Collect Collections Collective

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Theory of Dérive

Walter Benjamin: The Arcades Project

Collector

Flâneur

John Soane: Soane Museum

Arthur Watson: Poetic Conceptualist

The Cartographers Dilemma



4

It was through this new way of looking that Debord sought to

develop a connection with the social growth and development

of the urban environment. Patrick Geddes approached the city

and its public in a very similar manner, promoting cooperative

relationship and active survey. This can be seen fully enacted

in Geddes’ Outlook Tower, not only a city observatory but a

city laboratory.

It can, therefore, be argued that through psychogeographical

participation, we gain the ability to obtain a new view of the

urban environment; gazing towards what we have come to

ignore throughout the banal tasks of our every day chores.

But what sense of value is gained by a position of ‘new view’?

Could its value be reduced to an inward focused nostalgia

of the city as it stands, or rather excitement about a newly

discovered view of city space. It is argued that through

participation in psychogeographical acts such as dérive, that

we are forced to reconstruct the urban environment, opening

it up to new potentials. Dave Mandl (photographer and avid

psycho geographer), illustrates the transforming action of

such activity in saying “it breaks you out of the machine.” If we

only knew how to look at the city, who knows what we might

nd? It is true to note that throughout psycho geographical

navigation, we may encounter a shift in desire, being drawn by

the unconsciousness of city space, its forgotten fragments, its

back stages and dead ends? The citizen as dérive participant

could be thought of as the long instated archivist, handed the

key to a hidden archive chamber under the very oors that they

are so accustomed to walking.

It is through this appropriation of urban space that the city will

reveal its unconscious fragments, usually hidden by ‘spectacle’

culture. In ‘Internationale Situationniste #2’ Debord makes

reference to Chombart de Lauwe (pioneer of urban sociology),

and his comments on the residents’ view or image of their

urban surroundings as having a signicant impact on an urban

neighbourhood. “An urban neighborhood is determined not

only by geographical and economic factors, but also by the

image that its inhabitants and those of other neighbourhoods have of it.”1 It, therefore, could be argued that through

dérive we may be able to reveal a more accurate image and

perception of the context that surrounds us. It is through the

practice of dérive that public space may be reappropriated

from the ‘spectacle’, restoring it to the realities of ‘its fullness, its riches, and its history.’ 2 The dérive endeavours to change

the signicance of the city through its revealing to us. Debord

emphasizes the ‘psychogeographical’ nature of dérive,

dening psychogeographical as “the study of the precise

laws and specic effects of the geographical environment,

consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behaviour of individuals.”3 It is also noteworthy that the 19th century

tradition of âneur inuences on modern psychogeography,

revealing a tangible link with the dérive participant and the

Parisian gure. Debord’s goal was to take the pedestrian off

their usual path, pushing them into a ‘new awareness of theurban landscape.’4

1 Guy-Ernest Debord, Theory of the Dérive, Internationale Situationniste #2, 1958 ((http:// library.nothingness.org/articles/SI/en/display/314)

2 Situationist Space Author(s): Thomas F. McDonough Source: October, Vol. 67, (Winter,1994), Published by: The MIT Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778967 pp. 77

3 Guy-Ernest Debord, Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography, Les Lèvres Nues #61955. (http://library.nothingness.org/articles/SI/en/display/2)

4 Joseph Hart, “A New Way of Walking,” Utne Reader July/August 2004 (http://www.utne.com/pub/2004_124/promo/11262-1.html)

Lessons



6

A new wealth of knowledge hidden away under their very noses

revealed, a resource so close to their common operations,

yet so far from their common gaze. Deboard parallels the

reconstruction of the urban environment to the development

of the rst navigation charts, drawing from what we know from

the ground, rather from the sky. The rst endeavour to makesense of our environment.

‘The lessons drawn from dérives enable us to draw up therst surveys of the psycho geographical articulations of a

modern city.... With the aid of old maps, aerial photographs and experimental dérives, one can draw up hitherto lacking maps of inuences, maps whose inevitable imprecision at this early stage is no worse than that of the rst navigational charts.’1

Guy-Ernest Debord

The process of drawing a map from the ground would instruct

us to really look at the surrounding environment. Although the

rst maps may be inaccurate in terms of the physicality of the

environment, they make important observations.

1 Guy-Ernest Debord, Theory of the Dérive, Internationale Situationniste #2, 1958 (http:// library.nothingness.org/articles/SI/en/display/314)

Benincasa, Grazioso, Nautical Chart Of Western Europe, The British Library1473



10

Benjamin himself, through a letter in 1930, referred to the task

as “the theatre of all my struggles and all my ideas”. In the

translators forwarding comments to Benjamin’s work, it was

commented that the Arcades project was ‘the blueprint for an

unimaginably massive and labyrinthine architecture - a dream

city, in effect. One might begin to wonder if such a task couldever have come to a point of conclusion? He worked as a

detective, looking to every tiny fragment of information as

having the potential to reveal an understanding.

Throughout Benjamin’s career he became increasingly

obsessed with the city, in particular, 19th century Paris. His

major writings only became available after his death in 1940,

but by the 1970’s his work was widely recognized by scholars

and critics. As a result Benjamin became a widely cited literaryand philosophical thinker. As a theorist of urban modernity

he chose to engage with the city through its busy streets,

studying the ‘decaying fabric of its buildings as they passed into obsolescence’1 One could almost relate his attack to that

of an archeologist, looking back in order to look forward.

Benjamin devoted himself to his Arcades Project, beginning as

a collaboration for a newspaper article, the project manifested

itself as a prolonged unnished investigation of 19th Century

Paris. The object of study was a cultural tracing of the city,

through its iron and glass covered arcades. His focus was not

directed toward the great events of the epoch but rather what

remained half concealed, fragments of every day collective

tasks. With particular interest in the interactions of artistic,

social and economic development within the city, he was

described to have not only examined ‘the individual “buried past” but rather the “unconscious of the collective” of theParisian society in the nineteenth century.’ 2 The scope of this

task was of great measure, no better described as if one wereto look into the sheer epic proportions of collected material in

the unnished work.

1 Neil Leach. Rethinking Architecture, Routledge, London and New York, 1997 p22

2 Philip Ursprung, Caruso St John, Almost Everything. 2008 Ediciones Poligrafa. Barcelona,208. p187

Walter Benjamin: The Arcades Project



12

Benjamin gives some insight into how we ought to read an

evolving city, in view of the past and present as “constellation”.

He illustrates the past and the present as interrelated entities,

closely bound to one another; arguing that the interrelation

of past and present can be viewed best through ‘dialectical

images’. Benjamin supplements his arcades project with a

visual form of research named ‘cabinet des estampes’; we

nd here such dialectical images from different time periods,

corresponding to one another on historical issues. Such

an instance is depicted through the images referencing

excavations for the metro tunnels, which collide with the

foundations of the Bastile Tower. The images illustrated a

coincidence of history and technological process, reecting

Benjamin’s opposition of ‘continual progression’. It was from

here that we can see an enactment of his methodological

model of archeologist, a position reected in the philosophy

and work of many contemporary architects such as John

Toumey, Caruso St John and Herzog & De Meuron.

John Toumey ’throughout the process of nding, I will search fortraces of what made the found spaces the way they are, in order to

seek pointers toward the further transformation of the site.

Adam Caruso: ‘It is only by understanding and reecting on the past

that architecture can continue to be a relevant social and artistic

discipline.’

Philip Ursprung: The Exhibition Herzog & de Meuron: Archaeology

of the mind sets out to explore how these things - in the sanctuary

of an institution - can nd their voice again... we imagined we were

archaeologists from the future.’1

1 Philip Ursprung (2002) Herzog & De Meuron: Natural History. Canadian Centre for Architecture. LarsMuller Publishers p 36

Fragments from the Arcades Project

‘It’s not that what is past casts its light on what is present, or what is present its light on what is past; rather, image is that wherein what has been comes

together in a ash with the now to form a constellation. In other words, image

is dialectics at a standstill. For while the relation of the present to the past is a

purely temporal, continuous one, the relation of what·has·been to the now is

dialectical: is not progression but image, suddenly emergent. Only dialectical

images are genuine images (that is, not archaic); and the place where one

encounters them is language. - Awakening - [N2a,3]’1

1 Walter Benjamin, The Arcades Project, First Harvard University Press paperback edition, 2002, p462



14

It is argued that the role of understanding and reecting on what

has been, is an important method for both our understanding

of the city as well as looking towards its future development.

Benjamin’s archeological method leads him to make lengthy

comment in the arcades project on the gures of collector andâneur.

Benjamin described the position of collector as taking up the

struggle against dispersed fragments alluding to its potentials

as a method of study or research. Describing the act of

collection as a form of ‘practical memory’, the collector shines

a new light on things that have been detached from their

original use. ‘We construct here an alarm clock that rouses the kitsch of the previous century to “assembly.”1. The collector

could be seen as an archeological detective pulling together

disparate fragments in search of some sort of completeness;

but as Benjamin acknowledged, for the collector, the collection

could never achieve the status of completeness, ‘everything he’s collected remains a patchwork’ 2. It could be argued that

the value of collecting is that of making things present, taking

them out of their original hidden context and positioning them

anew, with their potentials as ‘dialectical images’. Benjamin

assumed the role of collector throughout his work, explainingthat ‘for the true collector every single thing in this system

becomes an encyclopedia of all knowledge of the epoch, the landscape, the industry, and the owner from which it comes.’3

1 Walter Benjamin, The Arcades Project, First Harvard University Press paperback edition,2002, p205


3 Walter Benjamin, The Arcades Project, First Harvard University Press paperback edition,2002, p204-205

‘Streets are the dwelling place of the collective. The collective is an eternally

unquiet, eternally agitated being that-in the space between the building fronts

experiences, learns, understands, and invents as much as individuals do

within the privacy of their own four walls. For this collective, glossy enameled shop signs are a wall decoration as good as, if not better than, an oil painting

in the drawing room of a bourgeois; walls with their “Post No Bills” are its

writing desk, newspaper stands its libraries, mailboxes its bronze busts,

benches its bedroom furniture, and the cafe terrace is the balcony from which

it looks down on its household. The section of railing where road workers

hang their jackets is the vestibule, and the gateway which leads from the row

of courtyards out into the open is the long corridor that daunts the bourgeois,

being for the courtyards the entry to the chambers of the city. Among these

latter, the arcade was the drawing room. More than anywhere else, the street

reveals itself in the arcade as the furnished and familiar interior of the masses.

[M3a,4] 1

1 Walter Benjamin, The Arcades Project, First Harvard University Press paperback edition, 2002, p423

Collector



16

‘An intoxication comes over the man who walks long and aimlessly through the streets. With each step, the walk takeson greater momentum; ever weaker grow the temptationsof shops, of bistros, of smiling women, ever more irresistible

the magnetism of the next streetcorner, of a distant mass of foliage, of a street name.’ 2

In a similar manner to the derive participant, Benjamin

depicted the âneur distancing themselves from the common

goals of the crowd, in order to observe city space. The

Flâneur constructs a dwelling place from the city streets.

Benjamin placed importance on both the gure of collector

and âneur in understanding the real context of the urban

environment.

‘The quodlibet has something of the genius of both collector and âneur. [H3a,5]’3



Benjamin examined the character of the âneur, (idle man

about town), commenting that his true home was that of the

Parisian arcades. For Benjamin the city was both exterior and

interior, most vividly depicted through the arcades, a position

that the âneur would feel most at home. Benjamin gave avivid depiction of how the city transformed itself spatially to an

interior domestic setting for the âneur, he took the city as his

own and resided there. The âneur, slowing his pace would

become a detective observing the marketplace, Benjamin

quite humorously explaining that, ‘In 1839 it was considered elegant to take a tortoise out walking. This gives us an ideaof the tempo of âneurie in the arcades. [M3,8]’1 Through this

examination Benjamin took up the position of a residing city

observer, using it as an analytical tool. Benjamin argued that

the deterioration of the arcades and rise of the articially lit

department store lead to the death of the âneur, navigating

only merchandise, rather than the city.


Flâneur



18

The collection compiled by Walter Benjamin in his arcades

project can be compared to that compiled by Sir John Soane

in his London home. This collection does not prescribe to a

strict narrative but rather traced the reconguration of an

evolving history. Like Benjamin’s collection, Soane’s collectionwas fragmented, not conforming to a liner distillation of history,

it is only through passage that one could begin a re assembly.

‘We are confronted with the subjectivity of the collector/curator and can identify with him. It is a performative space where history is enacted over and over again, and where we can participate in the production of meaning, rather than passively consuming meaning which has already been dened.’1 Two

obsessions were illustrated throughout these works, Benjamin

with the photograph and Soane with the casting.

1 Philip Ursprung. Caruso St. John: almost everything. Barcelona: EdicionesPoligrafa, 2009. p169

John Soane: Soane Museum

Other Collectors:

Soane Museum Exhibits

Philip Ursprung, Caruso St. John :Almost Everything. Ediciones Poligrafa, Barcelona, 2009



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The necessity for public engagement has its roots rmly

grounded in Geddes principle of mutual living, acted out

through his Outlook tower in Edinburgh. The Cartographers

Dilemma mirrors the need for an evolving urban laboratory.

“We still mix and drift, but we don’t do much on the street.It’s in a soft space, the virtual realm, where we tell our stories

and learn. But if we could get back on the street, maybesome good things would happen in this here and now.”3Paul Guzzardo.

A substantial emphasis was placed on a new way of mapping

the city, an evolving map of urban scale linking the streets

to a digital mediascape. A mapping of such would bring

creative practice to the forefront of city life, a dispersion and

fragmentation of cultural institution.

“Imagine local gallery + QuestionTime + webscapecongestion (thanks Koolhaas) with link to local authority website (except that it might replace the local authority at

least at the community level).”4

The cartographer’s dilemma highlights the need for a new

way of working, sharing and learning throughout our urban

environments. There is a need for a new collaborative spacewithin the city structure, transforming the mapping and planning

of the city from a static, all encompassing view, to a state of

fragmentation with closer association to the tradition of âneur

than that of the city authority. The street is thus used as a tool

to rethink the city, reecting on our place in it, understanding

the role and duties of the citizen.

3 Paul Guzzardo & Lorens Holm, The Cartographer’s Dilemma, http://www.dundee.ac.uk/geddesinstitute/TheCartographersDilemmadraft9toAmmanformatted.pdf (accessed02.04.11)


“In the era of pervasive computing we need better maps to manage the built environment. The Cartographer’s Dilemma proposes a new place making action plan for a withering public sphere.”1

The heading ‘Cartographers Dilema’ is borrowed from an

ongoing collaboration, examining urban design in an era

dominated by digital media. The collaborators Lorens Holm,

David Walczyk and Paul Guzzardo begin from the Geddesian

principle of the city as an archive and site of knowledge; posing

a number of questions including:

“How can the city become a system of entangled environments for learning, reection, and play, where intellectual and emotional evolution persists, without

stalling?...

How can we create disparate, yet collective, mechanisms inthe city for accessing and instrumentalising the knowledge

embedded in the city?...

How can we create streetscape forums to develop intelligent, playful, and joined-up thinking about our relationship to the

phenomenological environment?” 2

In posing these questions the Cartographers Dilemma projects

the theories from the evolutionist planner, Patrick Geddes,

onto the evolving, media rich city of the twenty rst century. In

recognition of the city as ‘knowledge generator’ and ‘learning

environment’, the project advocates getting back onto the

street in order to engage in public discourse, imagining a new

urban space of participatory nature.



“The Cartographers Dilemma”

Collect Collections Collective

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