The Flâneur Revisited
Exploring Public Engagement Through Speculative Design
The Flâneur Revisited
Exploring Public Engagement Through Speculative Design
Overview
How can design reframe the way we perceive and navigate our urban environments in an age of constant connectivity and surveillance?
Flâneur Revisited is a speculative design research concept that reinterprets the 19th-century flâneur as a lens for exploring contemporary questions of movement, attention, and agency in public space.
Overview
How can design reframe the way we perceive and navigate our urban environments in an age of constant connectivity and surveillance?
Flâneur Revisited is a speculative design research concept that reinterprets the 19th-century flâneur as a lens for exploring contemporary questions of movement, attention, and agency in public space.
Speculative concept
Critical design
Public engagement
Speculative concept
Critical design
Public engagement
Challenge
- Critically question how technology mediates urban experience.
- Provoke reflection on what it means to wander freely in a controlled environment.
- Open a dialogue between citizens, cultural organisations, and policymakers about alternative futures of public space.
Challenge
- Critically question how technology mediates urban experience.
- Provoke reflection on what it means to wander freely in a controlled environment.
- Open a dialogue between citizens, cultural organisations, and policymakers about alternative futures of public space.
-
Approach
- Historical & cultural grounding
Research into the figure of the flâneur and its cultural legacy serves as a starting point for rethinking today’s hyperconnected city. - Speculative design interventions
- A reimagined navigation app that intentionally leads users astray.
- A set of “urban attention cards” prompting participants to notice overlooked details.
- A speculative guidebook for the city of 2050, imagining futures where wandering becomes a form of resistance.
- Public engagement formats
- Street-level installations inviting passersby into guided dérives.
- An exhibition showcasing the artifacts and narratives generated by participants.
- Workshops with cultural institutions and municipal planners to spark dialogue about mobility and public space.
Approach
- Historical & cultural grounding
Research into the figure of the flâneur and its cultural legacy serves as a starting point for rethinking today’s hyperconnected city. - Speculative design interventions
- A reimagined navigation app that intentionally leads users astray.
- A set of “urban attention cards” prompting participants to notice overlooked details.
- A speculative guidebook for the city of 2050, imagining futures where wandering becomes a form of resistance.
- Public engagement formats
- Street-level installations inviting passersby into guided dérives.
- An exhibition showcasing the artifacts and narratives generated by participants.
- Workshops with cultural institutions and municipal planners to spark dialogue about mobility and public space.
-
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