Doctoral thesis explored trams as subjects and platform for art

Did you know there is a term for a preference for rail-based transport such as trains and trams? Scholars call it a 'rail- or tram factor' and it makes people decide whether to take a tram or bus. It seems that sometimes people choose trams due to the certain appeal that outweighs the objective criteria of time, speed and cost. In my thesis, I looked at the power of a tram factor to understand what makes trams so appealing
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This appeal has been formed over a long history of trams as one of the first means of urban public transport. During this time, trams have undergone technological transformations and shifts in peoples’ perceptions. A mix of awe and terror towards the first electric trams at the turn of the 20th century changed to disgust and boredom at the mid-century, leading to the mass closure of tramlines worldwide. However, soon after the benefits of trams as ecologically-neutral urban transport became more and more evident which led to a so-called ‘Tram Renaissance’. Today, trams continue their services in many cities in Europe and beyond.

To study these changes or oddities of trams, I connected the history of trams with the history of art and used estrangement as an analytical lens. Estrangement is about seeing the habitual as novel and strange. Therefore, estranging trams is to look at them not as a mundane means of public transport but as a subject and platform for art. I analysed the portrayal of trams in 20th-century visual art (Trams in Art) and public art placed in tram environments (Art in Trams). Defining key tram metaphors, for instance, trams as moving houses or large animals, carriers to the world of dreams and memories, etc., this analysis also establishes a tradition of Tram Art or how and why artists use trams in their practice. 

If exploring Tram Art helped me to understand a tram appeal throughout time, for studying atmospheres of particular tram journeys I employed my artistic methods of on-site sketching and site-specific performances. Here, I used estrangement not as an analytical but as a methodological tool. On-site sketching helps to notice the unusual and strange in the everyday and site-specific performances can change the mundane by creating moments of wonder and strangeness. This helped me to study atmospheres situationally – at tram stops and onboard trams in Tallinn. Additionally, I used artistic means of walking and participatory art to explore the atmospheres of what I called ‘phantom trams’ – the unbuilt Laagna tramline and the closed tram network in Turku, Finland. 

Resulted both in academic publications and artworks, my research is driven by my artistic practice in a dialogue with studies on transport, mobility and atmospheres. It contributes to the development of artistic methods in these fields and can be seen as an example of artistic research. The combination of academic and artistic approaches helped me to define the atmospheres of trams as a composition of their history, technology, and aesthetics enmeshed with metaphors, associations, experiences and practices. This allows us to better understand ‘a tram factor’ and why trams are sometimes perceived as better than other means of urban transport. 

Tallinn University School of Humanities doctoral student in a joint degree with Åbo Akademi University, Finland Aleksandra Ianchenko defends her thesis ‘Estranging Tram: Atmospheres of Trams in Art’ on 12 November. The thesis supervisors are Tauri Tuvikene, Professor at Tallinn University and Jason Finch, Professor at Åbo Akademi University. The opponents are Annette Arlander, Visiting Researcher at University of the Arts Helsinki and Peter Adey, PhD, Professor at University of London. Aleksandra’s thesis is embedded in ‘Public Transport as Public Space in European Cities: Narrating, Experiencing, Contesting’ (PUTSPACE) project funded by the HERA Joint Research Programme (co-funded by AKA, BMBF via DLR-PT, ETAg, and the European Commission through Horizon 2020).