14
Papadimitriou’ s Deep Topography; the LRM’ s( Loiterer’ s Resistance Movement) Loitering With Intent; and the dawdling of the Keele Dawdlers Walking Group. 4
To attempt to summarise psychogeography it is essential to reference the commonalities of these methodologies. Firstly, all employ a form of critical walking where practitioners attempt to suspend temporo-spatial urges( i. e. reaching certain places within desired timeframes or conforming fully to blockages and re-routes). Secondly the practitioner attempts to explore the environment while following the sensory, emotional and physical ambiances – what Coverley terms as‘ zones that cannot be determined simply by architectural or economic conditions’ 5 – of the selected space. Examples of this include following a scent to its origin; turning right at a sign directing left; and moving hyper-specifically such as not deviating from certain pathways even when physically blocked. While these are only a small selection of methods, each attempt to propel the practitioner into a state of drift, what the SI termed dérive. Dérive is categorised by aimless walking, a pedestrian act of resisting capitalist normalised movement patterns that restrict mobility to routes to and from sites of production and consumption. Instead of casually strolling to an intended destination, the psychogeographer responds to the‘ solicitations of the terrain’ to investigate the palimpsestic nature of space, as opposed to the conventional mythology of space as solely constituted of concepts such as: production value, monetary exchange and experiental worth. 6 By consciously challenging and experimenting with spatial grand narratives( i. e. the socially accepted methods of movement within certain places; the needs, values, and uses of mobilities; or the conformity to ideological route-mapping designed to demarcate various human zones) the psychogeographer can deconstruct the environment as a site of spatial, linguistic, cultural and economic contestation rather than a totalising concept such as‘ the city’,‘ the town’, or‘ the park’. This deconstruction can be achieved by using the notions of drifting, aimlessness, and active observation as flexibly or rigidly as they choose.
Psychogeography as Re-covering / Re-imagining
As much as the paragraphs above partially explain the methodologies used by psychogeographers, it is important to understand the motivations behind the methods in contemporary practice. Many practitioners are concerned with themes of reclamation and recovering ground that has been‘ covered’ or‘ trodden’ in unconnected and multiplicitous ways. The idea of hauntings – both personal and social, and of time existing outside of rigid narratives of past-present-future – permeate recent psychogeographical practice. Haunting is
4
An organisation of walking-writers at Keele University, of which I am a founding member.
5
Coverley, Psychogeography, 90.
6
Guy Debord, Theory of Derive( London: Atlantic Books. 1997 [ 1958 ]), 50