Olematud trammiteed linnamaastikus: atmosfäärialased kunstiprojektid Turus ja Tallinnas
Imaginary tramlines in urban landscape: Atmosphere-related art projects in Turku and Tallinn

Summary/Abstract: The article brings together public transport, art, landscape, and atmosphere. The article aims to demonstrate landscape thinking, a way to attend to the multi-faceted nature of landscape, using two artistic interventions in the urban landscape as case studies: Invisible Tramline in Tallinn and Tram Chalk Walk in Turku, created by one of the co-authors of the paper (researcher and artist Aleksandra Ianchenko). Here, we look at atmosphere as a concept that can be used to bring the material and the sensory aspects of landscape together. In both artworks, atmosphere emerged in the metaphorical (re)creation of infrastructure through material interventions: in one case, the tram was made to appear as tracks skied in the snow, in the other as chalk lines. Lasnamäe tram is a case of planned but unfinished tramline whereas Turku had an active tram service for almost a century before it was discontinued in 1972. Yet, as in the case of Lasnamäe, sentiments echoing a desire to have the tram in active function are present. These artworks resonated with these sentiments although they did not have a desire to make a political statement. Instead, they artfully played with the ephemeral nature of landscape by generating atmospheres of tramlines. The article shows how atmosphere can emerge in the interaction between material aspects and being present in this environment, more specifically in the activities that metaphorically animate infrastructures in the landscape. Although the tram itself was not present in either intervention, the holistic landscape experience brought present an idea of the tram created by the interventions.

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