Tim Waters

tim.waters@geoiq.com

Psychogeography?

Psychogeography

What's it all about?

Quick Definitions

Its the effect of place on the brain.It is the poetry of places.The study of the specific effects of the geographical environment,consciously organised or not on the emotions and behaviour of individuals.Ley lines, folklore, biography of people in place.

Techniques to explore and extend the imaginative, experiential qualities of urban and other landscapes, as part of a wider attempt to achieve a revolutionary transformation of everyday life, the emotional and behavioural effects of the environment, and its ambience;

'cognitive mapping' (the city in our heads, with the places that have specia lmeaning for us); and what might more prosaically called 'local history'.

Experienced / Practiced

Get outside – exploration

Derive – rapid passage, drifting. Strolling

To transform a place, our perception of a place, and therefore the world.

Experiencing place not in the same way as everyone else.

Unique perspectives.

Drunken Situationists in Paris

Here be tortoises

Debord

The Theory of the DeriveOne of the basic situationist practices is the dérive [literally: “drifting”],a technique of rapid passage through varied ambiances.

Dérives involve playful-constructive behavior and awareness of psychogeographical effects, and are thus quite different from the classic notions of journey or stroll.

In a dérive one or more persons during a certain period drop their relations, their work and leisure activities, and all their other usual motives for movement and action, and let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there.

Chance is a less important factor in this activity than one might think: from a dérive point of view cities have psychogeographical contours, with constant currents, fixed points and vortexes that strongly discourage entry into or exit from certain zones.

Cindi Katz: the Hidden Consequences

What does it mean for space to hide consequences?What are the politics of either living with orconfronting this condition? If one of the tasks ofcritical geography is to analyze the historicalgeographies of capitalist development, it is importantto examine the historical geographies ofcontemporary capitalism as part of this project. Justas radical histories engage with standard histories toexhume forgotten and erased histories and socialactors, radical geographers confront the power ofgeography to eclipse particular people and materialsocial practices.

Practices Modern

Resurgence of interest

New BreedgroupsLondon Psycho AssociationManchester Area Psychogeographic

Stewart HomeIan SinclairJ G BallardPatrick KeillerLondon CallingRichard Long

Current Breed

Will selfLondonperambulator

We define ourselves by our surroundings and our situations.If you are brought up in a neighborhood that resembles a rat trap, pretty soon you are going to come to the conclusion that you are probably a rat. If on the other hand you have got to the tool of psychogeography — or poetry, then you can look at the ordinary world around you with the eye of a poet. If you have that kind of insight into the tawdry and debased streets in which most of us spend our lives, then instead of walking down a rat trap you are walking through cataclysmic history, from your personal memories to the local legends then the rat trap becomes a fable, a mythological landscape. And just as living in rat trap will give you the impression you live in a rat trap, then l suspect that living in a mythological landscape might after a while give you the subliminal impression that you are at least a mythological figure. A heroic character in your own narrative

Some Examples.......

To remap the area of High Wycombe - a psychogeograpical event, a walk, a ‘derive‘ within the boundary of the re-development area, the results of which will be used to animate the town centre with a temporary art installation.

The aim of the LunchTime Dérive was to study how, by following a simple instruction, a group of workers could re-experience thae town during their Lunch Break. The daily hunt for a prawn sandwich or ChickenTikka Masala Ready Meal will be replaced with a drift motivated by following a basic algorithm Left left right

Mapping Weird Stuff is a course offered as part of the OWjL summer camp at Ohio Wesleyan.

BiomappingChristian Nold

Unconscious & reflection

On the Internets!

Platial R.I.P (but it lives on in GeoCommons.com!

Story telling

We feel fine

We Feel FineLiveJournal, MSN Spaces, MySpace,Blogger, Flickr,Technorati,Feedster, Ice Rocket,

Smell map http://www.nioibu.com/smell/map

The scents listed range from "a toasty odour of cow dung" to "used socks in the summer" Soundmaps too!

For discussion later...:

Mobile Apps with GPS and Mobile Mapping

Foursquare? Mayors Chickens

Sold on basis of “serendipity” - chance meetings. Really experiencing city in new ways? Transformation tool for life?

Happyness appNottingham

BlockChalk etcMobile extension of the mashup – storytelling, about place

GamesPacmanhatten

Leeds

Make Pla(y)ce – Leeds

http://my.parkingday.org Parking Day

Mayke Pla(y)ce – Light Night 2010

Insert picture of fine dining in the subway

Leeds Derives

Leeds Derives

Beating the bounds

Bring booze!

Time to go outside.

Groups of 2 or max. 3

It is practice based! so......Get into groups of 3.Each group take a piece of paper from me.Go outside and follow whats on the paperfor 10 mins (or longer) then come back.

Using the space differently. Discover reality bout a place, or yourselfSynchronistities, coincidences.