I am a big fan of Sophie Calle, so I would like the rest of the calendar. Suite Venitienne is a project I tried to emulate from a different point of view in a photo project a couple of years ago. That aside, I enjoy your blog a lot, and here's an opportunity to say it.
Thanks so much, Crina. She is such a compelling figure. Would love to see your version of Suite Venitienne.
Also, happy to share the rest of the timeline if you can send (private message?) your most important year and why it is important. (This is my attempt a Calle-style game!)
also, Lauren Elkin's book - Flaneuse, is a beautiful exercise in the subject, with cultural history, biography, literary criticism, urban topography and memoir elements.
Thank you for this. The concept of the flâneur feels exceptionally powerful to me—especially when transposed to the political field. It captures the posture of an individual who stands not necessarily above, but more aside from the spectacle and the drama. Their libidinal energy isn’t spent cheering for one side or the other; it’s invested in observing how the larger machine manifests itself in the local spectacle, in tracing the marionette strings behind the stage.
To me, the political flâneur potentially embodies a kind of Nietzschean—or perhaps Deleuzian—active nihilism. It’s that first, necessary “no” to the ready-made dramas we’re handed, the refusal to play the reactive game. And that refusal isn’t an endpoint; it’s the first step toward something else: a clearing, a space where a genuine transvaluation of values might eventually become possible.
Thanks again—this obviously really got me thinking!
NIce post. Flâneur-ship is hardly tall-poppy material. Rather, it is a sport exercised by all those who hang around the outside of pubs beer firmly in hand, observing the world walk by in a state of slight fog. I think you are safe.
My understanding is that sitting in a café and watching the world walk by is absolutely going to qualify you as a flâneur, but I stand to be corrected.
Balzac refers to the: “gastronomy of the eye”. When I used the word in the title of an exhibition, years ago, I found that it was a 19th C reinterpretation of a verb which originally meant ‘wandering with no destination in mind’. It did not have anything to do with seeing or watching until then. The Haussmannian boulevards of Paris demanded a new interpretation. Beaudalaire also referred to it as the “botany of the sidewalk”. Besides, Flâneur sounds so much better than voyeur. But if I am wrong, let me be wrong. I am fine with that.
Brilliant take on the tension between living a thing and being labeled as it. That bit about being saved by obscurity really captures something, labels only become burdensome once they're public. I had a similar moment when somone called me a "systems thinker" and suddenly every casual observation felt performative. The Locke exampl is perfect too.
I am a big fan of Sophie Calle, so I would like the rest of the calendar. Suite Venitienne is a project I tried to emulate from a different point of view in a photo project a couple of years ago. That aside, I enjoy your blog a lot, and here's an opportunity to say it.
Thanks so much, Crina. She is such a compelling figure. Would love to see your version of Suite Venitienne.
Also, happy to share the rest of the timeline if you can send (private message?) your most important year and why it is important. (This is my attempt a Calle-style game!)
Have you read Benjamin's Arcades? Fantastic exploration of Flaneurism. Would love to hear your thoughts on it. Great post!
Thanks Bram! I have dipped in and out of it. So rich! (But also sometimes a slog).
Mike from Revol is a very big fan, the publisher was very nearly called Arcades!
also, Lauren Elkin's book - Flaneuse, is a beautiful exercise in the subject, with cultural history, biography, literary criticism, urban topography and memoir elements.
This has been on my to-read this for a while. Very curious about how and why walking has been gendered.
Thank you for this. The concept of the flâneur feels exceptionally powerful to me—especially when transposed to the political field. It captures the posture of an individual who stands not necessarily above, but more aside from the spectacle and the drama. Their libidinal energy isn’t spent cheering for one side or the other; it’s invested in observing how the larger machine manifests itself in the local spectacle, in tracing the marionette strings behind the stage.
To me, the political flâneur potentially embodies a kind of Nietzschean—or perhaps Deleuzian—active nihilism. It’s that first, necessary “no” to the ready-made dramas we’re handed, the refusal to play the reactive game. And that refusal isn’t an endpoint; it’s the first step toward something else: a clearing, a space where a genuine transvaluation of values might eventually become possible.
Thanks again—this obviously really got me thinking!
Thank you. Very happy to hear. Yes, this approach certainly applies to politics. I think Ballard is a good example in literature:
https://crop.photography/p/how-very-ballardian
NIce post. Flâneur-ship is hardly tall-poppy material. Rather, it is a sport exercised by all those who hang around the outside of pubs beer firmly in hand, observing the world walk by in a state of slight fog. I think you are safe.
Thanks but isn’t walking an essential part? The pub crâwler?
My understanding is that sitting in a café and watching the world walk by is absolutely going to qualify you as a flâneur, but I stand to be corrected.
No, I think walking is an essential part.
Merlin Coverley has a chapter in his psychogeography books https://bpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/portfolio.newschool.edu/dist/d/2630/files/2014/09/Merlin-Coverley-Psychogeography-The-Flaneur-1zziocc.pdf
As you wish.
Ha, I am curious if you have a reference with other definitions, but I do favour semantic clarity if at all possible.
Balzac refers to the: “gastronomy of the eye”. When I used the word in the title of an exhibition, years ago, I found that it was a 19th C reinterpretation of a verb which originally meant ‘wandering with no destination in mind’. It did not have anything to do with seeing or watching until then. The Haussmannian boulevards of Paris demanded a new interpretation. Beaudalaire also referred to it as the “botany of the sidewalk”. Besides, Flâneur sounds so much better than voyeur. But if I am wrong, let me be wrong. I am fine with that.
Brilliant take on the tension between living a thing and being labeled as it. That bit about being saved by obscurity really captures something, labels only become burdensome once they're public. I had a similar moment when somone called me a "systems thinker" and suddenly every casual observation felt performative. The Locke exampl is perfect too.