Encounterism : Finding Joy and Wonder in Real Life

A joyous exploration into the everyday pleasures and benefits of encountering the world in-person

From streets to cars, parks to barbers, nightclubs to restaurants, these nine exuberant essays explore how we meet fellow humans, how we share space and what we gain from the physical presence and interactions of others. ''I have spent most of the last sixteen years creating unusual performances in everyday locations - in cafes and cinemas, on rooftops, in parks and out on the crowded streets of towns and cities. Doing so has meant spending a lot of time thinking carefully about these everyday spaces and the kinds of encounters we have in them. Encounterism draws from this history of messing around in everyday life to tell stories about a range of ordinary human encounters. The kind of interactions - with hairdressers, nightclubbers or strangers we pass on the street - that would normally disappear unnoticed into the great ocean of activity occurring around them. Our lives are littered with these little interactions, occupying a grey space between ritual and routine. Ways of meeting we have grown accustomed to, perhaps even taken for granted. This book is a story told in nine essays about some of those encounters. Some are with strangers, others with friends and acquaintances. Some happen out in the world and others in places like cinemas or even on the phone. Although the idea for this book predates the coronavirus pandemic, much of the writing of it took place in the caesura it created. As the world has opened back up I have found myself approaching it with a renewed enthusiasm, ready to be newly dazzled by the wondrous complexity of our interactions with each other.''