Acts of kindness on the Underground

I've talked to many people about my ethnographic work on buses in Los Angeles - it's a favorite topic at dinner parties. People love to tell me about their experiences on transit, and most often the tales that they share are about crazy, unpleasant, or awful things that happened. Much of the stigma around transit revolves around these often single experiences that define transit spaces for many people. For many non-users, it's a secondhand story or a pop culture reference that shapes their negative perceptions of transit, transit riders, and the experience of travel on transit.

In a refreshing change of pace, Artist Michael Landy asked people to focus on their positive experiences on the London Underground by recalling and sharing stories where strangers stepped beyond the boundaries of social convention to help, comfort, and connect with the people around them: 

Michael Landy’s project Acts of Kindness is a celebration of compassion and generosity, inviting us to notice acts of kindness however simple and small. The artist explains, ‘Sometimes we tend to assume that you have to be superhuman to be kind, rather than just an ordinary person.’ So, to unsettle that idea, Acts of Kindness catches those little exchanges that are almost too fleeting and mundane to be noticed or remembered.

There are pages and pages of accounts and looking through them always makes me a little teary-eyed (just a little):

On a Tube ride home one evening, I noticed a young lady had started to cry. Two women who I at first thought knew her, turned out to be two complete strangers who kindly sat next to her and comforted her. Sadly, the young woman revealed she had just been told she may have a life threatening illness. The two strangers did a great job at calming her down and being there for her, and offered their numbers at the end of the Tube ride to arrange a drink together. What's more, from out of the blue a young lad pulled out a pack of tissues which he then gave to the lady to dry her eyes. These strangers made all the difference to her day, possibly her life, all with 15 minutes.

I really love everything about this project from the concept to the outcome. And, while it's technically a narrative art piece, I think the stories reflect the kind of data that offer unique insight into the passenger experience - a perspective that is of value in the realms of both theory and practice.

Transport for London's Art on the Underground program has and continues to support all kinds of great contemporary art projects.

(via Transport for London)