OUGD501 // Study Task 4 // Triangulation

I have chosen to use the triangulation task to describe the Cities and Films Lecture.

A number of authors have considered how the modern city can be an extension of an individual and how this relates to the city crowd. Susan Sontag, Walter Benjamin and Charles Baudelaire have all commented upon the fact that the body can be used in various ways to be a flaneur within the city.

The term flâneur comes from the French masculine noun flâneur—which has the basic meanings of "stroller", "lounger", "saunterer", "loafer"—which itself comes from the French verb flâner, which means "to stroll". A flaneur is someone who makes observations, not just experiencing the city as a worker who is part of the machinery but instead being removed from the crowd and observing and commenting on the city.

Benjamin, W adopts the concept of the urban observer as an analytical device and as a lifestyle seen in his writings (Arcades Project, 1927–40) this is shown as a memoir with an analytical angle.

On the other hand Charles Baudelaire proposes a version of the flaneur that of  "a person who walks the city in order to experience it" this is seen in 19th century art and shown that a person can be simultaneously apart from and a part of the crowd; rather than being part of the machine can be part of the crowd and take in the scenery.

Finally Susan Sontag uses photography to record the experience of the city through the crowds and people in the surroundings, this is using the body as the experience.

"The photographer is an armed version of the solitary walker reconnoitering, stalking, cruising the urban inferno, the voyeuristic stroller who discovers the city as a landscape of voluptuous extremes. Adept of the joys of watching, connoisseur of empathy, the flâneur finds the world 'picturesque." (pg. 55)

The photographer is a type of flaneur, experiences the city by recording with a camera. The photographer is separate from the crowd. Stealing images from an environment. moments to identify with individuals in the crowd. Beautiful moment in the environment - people, architecture.

These three authors show that the body can be seen as an extension to the city. Through being an flaneur you can experience the city in a different way and see new things within the same environment you have been living in. Interacting with the cityscape using the body to experience the city will change the way that you view the city. Many other ideas and ideologies have been put into place about the modern city and the flaneur, but this is the basic understanding of it.