1. SCHOOL OF GEOGRAPHY, COURSEWORK SUBMISSION
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Student number (9 digits) 150739850
Module code and title Geg7102 – Art, Performance and the city
Submission deadline date 11/3/16
Coursework title Psychogeography
Total number of words 1,502
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Psychogeography, an approach to exploring the city, was officially defined by
Guy Debord ofthe Situationist International in 1955. Despite their eventual
dissolution in the 1970's, the legacies oftheir ideas and practices have
permeated into many schools in the subsequent years. In recent times, the
term psychogeography has been used quite loosely around urban practices.
The theories of the Situationists are present in experiments in exploring the
city but not in the same way the group used them. Despite this,
psychogeography has been imperative to cultural geographers searching for
new ways of apprehending the urban landscape (Coverley, 2010). This essay
will explore some example of current psychogeographical activity and asses
its significance.
The concept of psychogeography was perfected and defined by the
Situationist International, a group of avant garde artists, political activists and
writers in Paris in the 1950's, led by Guy Debord. Psychogeography was a tool
intended to to explore the behavioural impact a space has on the individual
and to transform the banality of urban life. The primary features of this tool
were: 1) walking 2) political opposition to authority 3) use of playfulness and
performance on these explorations. Walking itself is an act of rebellion. Cities
have become progressively hostile to the pedestrian and walking is rejection
against the spirit of modernity. Walking allows for an embodied experience of
the city, and at street level which allows for a more connected experience with
everyday life in the city. Political opposition to authority was bound up in the
artistic practices used by the Situationists in the Paris protests of the 1960's.
The group also opposed the banalisation ofeveryday life in the city and strove

2. to re-enchant people with the cityscape. The practices used in
psychogeography were the dérive and détournement. Derive, "a technique of
transient passage through varied ambiances" (Coverley, 2010) which was
then usually mapped after the walk. Détournement was "the integration of
present or past artistic production into a superiorconstruction of a milieu"
(Coverley, 2010). Using these practices, the Situationists were critiquing the
cultural, political and social conditions ofthe modern city and attempting to
change everyday life through changing space and people's relationship to
their space (Pinder, 2009). Psychogeography was just as concerned with
excavating the past and the hidden as much as it was with trying to make the
everyday exciting and interesting. By 1972, the SI had disbanded, but the
ideas and practices of this group have continued through many different
disciplines such as art practice, academia and cultural theory (Pinder, 2009).
Audio/sound walks use the urban streets to explore, excavate and map the
invisible and unseen spaces of the city (Pinder, 2001). The audio walk through
Whitechapel named "The missing voice (case study b)" by the artist Janet
Cardiff explores the past and present of the city using a variety of narrators in
her artwork. Using more than one narrator on her audio walk illuminates the
need to see the city as a diversity of voices and stories. The soundtrack also
includes noises and sounds of breathing and footsteps as well, reminding us of
the embodied experience of the narrators and the listenerthemselves.
Everyday life cannot be simply represented through words or images and to
fully comprehend it we must experience it first hand and walking allows this
ephemeral experienced knowledge (Butler and Miller, 2006). Traversing the
city is not just a visual excursion, but a multi sensory one. The disembodied
voices remind us that there is a realm beyond the physical space, and it is
important to recognize it when trying to discover and apprehend the modern
city (Kerr, 2002).
Another project that uses an audio soundtrack is Graeme Miller's "Linked".
The soundtrack includes interviews of people who lived in houses that were
destroyed in the 1990's and the project is an attempt to reclaim the space that
is now motorway (Butler and Miller, 2006). It is as much a political stance as
it is a testament to the people who were displaced. The performativity and
permanence of the artwork challenges the destruction and lack of evidence of

3. lives lived on the Claremont Road (Butler and Miller, 2006). While you are
listening to the audio of people talking about a time passed, you are visually
presented with the motorway of today. Experiencing the two at the same time
allows us to explore the multitude of stories and voices that occur in one
particular place and are often unheard or forgotten. This project resonates
with the Situationists as it raises ideas about the right to the city and using
artistic walks as a political means. Participants of this outdoorexhibition have
noted unplanned interactions with others which they found to be an added
bonus. This unexpected reactions and unexpected experiences is what the
Situationists intended people to experience (Butler, 2006).
The element of play was central to the practices of the Situationists and the
first psychogeographical walks. In more recent years, artists and cultural
geographers have begun experimenting with more playful ways of exploring
the city. Toyshop, an artist collective in New York have become interested in
what they call "productive mischief" when creating projects. (Pinder, 2005).
Using these creative playful means they aim to investigate the privatisation of
public space and the lack of reaction from the public about this. Some projects
the collective have produced have been giant chess games using people as
pieces and the street as the board and "algorithmic walking". These games
promote the public to find new ways of walking the city, taking routes not
usually taken. (Pinder, 2005). These experimental art projects are trying to
generate thought and conversation about the politics, meanings and values of
the space in the city in modern times. (Pinder, 2005).
Artist Jean - Pierre LeGoff staged an unconventional walk in Paris in order to
incite playfulness and to show how play can transform our perception of
space (Fenton, 2005). Using an imaginary clockas a map, at each hour tarot
cards relevant to the time at which the hour was, were placed at the location.
This unconventional map led to the participants uncovering unseen routes
through the city and with tarot cards added an extra psychic element to the
walk. By leaving the tarot cards at each location, the group created new
meanings and left traces of their experiences all around the city. Material
objects can add to the stories of the cities by signifying traces of previous tales
unheard.

4. For the Situationsit International, détournement was using pre-existing
materials and changing the cultural meaning of it for their own devices
(similar to the Dadaists). Mapping their psychogeographical excursions was a
form of this; the maps reflected emotions and energy flows rather than
specific locations and points. The experimental urban projects discussed in
this short essay record the changes and what is hidden instead of what is
constant and deemed "important" to map. (Kerr, 2002). Through
defamiliarizing the public with conventional representations of the city by
diverting the usual route and order of the streets and maps, fractures and
incoherence’s are uncovered (Pinder, 2005). Some of these experimental
mappings are not even visual; the audio walks locate thoughts, feelings and
emotions on an invisible map. Using these spatial practices, secret histories
and geographies are revealed that would not be by a conventional
diagrammatic map (Fenton, 2005).
From glimpsing at these recent experimental urban art projects, it is clear to
see that concepts of psychogeography have become popular in many facets of
today's mainstream western culture (Pinder, 2009). It relates not only to art
history but can be used effectively to address urban political contestations.
The issues that the Situationists used psychogeography as a means to contest
are very similar and in some cases identical to the ones faced now:
privatization of space, shrinking of pedestrian space and surveillance. (Souzis,
2014). Not only does this interrogation open up dialogue about these issues
but also opens up other possibilities forthe contested space (Pinder, 2005).
Psychogeographical ideas and practices have influenced not only the art world
but also in academia and urban planning (Souzis, 2014). Contemporary
psychogeography practices are highly significant to both the cultural
geography and art communities. Placing this artistic experimentation within
an academic framework allows us to recognize that if we are to understand
the city as best we can, multiple perspectives are needed (Pinder, 2005). As
this material is incredibly accessible to the public, the appeal for the work

5. surrounding the material would also attract beyond academic circles. This can
lead to better interaction and communication with the public and
geographical research (Butler, 2006).
To conclude, the legacy of psychogeography has continued in art practices
today and has been revised to adjust to modern times. Artists are using audio
tapes and downloadable mp3’s, mobile phones and GPS to introduce
psychogeography to this century (Pinder, 2005). The examples explored in
this essay identify key concepts of psychogeography in the artworks and this
signifies the value the psychogeographical approach still has. This approach is
increasingly studied by academics many that have begun attempting these
practices themselves.
References
 Butler, T. and Miller, G. (2005). Linked: a landmark in sound, a public
walk of art. Cultural Geographies, 12(1), pp.77-88.
 Butler, T. (2006). A walk of art: the potential of the sound walk as
practice in cultural geography. Social & Cultural Geography, 7(6),
pp.889-908.
 Coverley, M. (2010). Psychogeography. Harpenden, Herts: Pocket
Essentials.
 Fenton, J. (2005). Space, chance, time: walking backwards through the
hours on the left and right banks of Paris. Cultural Geographies, 12(4),
pp.412-428.
 Kerr, J. (2002). Mapping with latitude. In: Lingwood, Noord and Warner,
ed., Off limits: 40 Artangel Projects, 1st ed. London: Artangel, pp.102-
109.

6.  Pinder, D. (2001). Ghostly footsteps: voices, memories and walks in the
city. ecumene, 8(1), pp.1-19.
 Pinder, D. (2005). Arts ofurban exploration. Cultural Geographies,
12(4), pp.383-411.
 Pinder, D. (2009). Situationism, Situationist geographies. International
Encyclopedia of Human Geography, 10, pp 144-150
 Pinder, D. (2011). Errant paths: the poetics and politics of
walking. Environment and PlanningD: Society and Space, 29(4), pp.672-
692.
 Souzis, A. (2014). Momentary ambiances: psychogeography in
action. Cultural geographies, 22(1), pp.193-201.