R U Experienced?

Exercise 5 (final): Psychogeographics April 8, 2009

Guy Debord is the best known theorist from an (infamous) movement called the “Situationists.” In 1955 he defined Psychogeography as the “the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals” (Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography, 1955).

Debord also wrote “an urban neigborhood is determined not only by  geographical and economic factors, but also by the image that its inhabitants and those of other neighborhoods have of it.”

For your last exercise, practice “psychogeographic mapping” by taking mental notes during our field trip to Kensington Market. Design and post a simple map in the blog in time for our last class together, Thursday April 16.

I’d like you to

• Pay attention to what your senses tell you
• Record experiential effects in the route through Chinatown and/or Kensington Market
• Think of a simple way to express your senses and feelings about the environment, the walk, the ‘feel’ of the places we go through and to today.
• Contrast this gritty, real, textural urban experience with the digital work we will find in the gallery.
• Consider the difference between effects that are “designed” — intentional reflections of the vision of the designer or team — and those that are “emergent” — the result of repetitive actions by numerous diverse actors, include wear, layers of residue from postering or graffiti, built up textures and shapes like those that arise as a city block evolves over time.
• Your map should include and react to these ideas.

Thanks for everything.

–Greg