M ă d ă lina Diaconu

1. Urban drifting as a work methode of the creative class MădălinaDiaconu ESA Conference 2010 Udine

2. Mădălina Diaconu – Urban drifting “Les fleuves m’ont laissé descendre où je voulais.” (Rimbaud) “Allez-vous faire influencer.” (Gil J Wolman) ESA Conference 2010 Udine

3. Mădălina Diaconu – Urban drifting What is drifting? • Dérive(Debord): • drain off water (12thcentury) • leave the shore (rive) (14thcentury) • (nautic) to drift (16thcentury) • Drifting as: • physical locomotion (strolling) • work method of the creative class • way of life • Paradoxical project of steering casualness ESA Conference 2010 Udine

4. Mădălina Diaconu – Urban drifting The flâneur: empathy at distance (Walter Benjamin) Conversionofhistoricknowledgeinto emotional knowledge Emotional intensityand reflexive distance Ivresse (Baudelaire, Benjamin) & Blasiertheit (Simmel) Otiumandnegotium: theflâneur‘sproductive „idleness“; trendscouterandagent on themarketofideas. ESA Conference 2010 Udine

5. Mădălina Diaconu – Urban drifting The social reporter: hostage of impressions (Siegfried Kracauer) Primacy of emotions → loss of self-control → no methodical drifting I wanted to cross speedily the short distance which was separating me from the thoroughfare. But it suddenly happened: No sooner had I detached myself from the white, exaggerated high theatre wall than I felt it hard to go further, as if invisible nets would have held me back. The street where I was did not let me free. Ethical flâneur: city of poverty, violence, indifference ESA Conference 2010 Udine

6. Mădălina Diaconu – Urban drifting Constructing situations (Situationism) Guy Debord, Gil J Wolman, Isidore Isou, AsgerJorn etc. New meansofaction – programmeofsocialchange Reaction to the crisis of modern culture, functionalism and consumerism Creation of playful environments Techniques of conditioning moods Dérive: „a technique of rapid passage through varied ambiances“, „the practice of a passional journey out of the ordinary through a rapid changing of ambiances” ESA Conference 2010 Udine

7. Mădălina Diaconu – Urban drifting ESA Conference 2010 Udine

8. Mădălina Diaconu – Urban drifting Constructing situations (Situationism) Alternative to Kevin Lynch’s “image of the city” (legibility, orientation, identification) Object of psychogeography: „[…] exactlawsandspecificeffectsofgeographicalenvironments, whetherconsciouslyorganizedor not, on theemotionsandbehaviorofindividuals“ Ephemeralsituations: passages ESA Conference 2010 Udine

9. Mădălina Diaconu – Urban drifting The stroller’s freedom Contemporary commodification of feelings (Post)modern aestheticism and the flâneur‘s ethics Social and economic conditions of the flânerie The fitness of the consumer‘s body (Bauman) ESA Conference 2010 Udine

10. Mădălina Diaconu – Urban drifting Hobo and urban research (Robert E. Park) • The urban sociologist as • a „tramper through cities“ • The Hobo‘s Mind (1915): • existential homelessness • artistic temperament: hobo poets • „[…] for the hobo is the bohemian in the rank of common labor.“ ESA Conference 2010 Udine

11. Mădălina Diaconu – Urban drifting The Tramp’s improvisations (Charlie Chaplin) From existential drifting to creative improvisation as a way of life Parody of the flâneur and dandy Social mimicry Passion for individual freedom vs. solidarity Drifting as narrative technique The situationists‘ critique: „swindler of feelings and suffering“ The Circus (1928) ESA Conference 2010 Udine

12. Mădălina Diaconu – Urban drifting Univ.-Doz. DDr. Mădălina DiaconuInstitut für Philosophie der Universität Wienmadalina.diaconu@univie.ac.at http://homepage.univie.ac.at/madalina.diaconu ESA Conference 2010 Udine