Direct Action Flâneurs @ Edinburgh Scottish Parliament

I and my fellow Direct Action Flâneur Robert Neuwirth escaped the TED GLOBAL 2012 community for a couple of hours to find TED's theme of ‘Radical Openness’ in the Edinburgh community.

Thursday June 27th around noon. We get to the Scottish Parliament and come upon a group of anti-rape protestors.  We sit on the floor in front of the Parliament. With our analog typewriters -- an Antares Parva (pictured) and an  Everest K3 -- and our 'sit-in' body action, we create a community in the moment with the anti-rape protestors. It’s a 21^st century temporary autonomous zone. Our sit-in ends when the policewoman demands to see what we have written and walks off with it and we demand the papers back. Audio file: an excerpt of the physical-aural interaction.

http://soundcloud.com/directactionflaneurs/da-flaneur-edinburgh-audio2-1 

Would we have handed our writings to the cops in New York? NO WAY. Here in Edinburgh, though, we saw ourselves as guests and so automatically accepted a conditional hospitality!

 




For more on the demonstration itself go to:

http://www.scotsman.com/edinburgh-evening-news/britain-s-most-unwanted-all-requests-made-to-other-uk-councils-to-house-rapist-refused-1-2384168

Direct Action Flâneurs @ Rio+20

Onward Ale(Alexandre Carvalho)! He went to Rio + 20 and his activity was an inauguration of the Direct Action Flaneurs in revolutionary cultural struggle check it out:

http://noticias.bol.uol.com.br/ciencia/2012/06/22/protesto-surpresa-vai-de-nudismo-a-poesia.jhtm 

Direct Action Flâneurs & Morgan Subway Station

                

The Thinking Body and the Dancing Mind.

We settle in this public in – between zone with small plastic chinese chairs. Some type, others dance to the ‘dancing’ typewriters’ sound. People are in a rush to catch the train but some take the risk to stop and type. Other times we flaneur—carrying the typewriters and we pause—and some of the commuters, these underground “subway runners,” take the pause as an invitation to write on the typewriter. If we did the same thing in the Times Square station, how long would it take until the police told us to move? Here in Bushwick where workers, immigrants who share a single metrocard in a very hidden way, and hipsters all share the space, the police never arrive, and we stop our action through our own choice. We had a great DAF team alex, rob, amelia , me and the subway runners; we created a residue-- a leftover energy -- a possibility for change?