Psychogeography

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Psychogeography is "the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals," according to Guy Debord's Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography.

[edit] Development

Psychogeography was originally developed by the Lettrist International, as a hypergraphics in their system of unitary urbanism. The term has since been used by many others, leading to many variations in the practice which have included the following forms: Debordian; Literary; Generative or Algorithmic; and Quantum. Various factions claim to be or accuse each other of being: academic; occultist; avant-garde; proletarian; or revolutionary and pure psychogeographics.

During the 1980s and 90s while situationist theory became popular in academic circles, avant-garde, neoist and revolutionary groups emerged, developing the praxis in various ways. This interest survives today, manifested in several groups practising contemporary Psychogeography.

The journal Transgressions: A Journal of Urban Exploration (which appears to have ceased publication sometime in 2000) collated and developed a number of post-avant-garde revolutionary psychogeographical themes. It was, in part, aligned to a magico-Marxist psychogeographical agenda.

Psychogeography has since also become a standard device used in art and literature. Since 2003, Provflux and Psy-Geo-conflux (separate events) are dedicated to action-based participatory experiments, underneath the academic umbrella of Psychogeography.

The British journalist Will Self has a column called Psychogeography which started out in the British Airways in-flight magazine and now appears weekly in the Saturday magazine of The Independent newspaper.

Psychogeography - urbansquares.com definition: The subjective analysis of neighbourhood behaviours related to a geographic location. A chronological process based on the order of appearance of observed topics with a time delayed inclusion of other relevant instances.

[edit] Groups involved in psychogeography

Psychogeography is practiced both experimentally and formally in groups or associations, which sometimes consist of just one member. Known groups, some of whom are still operating, include:

• Baltimore/Washington Psychogeography Association
• Bodmin Moor Explorer
• AlgoMantra |Bombay Psychogeographical Society
• Brooklyn Psychogeographical Association
• Desborough Hundred Psychogeographical Society
• evoLhypergrapHyCx
• Glowlab
• Greenwich Psychogeographical Order
• The Institute for Infinitely Small Things
• Loiterers Resistance Movement
• London Psychogeographical Association
• Manchester Area Psychogeographic
• Milwaukee Association of Psychogeographers
• New York Psychogeographical Association
• Nottingham Psychogeographical Unit
• Pittsburgh Psychogeographical Society [1]
• Providence Initiative for Psychogeographic Studies People Interested In Participatory Societies
• Psy-Geo-Conflux
• Toronto Psychogeography Society
• The workshop for non linear architecture
• Urban Paradoxes Blog
• The Urban Repair Project (Cleveland)
• Virtual Psychogeographical Association
• UrbanSquares.com Psychogeographers
• The Psychogeography of Prague
• Regula Pragensis
• Toronto Psychogeography Society
• Methinks Presents

[edit] Noted pychogeographers

• Luther Blissett
• Stewart Home
• Members of the Situationist International
• Wilfried Hou Je Bek
• Rohit Gupta
• Iain Sinclair
• Adam Greves

[edit] See also

• Social mapping
• Participatory GIS
• Situationists
• Lettrists
• Psychohistory
• Performance art
• Communism
• Affordance

[edit] Bibliography

• Debord, Guy (editor). Guy Debord presente Potlatch (Paris: Folio, 1996).
• Ford, Simon. The Situationist International: A User's Guide (London: Black Dog Publishing, 2005).
• Mind Invaders: A Reader in Psychic Warfare, Cultural Sabotage and Semiotic Terrorism Ed. (Serpent's Tail London, 1997).

[edit] Further reading

• Merlin Coverley. Psychogeography. Pocket Essentials, 2006.

[edit] External links

• People Interested in Participatory Societies
• Psychogeographic Guides to Paris and New Orleans
• Toronto Psychogeography Society Blog http://www.psychogeography.ca/blog
• Baltimore/Washington Psychogeography Association
• Bodmin Moor Explorer
• Glowlab
• Conflux
• iKatun
• Tim Devin
• John Rogers
• Collection of Urban Squares
• The Institute for Infinitely Small Things
• Interview with Merlin Coverley