About the Flaneur
![Gustave Caillebotte. Paris Street, Rainy Day (La Place de l’Europe, temps de pluie). 1877. Oil on canvas. Art Institute of Chicago. [Source: Wikimedia Commons]](http://blindflaneur.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/gustave_caillebotte_paris_street_rainy_day_1877_wiki.jpg "gustave_caillebotte_paris_street_rainy_day")
I walk through my blindness the way I wander down streets in Paris: unfettered and alive, alert to the raw material of the senses. I am a flaneur. Come along with me. Just don’t try to take my arm, unless I ask. What’s a flaneur? Read the first post, Return of the Flaneur to Galerie Vivienne. After that, try Foot Rage and the Blind Flaneur. Then stay tuned.Kiki: Man Ray’s Dada Muse
The legendary Kiki of Montparnasse posed for Man Ray’s Le violin de Ingres (1924). See more from Imaging Paris.Lee Miller: Surrealist Muse
Lee Miller traced a meteoric trajectory from flapper fashionista to surrealist muse. She played the Statue in Jean Cocteau's first movie. Picasso painted her portrait. She apprenticed with Man Ray and later became a noted war photographer for British Vogue. Read more.Miss Tic: Paris Street Art
Poet and street artist Miss Tic isn't exactly a kid in a hoodie with a can of spray paint. Maybe she can still run like hell when the police show up, but can she sprint in high heels? Well-known in international avant-garde circles, her work is exhibited now at the Venice Biennale as well as the alleys of Paris. Read more. See Ethics of Love for a video montage of Miss Tic's provacative poetry. More Paris Street Art.
The Lake and the River
![Fog at Isle Royale [Source: wildmengoneborneo.com]](http://blindflaneur.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/isle_royale_fog.jpg "Fog at Isle Royale [Source: wildmengoneborneo.com]")
I’ve canoed on Lake Superior for almost as many years as I’ve been losing eyesight. I return year after year like a migrating loon to learn the other side of a slow, uncertain process that we could call “going blind.” After 35 years with the lake as my teacher, I know what lies on the other side. I call it letting go of sight. Read Big Water. See more about the Great Lakes.
What is a village? A small place, yes, as wide as the world, layered with histories and stories, where you can walk wherever you want to go. My vision of that place is Yellow Springs 2.0.
Not This Pig
If there is an emerging genetic underclass, I could run for class president or class clown. Read more in Not This Pig (2003).Re-Imagining Accessibility
![Shepard Fairey’s “Barack Obama/Hope” image went viral during the 2008 election. Then controversy about the image’s source transformed it into the poster child for fair use in the public debate over copyright and free culture. Now FULAB takes “Hope” as its icon [Image source: Wikipedia]](http://fairuselab.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/shepard_fairey_hope_2008.jpg "shepard_fairey_hope_2008")
Re-imagining accessibility through the transformations of culture -- particularly the transformative promise of accessible technology for people with disabilities -- is the work of the Fair Use Lab. What does Shepard Fairey’s Hope poster have to do with accessibility? Read more: Shape-Shifters in the Fair Use Lab [MiT6 2009]Blind Photographers
In the moment when Paul Strand photographed her surreptitiously on the street in New York, the social engineers who created a system for licensing beggars never imagined that a blind woman had culture or could make culture. She herself may not have imagined it. Paul Strand probably didn’t give her much credit for making culture, either. Read more: Curiosity & The Blind Photographer [MiT5 2007] See more on blind photographers.BottomFeeder U.S.A.
![Grant Wood. Parson Weem’s’ Fable. 1939. Amon Carter Museum, Forth Worth.. Steven Biel describes the painting: “Parson Weems, imitating Charles Willson Peale’s pose in The Artist in His Museum (1822), opens a red velvet curtain on the legendary scene: Augustine Washington, elegant in crimson coat, white ruffle, tan breeches, silver-buckled pumps, and green tricornered hat, grasps in his right hand the slim trunk of the bent cherry tree. A row of cherries dangles from the perfectly rounded treetop, mirroring the very cherry-like fringe of the Parson’s curtain. Augustine’s outstretched left palm and furrowed brow signal a serious inquiry. His son George, boyish in stature and dress—coatless, with sky-blue breeches and petite buckled pumps—is manly in his expression. In fact, his white-wigged head is that of Gilbert Stuart’s portrait and the dollar bill. He points with his right hand to the hatchet in his left. Wood chips lie in the circle of soil at the base of the tree, its lower trunk smoothly incised and poised to split off. In the background, a well-dressed slave couple harvests the fruit of a second tree.” [Alt Text Source: Common-Place/ http://www.common-place.org/vol-06/no-04/biel/ ]](http://www.bottomfeederusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/grant_wood_parson_weems_fable_200px.jpg "grant_wood_parson_weems_fable_200px")
BottomFeeder U.S.A.
Tag Archives: attention
Attention Economy – September 12, 2011
Visitors at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum can touch the names of those who perished in the attacks. The names are cast in bronze parapets ringing the reflection pools that now fill the footprints of the Twin Towers. … Continue reading
Attention Economy – September 9, 2011
Poet Imtiaz Dharker Poetry Writing: Elements of Poetry [referring link to a blind flaneur: Imtiaz Dharker’s Blessing: “Voice Of A Kindly God”] “First, listen to Imtiaz Dharker herself read Blessing. She reads two poems in this video. You may choose … Continue reading
Attention Economy – September 2, 2011
Hugh Herr – ‘The Double-Amputee Who Designs Better Limbs’ : NPR 081711 Nearly 30 years ago, Hugh Herr lost both of his legs in a climbing accident at age 17. Today, he runs the Biomechatronics group at the MIT Media … Continue reading
Attention Economy – August 29, 2011
7 (More) Children’s Books by Famous “Adult” Literature Authors | Brain Pickings 072511 Maria Popova: “Prolific poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist Langston Hughes is considered one of the fathers of jazz poetry, a literary art form that emerged … Continue reading
Attention Economy – August 26, 2011
Google celebrated Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges’ 112th birthday with a Doodle. [Source: CSMonitor.com] More here about Borges. Jorge Luis Borges: The man behind the Google Doodle – CSMonitor.com 082411 Jorge Luis Borges, an Argentine writer, poet, and philosopher, earned … Continue reading
Attention Economy – August 23, 2011
Remembering Nick Ashford and Jerry Leiber : NPR 082311 Melissa Block talks with soul singer Ben E. King about the passing of two legendary songwriters, Nick Ashford and Jerry Leiber, this week. Nick Ashford of Ashford and Simpson co-wrote some … Continue reading
Attention Economy – August 21, 2011
Bob Dylan is one of the artists featured in Tom Piazza’s collection of essays, “Devil Sent the Rain.” Piazza says Dylan’s way of pushing boundaries “is a very American thing.” [Source: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images/NPR] Dealing With Hard Times The … Continue reading
A Spedthrift Flaneur in the Attention Economy
delicious.com/willis.creative/blindfla links for the week ending today. Continue reading
A Spedthrift Flaneur in the Attention Economy
delicious.com/willis.creative/blindfla links for the week ending today. Radioactive monster Godzilla stomps through a city and eats a commuter train in a scene from Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, directed by Ishiro Honda and Terry O. Morse. The 1956 film was … Continue reading
A Spedthrift Flaneur in the Attention Economy
delicious.com/willis.creative/blindfla links for the week ending today. Continue reading
