Seven years ago, I wrote a short entry on this blog about seats arrangement in Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris. I happened to pass by yesterday (en route for a seminar in the neighborhood) and the seats struck me as a fascinating assemblage to capture with my camera. "A perfect arrangement for grooming"

The "we stand together" group

"Mom, Dad and a bored kid"

The lonely urban observer

The "hidden and lonely soldier"

The "unidirectional couple"

The "main group and the left-overs"

"Some of us are closer than the others"

Why do I blog this? To some extent, the pictures below shown below represent different arrangement... that reflect social configurations. The "movable" chairs from this park in Paris can be seen as an interesting example of the implicit "traces" people leave when undertaking very simple activities. It's definitely a good material to expand my thoughts about the social aspect of "urban traces". Along with the pictures above, I tried to infer some meaning (about social configurations); I might be wrong but the exercise is valuable in itself.

Readers interested in this kind of artifacts might have a look at "Seating arrangement and conversation" by Mehrabian and Diamond.