According to Vanity Fair, “the Proust Questionnaire has its origins in a parlor game popularized (though not devised) by Marcel Proust, the French essayist and novelist, who believed that, in answering these questions, an individual reveals his or her true nature.” Inspired by the Proust Questionnaire, we have put together a set of 32 questions designed to reveal the true nature of 4CITIES alumni. Or to at least give us some insight into what they are up to and what makes them, as students of “the urban”, tick.
1. What is your name?
Snow de Lantsheere.
2. Which 4CITIES cohort were you a part of?
Cohort 11 (2018-2020).
3. Where and when were you born?
Belgium, 1994.
4. Where did you grow up?
Belgium.
5. What did you study before 4CITIES?
Arts and Culture BA at Maastricht University.
6. Why did you join 4CITIES?
It felt like the natural continuation of my BA in Arts and Culture, but grounded into something more concrete. I could continue to have a very interdisciplinary approach, tied to an urban context.
7. What is your fondest memory from 4CITIES?
Being random and creative for Henrik’s class in Copenhagen.
8. What was the most important thing you learned from 4CITIES?
How to rapidly dive into a new city.
9. What (if anything) have you studied since 4CITIES?
Nothing.
10. Where do you live now?
Brussels.
11. Where else would you like to live?
Mexico City.
12. Which city have you never visited but would most like to?
Teheran.
13. Where is your favorite non-urban place to be?
My home village – Schiplaken.
14. What kind of work are you currently doing?
Public debate on urban issues.
15. What other work have you done since graduating?
Same job since graduating.
16. What job would you most like to attempt?
Documentary filmmaking.
17. What urban-related job does not exist but should?
Urban citizenship teacher in schools.
18. What about cities do you enjoy the most?
Being able to access different lifeworlds.
19. What about cities do you enjoy the least?
Lack of greenery.
20. What about cities do you find most interesting?
The necessity of compromise.
21. What about cities do you think is over-emphasized or over-hyped?
Their ability to offer solutions to climate change.
22. What about cities do you think is under-appreciated?
Their colors, their poetry.
23. Why do you think urban studies is important?
Its interdisciplnary approach is needed in a hyper-specialised world.
24. What is one myth about cities that you would like to bust?
That there’s no city life possible without cars.
25. If you could time travel, what city and year would you visit?
7th and 6th centuries BCE, Babylon.
26. What is your favorite imaginary city (from books, movies, etc.)?
Zenobia from ‘Invisible Cities’.
27. What would you like real cities to learn or take from this imaginary city?
Its organic, playful formation.
28. What books, authors, or films would you recommend to someone who wants to better understand “the urban”?
Georges Perec, Stefan Zweig.
29. What changes would make cities more livable?
Participatory budgets, more public ownership.
30. What are the most important changes cities must make in response to the sustainability crisis?
Link social issues more to climate issues.
31. If you could change one thing about your city, what would it be?
More efficient administration that acts as a form of exclusion/ heavy burden
32. What question have I not asked that you would like to ask other 4CITIES alumni?
How often do people understand what you do/studied?
