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@daveparkes

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“ T h e s c i e n c e o f a n t h r o p o g e o g r a p h y ,

o r m o r e p r o p e r l y s p e a k i n g ,

psychogeography ,

d e a l s w i t h t h e i n fl u e n c e o f g e o g r a p h i c a l e n v i r o n m e n t o n t h e

h u m a n m i n d . ”

Fewkes, Bureau of American Ethnology (1905)

psy¦cho|geog¦raphy

“the study of the prec ise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment ,…

…consciously organized or not,

on the emotions and behaviour of individuals“

Guy Debord Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography. Les Lèvres Nues #6 (Paris, September 1955).

urban planning

architecturecritical theory

cultural theory

walking

folklore

anthropology

geology

urban exploration

cognitive mapping

deep topography

philosophy

poetry

archaeology

gaming

subversion

tactical place makingDadaism

sacred geometry

literature

popular cultureflaneur

soundmaps

smellmaps

ecopsychology

built environment

citizen geography

anarchist & post modern geographies

Apologies to Morag Rose of the LRM

weird mappy

stuff

vague metaphysical

intuition

Psychogeography is a playful, imaginative

technique which can foster belongingness, inspire

creative thought and practice and help students situate themselves in their new

environments

The Library

• Is it a city or a body, a labyrinth, ¼ brick, ¼ flesh, ¼ digital/1/4 paper – it cannot be conceived as a whole in its entirety but only expereinced as a wilderness of alleyways, passages, throughfares in which even the most expereinced may lose their way it is in a cntinual state of change and exapnsion – time machine – we can only stumble

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library#/media/File:13-11-02-olb-by-RalfR-03.jpg

Universities and Libraries are rich with psychogeographical meaning

we think through narrative frames to process the

complexity of the world, maps and art and libraries help us build this narrative…

https://www.tes.com/lessons/tG4D_vo41m5Odg/h-c-cave-art

The open spaces, courtyards, the names of buildings, the ever changing estate,

architectural textures, the flows of people, the hierarchies, rituals, academies, signs and symbols all rich with the prospect of

discovery and exploration and the unknown

The Terrors of the Heritage Industry

the Situationists

Image: Un art de la guerre -Exposition Guy Debord à la Bibliothèque Nationale de France

http://www.gralon.net/articles/art-et-culture/musees/article-exposition-guy-debord-a-la-bibliotheque-nationale-de-france-7061.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_1968_events_in_France#/media/File:Mai_68_debut_d%27une_lutte_prolongee.png

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situationist_International#/media/File:La_beaute_est_dans_la_rue.png

‘Beating the Bounds’villagers would walk the boundaries of their parish - in doing so they would reaffirm the extent of

their territory, their knowledge of the land and its

markers. Passing down folk memories to younger generations and

confirming understanding

Snowball fight (detail), c. 1500, from the Walters Art Museum

The Flaneur

‘The essential figure of the modern urban spectator, an amateur detective and investigator of the city.’

Walter Benjamin

“a whole toy box fu l l of playful , inventive strategies for exploring … anything that

takes pedestr ians off the i r predictable paths and jo l t s them into a new awareness

of the landscape .” Joseph Hart - Utne Reader http://www.utne.com/community/a-new-way-of-walking.aspx

Dér ive‘ a t e c h n i q u e o f r a p i d p a s s a g e t h ro u g h v a r i e d a m b i e n c e s ’

https://uk.pinterest.com/daveparkes/psychogeography

Debord, Guy. THE NAKED CITY – Illustration de l’hypothèse des plaques tournantes en psychogeographique (sic). Copenhagen: Permild & Rosengreen, n.d. [May 1957]. 1 p. litographed sheet in black and red, 47 x 33 cm.

Pattersonplayfully

subverts ourbelief that maps and diagrams provide a reliable source of information

Detail from the Great bear by Simon Patterson http://flickr.com/photos/robotar/486728395/in/photostream/

http://www.zlb.de The Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin (ZLB)

Half of Berlin only exits in the imagination of the GDR

Steinbeck tries to buy something in a store that he thinks

it won’t stock - he asks the owner where he might

get the item…

A wild goose chase ensues, making

him see a destination differently from a planned series of sights

By intensifying and

sharpening your perceptions

- see what’s behind the scenes,

outside the site, just

offstage.

By changing the kind of tourist you are. by making tiny or dramatic

interventions, and then moving on.

http://www.countertourism.net‘next time you go to the

supermarket, visit it as if it were an

enormous museum artefact from a

post-apocalyptic civilisation’

A campus map as a board game – from a campus derive. Following a walk these students created a game map based upon the Parker Brothers property based boardgame Monopoly. Each landing space represents an activity, landmark or moment of time in the academic year.

Harry Beck London Underground inspired map

An A to Z map of the Campus

There are connections, intersections, signs, symbols,

mysteries to be fathomed, avenues and ginnels to explore, forgotten zones and stories to

reveal. Everyone affects and in turn is

affected by the derive

For students exploration, investigation - curiosity - will help them to cope with uncertainty and

complexity and this in turn will also foster creativity

How do you teach psychogeography? - New Statesman

http://deriveapp.com

random walks, chance encounters, city exploratory

‘All of our awareness is grounded in forms of

spatial experience, and that spatial awareness

is not pure,but charged with

emotional stress from our first born affinities.

It is in fact the first language we ever

learned, long before words.’

Colin St John Wilson Architectural Review

‘we are illiterate in our understanding of space’ Bruno Zevi

Architecture as Space

with a walk you receive vague metaphysical intuitionsmemories arise and memories are created

we write with the hand, we write well only with our feetcultures, edges, endings, displacements and transitions

a walk with no aim but sensation to walk is to divest oneself of alienation

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Silly_Walk_Gait.jpg

De r i v e A n A t o Z o f y o u r L i b r a r yWalk your campus - use your phone camera to make an A to Z  – be

imaginative but respect people’s privacy - take close up shots of things and objects to tell a story about the place and your use of the space

R e v e r i e - L o o k f o r H i s t o r yHow old is this building? How many scholars have passed through this

learning portal – what did they study, did they leave a mark, an echo? Can you see the joins? What do they sound like, look like?

D i c e W a l kRoll a dice and do between 1 and 6 things

W i n d o w sGo into the library find windows which point at all four points of the

compass and consider what is happening outside from the North, the South, the East and West

D i s r u p t R o u t i n eTake a different route everytime you walk somewhere– repeat - how did it

feel?

C i r c u m f e r e n c eWalk the external Circumference of the Library – beat the bounds and

consider the knowledge therein

Borrow a Reading List from another discipline

Look for items, find them and browse

S i g n sAttempt to obey all instructions and directions all day

D r a wDraw your Library as a Harry Beck London Underground Map or your own

Simon Patterson Great Bear – share

Leave a message in a book in the Library

Make this positive and uplifting, use a slip of paper or a post it – delight a future reader

the library is an ideas factory

Learning requires a mastery of existential skills

Uncertainty - allowing for not knowing

mystery

delightful surprise and curiosity

agility of thought and capacity

An embracing of that moment of noise and signal

occasional clarity

line and loop

ambiguity

journey and destination

we think through narrative frames to process the complexity of the world

psychogeography can help us build this narrative…

Psychogeography is a playful, imaginative

technique which can foster belongingness, inspire

creative thought and practice and help students situate themselves in their new

environments

of

@daveparkes

the

p s y c h o g e o g r a p h y

libr

arie

s

of

@davep

arkes