Rooted in Surrealism and Dadaism, psychogeography is a term which describes the analysis of an urban environment by "drifiting." Drifting in a playful, whimsical manner. It is used to describe the impact of a geographical location on the behaviour of people.
This is highly relevant to my study as it is essentially what I'm doing in order to create art. This pretty much summarises my physical practice for this research.
Not forgetting about autoethnography. Essentially I'm using the a pyschogeographical method to fuel the autoethnograph study. It will still be used as a way of educating the viewer of my social and cultural background.
This example found in an article was particularly useful.
"Contemporary psychogeographers put a great deal of emphasis on examining the myriad experiences people have of living in a city. A sports supporter might see a city in terms of the route to the football ground, and the quality of his or her experience might be defined in terms of what they say, hear or do on the way. This is why some groups of psychogeographers are keen on "mood mapping" - charting cities by the way they make people feel rather than their physical layout."
Parker, S. (2002). Power to the psychogeographers. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2002/feb/22/urbandesign.architecture. Last accessed 30th Oct 2020.
Flaneur on the way to an Old Firm? Probably not. However, the idea of an "emotional map" is mentioned again under "mood mapping." In relation to my work it clarifies what it is I'm making. The paintings so far could be classed as physical "mood" or "emotional" maps. Personally, I'm okay with that.
Guy Debord
One of the founders of the Situationist International organisation and author of The Society of the Spectacle.
"...a polemical and prescient indictment of our image saturated consumer culture. The book examines the "Spectacle", Debord's term for the everyday manifestation of capitalist driven phenomena; advertising, television, film and celebrity."
Morgan, T. Purje, L. (2016). An Illustrated Guide to Guy Debord's 'The Society of the Spectacle.'. Available: https://hyperallergic.com/313435/an-illustrated-guide-to-guy-debords-the-society-of-the-spectacle/. Last accessed 30th Oct 2020.
One of the many key theories in Situationism is psychogeography. A term claimed by Debord himself. Inspired by French writer Charles Baudelaire's "flaneur." An urban wanderer.
In this book Debord wanted to revolutionise the approach to architecture. More exploration, less function. That's where psychogeography comes into place.
Although my work doesn't focus on much Marxist theory, doesn't make it not relevant. Debord uses psychogeography in this manner whereas I'm using it to conduct an autogeographic research.
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