple times at every spot, “Would you like me to take a photo of you?” “Was that ok? Do you want another one?” She was polite and helpful; though not pushy, she set the tone and the expectation of the trip with her questions. It was clear that we were expected to be the subject of photography.
This allowed us to take a glimpse into her life as a professional blogger while making it clear that we're not professional bloggers:
I prefer like photos when I’m in the photo because it’s not so empty that way. Like anyone can take the same photo millions of times and if you take it with, if you’re in the picture, that’s what makes it special . . . but posing gives me stress unless I'm prepared for it. Like you make sure your clothes look good, and your hair looks good, and everything looks good and don't look awkward and things like that. You want to remember this trip, and taking pictures of you will do that. But you don't have to worry about your hair and makeup.
While the trips were very well planned, the actual trips never go according to plans. During our trip, R, the other guest on the trip, and I ended up becoming quite close and started sharing some very personal stories. Instead of focusing on the area, which S planned on telling us its history and quirks about, we focused on each other’s stories instead. We also spent a lot of time taking photos of each other, which, during a later interview, proved to be something that S did not like:
For me an ideal trip is when people take photos but not like excessive photo taking. Like sometimes people spend so long taking photos of whatever. So the ideal tour is just like being able to show them all the places, tell them what I know. And they take nice photos on the way, and it will go smoothly.
What threatened the structure of the experience the most was when a lady came out of her house while we were taking photos at Simon Close (click on 3 on the map) and reprimanded us for trespassing into private property. This raised some interesting questions about ownership and what parts of London can effectively be "owned." Instead of feeling like she needs to change her route to address the issues of trespassing, she simply brushed it off: "She's just overreacting. Bloggers come here all the time." Though my host and the other guest may not be aware of Myers, we collectively experienced that though “each route is pre-determined, [they are] also undone by the particularities of ‘just this body in just this place’ at just this time” (2010:67). As S said, sometimes, she’ll change her route just to make sure she doesn’t go over time too much. In our instance, she was kind enough to share lunch with us. The contingencies can never be predicted.
Unpredictable: Streets of London
When I got to The Photographer's Gallery on a Saturday morning, L was already sitting there with her camera and iPad out on the table. L is a London-born self-taught photographer. The first hour of our experience consisted mostly of L sharing some of her street photography tips:
I don't look at the subjects. People say that eye contacts make connections. So people think, she's not connected to me anyway so she's not gonna get my shot. I can get very very close when they haven't got a clue, but if I look at them first, they'll think it's obvious.
The trip, according to L's profile, is supposed to be structured and organized into three parts. The first part is an "informal, introductory drinks" where L offers from "useful, creative inspiration and techniques for getting the best street photography." The second part L would “guide [her guests] on a photo walk around [her] favorite locations between Soho & Chinatown and help [us] take less ‘touristy’ photos.” And the last part, L would debrief us and help us review our photos.
Unlike the previous trips, L embraced contingency. Her trip also echoed Lee and Ingold’s idea of shared experience, where the participants “head[ed] the same way [and] shar[ed] the same vistas” (2006: 67).
Starting with the contingency, L repeatedly clarified that she couldn’t guarantee what people will see and capture on the streets, as “details and quirk,” “characters” and “special moments or street stories” are not predictable.
Sometimes I can be in the streets for two hours and nothing happens. Sometimes I can get a dozen of photos five minutes in. You just can’t know. But that's what's exciting. And sometimes I'll stay in the same spot for 30 minutes waiting for the perfect shot.
I used a tracking app on my phone as the map for this experience because it captures the sort of adaptability to contingency that characterized this trip. Unlike the other two walks, where the routes were pre-determined, L had an area in mind, but we had to follow where the people led us. Sometimes, L used her experience to guide us heuristically, prompting, “let’s go this way…there are usually more interesting things there.” We explored and changed course based on the sounds that we heard, the sights that we saw, and the scents that we smelled. Of course, we also went into a few shops, pretending we were going to buy things, just to give our freezing hands some time to recover. Here's a recording from the first 20 minutes of walking we did:
Overall, the experience felt exactly like what Lee and Ingold described:
A place walked through is made by the shifting interaction of person and environment, in which the movement of the whole body is important rather than just an act of vision outwards from a fixed point. In walking we are on the move, seeing and feeling a route ahead of us and creating a path around and after us. We often explore a new place most fruitfully by walking through and around it (2006: 68)
Perhaps what was different was that our experience involved the whole body, but it was still guided by our eyes. What we struggled with the most was to become one with our cameras, and through the lens of our cameras, capture the scene we wanted to capture. Besides that, we really walked by each other, where L prompted us through the streets instead of guided or led us. This picture demonstrates the experience well:
L and her guests became co-creators of London. We sometimes fought over the same subjects, same angle, or same techniques. But most of the time, we'd shoot the same event in two different ways, which, perhaps meant they were really two separate events anyway.
