The Revival of Psychogeography
"Psychogeography is hot. Guy Debord, founding member of Situationist International and the man who coined the term in 1955, defined the phenomenon as 'the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals'. In fact, psychogeography is the art of strolling, or just about anything that gets pedestrians off their predictable paths and leads them to a new awareness of the urban landscape. Recently we've seen a remarkable psychogeographic revival driven by several artistic urban projects and smartphone applications."
(Jeroen Beekmans, 4 January 2012, The Pop-Up City)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Body>Data>Space: Canary Wharf Waterfall
"Building Design Magazine (BD) has published an article by Elaine Knutt discussing the potential for telematic experiences to be constructed in public spaces by the use of interactive architectural surfaces. Telematics (tele-communication and informatics) broadly explores how communication has transformed our experience of social connectivity and new emergining patterns of communication and power structures.
Thanks to this article I was pleased to find out about a new group of artists and architects called bodydataspace ( b>d>s) created by Ghislaine Boddington and Armand Terruli who are exploring 'the integration of interactive and body-intuitive interfaces into public sites. Bodydataspace have proposed that Canary Wharf, London's tallest building 235m, have a giant projected waterfall cascading down its facade. The waterfall would not be a computer generated animation but a real-time projection of Angel Falls in Venezuela. the world's highest free-falling waterfall at 979m."
(Ruairi Glynn, Interactive Architecture dot Org)
CONTRIBUTOR
David RogersonSHARE
National Gallery shows the world's oldest profession
"London's National Gallery will be showing the work Hoerengracht, by Ed and Nancy Kienholz, in November next year. The walk-in installation recreates, in meticulous detail, the 'whores' canal' of Amsterdam's (in)famous red light district."
(The Guardian, UK)
CONTRIBUTOR
David RogersonSHARE
Urban Wallpaper: Improvised Juxtapositions
Marshall Soules (Malaspina University-College)
Urban Wallpaper charts the "psychogeographical contours" of selected cities by documenting the improvised juxtapositions--and deconstruction--of cultural announcements. Each image is a narrative of passing events requiring patient translation. Each image is a collective improvisation reminding us that the construction of culture derives from a series of contrapuntal actions partly ruled by chance within a matrix of protocols, and partly created by individual self-assertion.
CONTRIBUTOR
The Constellations ProjectSHARE
Psychogeography and the Dérive
"The situationists' desire to become psychogeographers, with an understanding of the 'precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organised or not, on the emotions and behaviour of individuals', was intended to cultivate an awareness of the ways in which everyday life is presently conditioned and controlled, the ways in which this manipulation can be exposed and subverted, and the possibilities for chosen forms of constructed situations in the post-spectacular world. Only an awareness of the influences of the existing environment can encourage the critique of the present conditions of daily life, and yet it is precisely this concern with the environment which we live which is ignored."
(Sadie Plant)
CONTRIBUTOR
The Constellations ProjectSHARE
