The underground passenger: exploring the experience of modernity through the underground railway (Buenos Aires, 1913-1944)

DHAN ZUNINO SINGH

Berlin

Otro; T2M Summer school; 2011

T2M

My presentation focuses on tensions that express modernity as an urban experience through the analysis of the passenger?s experience in the Buenos Aires? Underground (Subte), during the period of the so-called metropolization (1880-1940) in which the underground railway was considered the best transport solution, resolving urban congestion and reducing journey time between the centre and the suburbs. With this innovation in public transport, comfort, speed, safety, and time saving became signs of progress and synonymous to "the modern". However, the travel experience triggered ambivalent impressions. What for transport companies was considered the ideal underground passenger -represented through the figure of the employee-, from a sceptical and critical viewpoint that passenger was seen as an automaton. The underground commuting was perceived as dehumanising, a symptom of a modern life ruled by punctuality. These impressions were opposed by extraordinary experiences like the opening days in which passengers became fascinated with technologies and new experiences of travel. This playful public, however, did not match the figure of the idealised passenger. Finally, as far as the underground railway became part of Buenos Aires? daily life, it lost its "aura" of immaculate transport: congestion, delay, and discomfort were experiences that the underground passenger started to go through. During the presentation I will give an account of these tensions through spatial stories based on diverse sources -i.e. the press, engineering journals, literature, cartoons, publicity, brochures, pamphlets, public records, underground projects, and a large photographical corpus.