- How did Benjamin view the importance and role of ‘the collector’?
- What is a ‘flaneur’? What is its significance?
- How do objects and the spaces they inhabit help us to see more closely and anew? How do they shape our idea of memory and collective histories?
- When photography and film were emerging visual technologies, Benjamin introduced the term ‘optical unconscious.’ What did he mean by this? How do photography and film reflect and construct the world around us?
Optical unconsciousness is the idea that there are gaps in technological advances, that leave opportunities for photography behind. Also, it is the idea that immediately looking at something, you are unconscious to the actuality and what’s going on in the frame. That’s why photography provides a chance for optical consciousness. Flaneur means to be idle, to remain. The collector encapsulates the fact that in order to be a flaneur, you can’t be a singular person in a crowd, you have to BE the crowd. Objects and spaces are easily perceived within a second. we either recognize them as something we’ve seen hundreds of times before, or something that may be new to us. To be a flaneur, is to always find something new within the things we see hundreds of times.