The Flâneur Collective

Walking in the city. Urban exploration. It’s that simple. I often find myself lost in schoolwork or ideas without a clear vision. The world has become so interconnected it is impossible to find a minute to slow things down and really take everything in. So, I walk. Sometimes it’s just a fifteen-minute stroll or it may be a three-hour exploration of a new place. Maybe I find myself inside a new coffee shop, admiring a work of art or listening to the sound of the birds.

The idea of the flâneur has been mystified and left in the Enlightenment, like so many other movements that seemed radical at the time, maybe more so now, but we so desperately need.

Since I began this project, I have had a lot of people ask what a flâneur really is. Or how to pronounce it. Why I chose such an odd name. Let me explain with a textbook definition. According to Merriam-Webster, it’s “an idle man-about-town”.

Of course, it is truly much more than this. The term was coined in 1800s France to describe the modern city man, who would investigate the streets like a Sherlock Holmes case, but without a goal or agenda. The only pursuit is that of knowledge and quenching curiosity.

Walter Benjamin, an acclaimed essayist of the 20^th century, commented on the flâneur that “Empathy with the commodity is fundamentally empathy with the exchange value itself.  The flâneur is the virtuoso of this empathy.” The flâneur is the idea of a person who strolls around a city and recognizes modernity merging with the past.

I chose to use this term for my new project for a very specific reason. Society often moves too fast. Anxiety and depression rates are at all-time peaks. With so much friction occurring in society, people often wander in their minds. Instead, I propose a change. One in which people find inspiration from their surroundings and reflect on the “montonous” way of life.

Something as simple as watching a squirrel go up a tree or seeing the lights of the cityscape at night can provide motivation to keep going. Art is derived often from finding the sublime in the trivial, the mundane tasks of daily life.

The flâneur can and should evolve to the 21^st century. Curiosity doesn’t need to be limited to groundbreaking news or to scrolling social media. Finding happiness in simplicity is often the solution to being overwhelmed by the grinding gears of modern life. Be curious. Enjoy and think about your surroundings next time you take a walk. Become a flâneur.