I.
The French writing workshop group met up by the statue of Danton this morning, outside metro stop Odéon, and started our outing at Saint Germain des près with Professor Marie-Christine. It was 9:45 in the morning and Paris had never been this cold before. The statue stood where Danton used to live, on a street that was later demolished.
We took cours du commerce Saint-André first, where we saw the back of café Procope. Procope was started by an Italian called Procopio in 1686 and is the oldest café in the world. It's loaded with history, haunted first by the Enlightenment philosophers and then the French revolutionaries. Benjamin Franklin used to work here when he was in Paris for America's declaration of independence. We later entered from the front door and got coffee together. The interieur is filled with historical documents and paintings, including a facsimile (we believe) of Marie-Antoinette's last words before her death, with surprisingly intelligible and handsome handwriting. The area was also where France's biggest and most ancient printing presses started, so Procope houses some of the oldest fonts invented during that time, too. Right by Procope was where Dr. Guillotine lived. Now that I've read more of Foucault, his idea of "democratizing" death sentences totally seems less insane than I once thought.
The front door of Procope opens to Rue de l'ancienne comédie. The name comes from the Comédie Française that once settled here. In Louis XIV's time, three comedy troupes, including that of Molière's, fused into one and became la Comédie Française. One fun fact I learned from Marie-Christine today was that the popularity of comedies among French aristocrats only arrived after "le jeu de pomme" was abandoned. Houses to play the game were left deserted, providing ample space — both material and cultural — for the comedians. The comedians left Saint Germain des près and the building became refuge of artists. Jacques Louis David lived there, literally across the street from where the revolutionary Marat was killed — David's "la mort de Marat" appeared in Chinese art textbooks often enough for me to recognize it.
The path we took later was along rue de Seine (passing the Louisiane hotel, where Sartre and Beauvoir once stayed), rue Jacob, the national Delacroix museum, rue de l'abbaye, and finally l'église St. Germain des près. The tombs of Descartes and two other Mauristes are in the church, and we learned about the science of "diplomatique" from Marie-Christine. Maybe I just misheard but online research shows that Descartes did not actually belong to this order — I've never considered Descartes a pure religious man either.
II.
The exhibition "Hello" is literally the best exhibition I have seen this year.
It's housed in the former Gaité theatre which since 2011 has been turned into a cultural center dedicated to digital art. "Hello" is a fictional brand and the whole exhibit exposes various ways marketing corrodes and takes over our lives. All the artworks are fascinating and terrifying at the same time. There's a floor dedicated to modern monitoring and how news and media can be easily manipulated. There are various slides on each floor showing the fake family history of the founders of the corporation. On the ground floor, a sleek slide dissects the logo in different ways and a hundred positive interpretations are provided: "Hello" incarnates an openness to the world, good personal qualities, a will to fly higher, etc. etc. There are games to play and the fake result telling each visitor that he or she is the top ten "flyer" appears almost way too ironic. Everything about this show is so horribly real, and the worst part? We totally wanted to buy all the cutely designed stationary and accessories while we were painfully aware that they were all bearing the name of a fake brand.
This was a class visit after we discussed some of Bernard Stiegler's writings, including his latest book that's coming out in later December. I have never been terribly interested in critiques of modern technology, but Stiegler's analysis certainly makes me think differently now.
The French writing workshop group met up by the statue of Danton this morning, outside metro stop Odéon, and started our outing at Saint Germain des près with Professor Marie-Christine. It was 9:45 in the morning and Paris had never been this cold before. The statue stood where Danton used to live, on a street that was later demolished.
We took cours du commerce Saint-André first, where we saw the back of café Procope. Procope was started by an Italian called Procopio in 1686 and is the oldest café in the world. It's loaded with history, haunted first by the Enlightenment philosophers and then the French revolutionaries. Benjamin Franklin used to work here when he was in Paris for America's declaration of independence. We later entered from the front door and got coffee together. The interieur is filled with historical documents and paintings, including a facsimile (we believe) of Marie-Antoinette's last words before her death, with surprisingly intelligible and handsome handwriting. The area was also where France's biggest and most ancient printing presses started, so Procope houses some of the oldest fonts invented during that time, too. Right by Procope was where Dr. Guillotine lived. Now that I've read more of Foucault, his idea of "democratizing" death sentences totally seems less insane than I once thought.
The front door of Procope opens to Rue de l'ancienne comédie. The name comes from the Comédie Française that once settled here. In Louis XIV's time, three comedy troupes, including that of Molière's, fused into one and became la Comédie Française. One fun fact I learned from Marie-Christine today was that the popularity of comedies among French aristocrats only arrived after "le jeu de pomme" was abandoned. Houses to play the game were left deserted, providing ample space — both material and cultural — for the comedians. The comedians left Saint Germain des près and the building became refuge of artists. Jacques Louis David lived there, literally across the street from where the revolutionary Marat was killed — David's "la mort de Marat" appeared in Chinese art textbooks often enough for me to recognize it.
The path we took later was along rue de Seine (passing the Louisiane hotel, where Sartre and Beauvoir once stayed), rue Jacob, the national Delacroix museum, rue de l'abbaye, and finally l'église St. Germain des près. The tombs of Descartes and two other Mauristes are in the church, and we learned about the science of "diplomatique" from Marie-Christine. Maybe I just misheard but online research shows that Descartes did not actually belong to this order — I've never considered Descartes a pure religious man either.
II.
The exhibition "Hello" is literally the best exhibition I have seen this year.
It's housed in the former Gaité theatre which since 2011 has been turned into a cultural center dedicated to digital art. "Hello" is a fictional brand and the whole exhibit exposes various ways marketing corrodes and takes over our lives. All the artworks are fascinating and terrifying at the same time. There's a floor dedicated to modern monitoring and how news and media can be easily manipulated. There are various slides on each floor showing the fake family history of the founders of the corporation. On the ground floor, a sleek slide dissects the logo in different ways and a hundred positive interpretations are provided: "Hello" incarnates an openness to the world, good personal qualities, a will to fly higher, etc. etc. There are games to play and the fake result telling each visitor that he or she is the top ten "flyer" appears almost way too ironic. Everything about this show is so horribly real, and the worst part? We totally wanted to buy all the cutely designed stationary and accessories while we were painfully aware that they were all bearing the name of a fake brand.
This was a class visit after we discussed some of Bernard Stiegler's writings, including his latest book that's coming out in later December. I have never been terribly interested in critiques of modern technology, but Stiegler's analysis certainly makes me think differently now.
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