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")
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Tag Archives: video
No Rest for the Righteous: Even Osama Had Porn
I used to joke that the way to defeat the Mullahs was subverting them with American trash culture. Give them a taste of Brittany Spears, MTV, and spandex and you know who would win the Clash of Civilizations! The revelation last week that a secret stash of pornography was found in Osama bin Laden’s compound seems to substantiate the joke, although its spot-on irony makes you wonder if the CIA has hired some hip new script writers. Continue reading
And the Winner Is – The Dictator’s Speech!
Forget dancing with the stars. Now you can rub elbows with the autocrats at the Academy Awards, via Zapiro’s latest political cartoon. The irreverent South African satirist appears on Al Jazeera’s Listening Post, which features his latest seditious venture – ZA News. I was pointed to this panel by AJE’s Libya live blog. Continue reading
Al Jazeera Listening Post: Shining a Light into a Media Black Hole in Libya
Via Al Jazeera English: From the media black hole that was Libya, shocking videos illustrate the revolt. Also, South Africa’s best known political cartoonist: Jonathan Shapiro. Continue reading
Al Jazeera: The Media Battle for Egypt
via AlJazeeraEnglish: “Despite the best efforts of Hosni Mubarak’s government, images of millions of Egyptians protesting on the streets of Cairo, Alexandra and Suez have been beamed around the world. But while the clashes between anti- and pro-Mubarak protestors dominated the airwaves, the journalists covering the fighting became targets themselves. Many were harassed, arrested and beaten while others had their equipment confiscated, but they continued to cover the story. The government pulled the plug on the country’s internet connection, cut the phone lines for a time, poured propaganda out on state-controlled media but the momentum of the demonstrators was unstoppable. We trail the coverage of one of the biggest political protests in Arab history, one that came together online, dominated the headlines and sent tremors all the way from Sanaa to Washington. Continue reading
Al Jazeera: Anti-Government Protests in Egypt
I followed a tweet this morning to Al Jazeera English. As its live stream loaded on my computer, I heard the roar of Egyptian military jets intimidating the crowds of protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. On my radio, in the background, was NPR News. I hadn’t heard anything about the jets from NPR. That’s when I knew that Al Jazeera English was the best source of news from Egypt. Continue reading
Xtranormal : “I Am Going To Be A College Professor”
Wait a minute! I thought I was going to write about Emerson… and death. This video is so funny and true it hurts. Thanks to NPR for pointing to it in today’s story about Xtranormal, the DIY animation tool that can unleash your inner Homer Simpson. Continue reading
“Dark Light: The Art of Blind Photographers”
Dark Light: The Art of Blind Photographers is a documentary short featuring Henry Butler, Pete Eckert and Bruce Hall. It was directed by Neil Leifer and produced by Corinne Marrinan and Neil Leifer. HBO broadcast the documentary last week, which may explain the uptick in web traffic to my essay, Curiosity and the Blind Photographer (presented at M.I.T. in 2007), which features this photo by Henry Butler. Continue reading
Lego: For Adults Only!
After laughing with this TED talk by Hillel Cooperman, I want to take back all the nasty things I said once upon a time while stepping barefoot on errant Lego pieces in the kids’ bedrooms. Continue reading
