Psychogeography Project

View Trip To Leicester in a larger map

One definition of psychogeography is: “The study of the effects of geographical settings, consciously managed or not, acting directly on the mood and behavior of the individual.” As part of my psychogeography project I wandered from my normal track to university. I started the project by walking a different way around my village then, unfortunately, had to get the same train, as I did not want to get completely lost; however when I arrived in Leicester I once again went off my normal route to explore some parts of the city I did not know existed. The pictures were taken on an average digital camera and then uploaded onto Google maps, where I later mapped the offbeat route I had taken.

This project involved the notion of the dérive. As the journeys we take in our everyday life become habit, they become tedious and often unnoticed. The idea of a psychogeography project and the dérive is that you go off the beaten track, take notice of things which pass us by when in 'commuter’s mode'. The aim is to shift the primary objective of getting from one place to another to not having an objective. The pictures I have taken on my little ‘ramble’ are completely random things on my journey which caught my eye, beautiful, interesting and even some shots which bring back memories.

Some people take the dérive to different levels, some using maps of one city to navigate their way around another; their reason simply to discover what they might find. Others have used a deck of cards to steer around a city, red left and black right. In one case dice were used to direct people around Toronto.

I believe the psychogeography allows people to step back and realize how they live their lives. To me it showed that my journey to University is usually on auto pilot, driven by routine. It seems with all of the distractions we are faced with in our lives; television, iPods and the internet we are unable to notice anything in our environment. Sometimes I have my Ipod on whilst walking and there could be a fire next to me that I would not even notice, a digital bubble prevents me from seeing what I should see every day. There is another purpose to Psychogeography according to Mr McGurk; he is quoted in a Guardian article: “He sees buildings such as the Lowry museum in Manchester as examples of good psychogeographical design.

“The creators of the Lowry, he says, have made a new community with a real sense of place by mixing galleries with restaurants, theatres, shops and bars.” (Parker, 2002)

Basically, psychogeography can help with the balance of a city or area. To a certain extent I agree with this, most city centers have a healthy balance of shops, restaurants and entertainment venues, which together makes these places popular to visit; the aspects that define the place’s personality. Psychogeography enables people to see areas which are ‘in need’ of more outlets. These people can judge the ‘feel’ of a place and what would be best suited to the area by what else is around.

Psychogeorgraphy writer Will Self wrote a series of articles for the Independent surrounding his journeys to several of the world’s most known places; one being New York. His studies include, aside from extremely deep and complicated phrasing, the effects of major events on the psychogeography, mentioning 9/11’s impact on the city or even the city’s cause of these events.

“The "spectaculars" of both 9/11 in New York and 7/7 in London were thus attacks on our notion of ourselves as, above all, a mobile society, ever stimulating our ever- growing, ever-more-turgid economy with rapid movements of hand and eye.” (Self, 2007)

Self’s psychogeography experiences have made him notice that both of these tragic attacks used transport as the ‘detonators’. Suggesting that may be development of mobility is too fast, that or these cities are being punished for being modern, advanced and wealthy cities.

Self proves that psychogeography is personal to the person conducting the project/ the dérive. It cannot be told what a person should see or experience, but should just be seen and experienced then reflected upon by the person in question.

I discovered that there are vast differences between the rural village where I live and the city I commute to most days. Also there are things in Leicester which I would have never discovered if it had not have been for the project, such as street art, ironic signs and beautiful architecture.

Parker, S (2002) Power to the psychogeographers [WWW] Available from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2002/feb/22/urbandesign.architecture (Accessed on 05/01/2011)

Self, W (2007) PsychoGeography: Will Self and Ralph Steadman take Manhattan [WWW] Available from: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/psychogeography-will-self-and-ralph-steadman-take-manhattan-394644.html (Accessed on 05/01/2011)