Following odd performances lately and being interested by issues related to mobility and new spatial practices, I've noted these intriguing anecdotes in Switzerland. First, the Bigger pineapple is a mobile collective who aims at "interrogating new means of transport" (apart from doing this). Their first achievement was to walk from Lausanne to Geneva (around 60 kilometers). Mostly young students, they started at 7:15 in the morning and arrived at 00:40. The purpose was to show the "real distance" between these two cities which seems close at first glance (they are if you take the train it's only 30'). Other swiss peeps also started a similar trip by travelling from Neuchatel to Marseille (600km) using scooters (trottinettes)

The "Bigger Pineapple" are also interested in other transportation systems such as mobile bus stops, in this project. The issue they're interested in is the one of personal mobility: are public transport adapted to our needs? what about creating a personal bus stop? They then built fake bus stop signs that they held in front of buses in Geneva to see if the bus would stop. As reported in the press only one agreed. Their next project want to deal with air flights.

It reminds me another interesting initiative, a bit outdated. Back in 2004, while we were starting the CatchBob location-based gamed project, Fabien and I were contacted by a guy who organize a bike trip in Lausanne called "Balade des chiens écrasés" (crused dogs trip). "Chiens écrasés" refers to newspaper sections where events such as murders or weird urban anecdotes happened. The point of this sort of trip is to revisit these places by biking around the city... with the idea of re-discover the city with a different viewpoint.

Why do I blog this? all these anecdotes IMO form a coherent set of weak signals from the near future which shows edge-but-meaningful urban practices. They question and raise important concerns, especially about mobility, culture and our relationship to space.