🗺️Psychogeography and Art Unit 7 – Psychogeography and Photography

What's Psychogeography?

• Explores the psychological effects of the geographical environment on individuals
• Combines subjective and objective observations to understand how places shape emotions and behaviors
• Originated from the Situationist International movement in the 1950s and 1960s
• Encourages people to break free from their habitual ways of experiencing the city and embrace a more playful and spontaneous approach
• Involves techniques such as the dérive (drifting) and détournement (subverting) to challenge dominant narratives and power structures
• Seeks to uncover the hidden layers of meaning and history embedded in the urban landscape (psychic mapping)
• Emphasizes the role of chance encounters and unplanned journeys in shaping our understanding of place

Key Concepts in Psychogeography

• Dérive involves wandering through the city without a predetermined destination, allowing oneself to be guided by the contours of the terrain and the encounters one has along the way
  • Encourages a more intuitive and embodied experience of place
  • Challenges the rationalized and functionalized organization of urban space
• Détournement subverts and reconfigures existing cultural materials to create new meanings and possibilities
  • Can involve the appropriation and alteration of maps, signs, and other urban artifacts
  • Seeks to disrupt the spectacle of consumer capitalism and reveal the underlying power structures that shape our experience of the city
• Psychic mapping creates alternative cartographies that represent the subjective and emotional dimensions of place
  • May incorporate elements of personal memory, history, and imagination
  • Challenges the objectivity and neutrality of conventional maps
• Unitary urbanism envisions a city that is designed to facilitate the free play of human desires and creativity
  • Opposes the functional segregation and rationalization of urban space under capitalism
  • Seeks to create spaces that encourage spontaneity, encounter, and social interaction

Psychogeography Meets Photography

• Photography serves as a powerful tool for documenting and interpreting the psychogeographical experience
• Allows for the capture of fleeting moments, chance encounters, and unexpected juxtapositions that arise during the dérive
• Can be used to create visual psychic maps that layer multiple exposures, montages, and manipulated images
• Enables the exploration of the relationship between the photographer's subjective experience and the objective reality of the city
• Offers a means of subverting and détourning the dominant visual language of advertising and mass media
• Encourages a more embodied and multi-sensory approach to experiencing and representing place

Techniques and Approaches

• Dérive photography involves wandering through the city with a camera, allowing oneself to be guided by intuition and chance encounters
  • May involve deliberately getting lost or following arbitrary rules and constraints
  • Seeks to capture the ephemeral and overlooked aspects of the urban environment
• Psychic mapping photography creates composite images that layer multiple exposures, found materials, and personal annotations
  • Aims to represent the subjective and emotional dimensions of place
  • May incorporate elements of collage, montage, and digital manipulation
• Détournement photography appropriates and alters existing images to create new meanings and narratives
  • Can involve the juxtaposition of seemingly unrelated images or the addition of subversive text and graphics
  • Seeks to challenge the authority and objectivity of conventional photography
• Collaborative photography involves working with other artists, activists, and community members to create collective representations of place
  • Emphasizes the social and political dimensions of psychogeography
  • Seeks to give voice to marginalized perspectives and experiences

Notable Artists and Works

• Guy Debord, a founding member of the Situationist International, created psychogeographic maps of Paris that challenged the rationalized organization of the city (The Naked City, 1957)
• Ralph Rumney, another member of the Situationist International, used photography to document his dérives through the streets of Venice (The Leaning Tower of Venice, 1958)
• Sophie Calle's Suite Vénitienne (1980) involved following a stranger through the streets of Venice and documenting her experiences through photographs and text
• Iain Sinclair's London Orbital (2002) is a psychogeographic exploration of the M25 motorway that encircles London, combining photography, poetry, and prose
• Sohei Nishino's Diorama Maps (2004-present) are large-scale photographic collages that represent the artist's subjective experience of walking through various cities around the world

Practical Applications

• Urban planning can use psychogeography to create more livable and sustainable cities that prioritize the needs and desires of their inhabitants
  • Can involve the creation of walkable neighborhoods, green spaces, and public gathering places that encourage social interaction and community building
  • May also involve the preservation of historic buildings and cultural landmarks that contribute to a sense of place and identity
• Tourism can use psychogeography to create more immersive and authentic travel experiences that go beyond the typical tourist attractions
  • Can involve the creation of alternative maps and itineraries that highlight the hidden gems and local flavors of a destination
  • May also involve the use of photography and storytelling to create more personal and meaningful connections between visitors and the places they visit
• Activism can use psychogeography to challenge the dominant power structures and narratives that shape our experience of the city
  • Can involve the creation of counter-maps and alternative tours that highlight issues of social and environmental justice
  • May also involve the use of photography and social media to raise awareness and mobilize communities around specific causes and issues

Challenges and Ethical Considerations

• Psychogeography can be seen as a privileged activity that is only accessible to those who have the time, resources, and freedom to wander the city at will
  • May exclude marginalized communities who face barriers to mobility and access
  • Can also reinforce existing power dynamics and inequalities if not practiced with sensitivity and awareness
• The use of photography in psychogeography raises questions of consent, privacy, and representation
  • May involve the unauthorized capture of people's images and personal spaces
  • Can also perpetuate stereotypes and objectification if not approached with care and respect
• The commercialization of psychogeography as a trendy and marketable concept can dilute its critical and subversive potential
  • May lead to the commodification and gentrification of urban spaces
  • Can also reinforce the very power structures and narratives that psychogeography seeks to challenge

Impact on Contemporary Art

• Psychogeography has had a significant influence on contemporary art practices, particularly in the fields of performance, installation, and public art
• Has inspired a range of artistic projects that explore the relationship between place, memory, and identity (Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller's audio walks, Francis Alÿs's urban interventions)
• Has also informed the development of new genres and movements, such as site-specific art, relational aesthetics, and social practice
• Continues to be a relevant and vital framework for artists who seek to engage with the social, political, and ecological dimensions of the built environment
• Offers a means of resisting the homogenization and commodification of urban space under late capitalism
• Encourages a more embodied, participatory, and socially engaged approach to art-making that blurs the boundaries between art and everyday life