Psychogeography

Urban Cultural Studies posted “The City as You’ve Never Seen it Before” and it got me thinking about mapping and the Situationist Interntional. The Situationist International, an international group of revolutionary artists, philosophers and architects, was founded in 1957. The S.I. fought against the capitalist system and advocated for an alternative life style. In response to the city model Parisian urban planners were developing, the S.I. used the map of Paris to reconfigure the experience of the city by constructing situations that playfully and inventively explored the urban.  Psychogeography was one of the particular strategies that the S. I. used to lead pedestrians off their predictable passageways and conduits within the city and  surprised them with new experiences or insight of their urban landscape. By manipulating the map itself, they intervened in the logic of the city, constructing an alternative geography as well as a providing a different perspective of the city. They used mapping to bring together personal narratives and perceptions to counter the permanency of established cartography practices. While these maps provoked new ways of seeing and the city they also presented a new form of cartography.

Guy Debord, The Naked City, 1957

Guy Debord, The Naked City, 1957

Guy Debord

Guy Debord

Armelle Caron, Paris (from tout bien range series), 2005-2008

Armelle Caron, Paris (from tout bien range series), 2005-2008

Armelle Caron, New York  (from tout bien range series), 2005-2008

Armelle Caron, Berlin (from tout bien range series), 2005-2008

Armelle Caron, Montpelllier  (from tout bien range series), 2005-2008

Microurbanism Interactions, Instant Hutong, ongoing

Gerda Kruimer, Six Easy Pieced no. 1 (HEHAHO standing), 2010

Gerda Kruimer, Six Easy Pieced no. 1 (She), 2009

Gerda Kruimer, Rastertekeningen B1b en B1a, 2008

Gerda Kruimer, Schilderlj, 2005

Gerda Kruimer, Tekening  no.3, 2008