Exercises in
getting lost and flanerie
Exercise 1
Take a photocopy of a map of the city you
decide to play in. For London make sure
you get an A to Z and photocopy one or 2 pages.
Close your eyes and turn the paper in any
direction you feel and count to a number of your choice.
Once you have stopped turning place a
biscuit cutter on top of the map and trace it’s outline. Alternatively grab any object from your bag
or room and trace this.
Now you have your route. Walk the parameters of your object following
its outline as closely as you can.
On your walk look up, down, and walk slowly
so you can really See the city.
Once you have walked you shape in one
direction, reverse the exercise and walk the other way…not what changes.
Exercise 2
Get a street map of Venice or Stockholm (
or any big city your are Not visiting).
Pick a place from which you wish to start
your journey and an end destination.
Mark your route on the map in red.
Once you have finished get on the first bus
at the first bus stop you encounter. Get
off after 4 stops.
This is your departure point.
Walk the route marked out on your map
"Flâneur" is a word understood intuitively by the French to mean "stroller, idler, walker." He has been portrayed in the past as a well-dressed man, an intellectual, strolling leisurely through the Parisian arcades of he nineteenth century--a shopper with no intention to buy, an intellectual.
While Baudelaire characterised the flaneur as a "gentleman stroller of city streets", he saw the flaneur as having a key role in understanding, participating in and portraying the city.
Paul Gavarni, Le Flaneur, 1842
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nttHW0E7EtQ
I found very interesting this video which portrayed a Flaneur.
Situationist were based in France. Their ideas come from the Situationist International, formed in 1957.
They called attention to the priority of, real live activity, which continually experiments and corrects itself, which is the completely opposite to Static ideologies as the Trosksykism, Leninism, Maoism, or even Anarchism. Situationist ideas are notoriously difficult to explain, and open to a wide degree of interpretation.
The central idea is that workers are systematically exploited in capitalism and that they should organise and take control of the means of production and organise society on the basis of democratic worker's council.
The Situationist, were the first revolutionary group to analyse capitalism in its current consumerist form.
They argued that increased material wealth of workers was not enough to stop class struggle and ensure capitalism’s perpetual existence.
The key figure of this Organisation was Guy Debord who committed suicide in 1994 but Situationist ideas live on, having been made a fundamental part of most anarchist theory today.
Phychogeography - Mapping the city
The city is moving constantly everybody is in a rush so keep moving to do not disturb.
Quote: All space is occupied by the enemy.
"Flâneur" is a word understood intuitively by the French to mean "stroller, idler, walker." He has been portrayed in the past as a well-dressed man, an intellectual, strolling leisurely through the Parisian arcades of he nineteenth century--a shopper with no intention to buy, an intellectual.
While Baudelaire characterised the flaneur as a "gentleman stroller of city streets", he saw the flaneur as having a key role in understanding, participating in and portraying the city.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nttHW0E7EtQ
I found very interesting this video which portrayed a Flaneur.
Situationist were based in France. Their ideas come from the Situationist International, formed in 1957.
They called attention to the priority of, real live activity, which continually experiments and corrects itself, which is the completely opposite to Static ideologies as the Trosksykism, Leninism, Maoism, or even Anarchism. Situationist ideas are notoriously difficult to explain, and open to a wide degree of interpretation.
The central idea is that workers are systematically exploited in capitalism and that they should organise and take control of the means of production and organise society on the basis of democratic worker's council.
The Situationist, were the first revolutionary group to analyse capitalism in its current consumerist form.
They argued that increased material wealth of workers was not enough to stop class struggle and ensure capitalism’s perpetual existence.
The key figure of this Organisation was Guy Debord who committed suicide in 1994 but Situationist ideas live on, having been made a fundamental part of most anarchist theory today.
Phychogeography - Mapping the city
- Space! What space means nowadays?
- What did space means looking back on time?
- Think about city differently
- Globalisation - Makes the cities looks similar.
The city is moving constantly everybody is in a rush so keep moving to do not disturb.
- Do not stand still
- Do not seat
- Move
- Follow the crowd
Quote: All space is occupied by the enemy.
We are living under a permanent curfew.
Not just the cops the geometry.
Maps shows the touristic or "most important places" you should go and visit if you want to know the city as you should know but not the ones that are politically incorrect to visit.
Maps shows the touristic or "most important places" you should go and visit if you want to know the city as you should know but not the ones that are politically incorrect to visit.
- Must see!
- Not to go!
What is the reason behind it?
Who decided they are not interesting to visit?
Is there a reason of protecting people from going there?
This just gives as a very little freedom to choose.
If cities doesn't belong to people whose that belong to?
How cities impact in our behaviour?- CCTV!
Think about the riots in London people did what they weren't aloud to do! Rebellion!
Exercise of abandoning maps and following the instinct. Go where I want to go. Don't be conditioned to avoid places. Make a map in my brain the one that interest me, and follow it.
The geography of the city changes everyday.
Sometimes we walked looking at the goggle map on a device without realise what is around just following an imaginary, invisible way. Taking away our instinct and the ability to find new places.
Whoever decide what places are good or bad for population they destroy them. A good example is the Olympic games in China where the government even destroyed peoples houses to built up the Olympic stadium, and so on...
I will do different ways of experience the city
- Walk
- Bicycle
- Getting lost
- Time speed up
- Things speed up
Everyday is an schedule to follow and time is the more important thing in our society. If you have spare time go and do something productive or the work for tomorrow but don't you dare to sit in a bench thinking on your things or just dreaming because if you don't look busy you will probably look strange.
Architecture / Shapes make the people behaved differently.
A small sample of this, is people who knows each other or not interacting in an open space as a park....
- Uniformity – Everything is becoming the same.
Time gets regulated. Everybody should live the same
experience towards time.
The influence of the Capitalism in the cities, and the time
regulation is a fact.
Gluttony of images, objects, lights, colours. How
supermarkets, department stores, etc… are planned for us to spend constantly
and sometimes subconsciously. Consume!
Our attitude has to change towards some aspects of our
society. We should be more subversives but even the adjective “subversive” it
sounds negative because it goes against the standards.
The Psychogeographical treasure hunt exercise
5 Statues
An angel An exotic bird
A Greek key border
The Psychogeographical treasure hunt exercise
5 Statues
A Greek key border
A modern day Flaneur
A
An Ode to love
No comments:
Post a Comment