Under Construction @ Keele 2018 Vol. IV (II) | Page 23

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where an object, place, thing, or event is reflected or becomes a powerful symbol within the
site of investigation. For example: recollections of the mining strikes at the sites of former
mines due to the presence of old machinery or buildings, or the recognition of visiting a site
before and allowing that experience to transpose with another. Such is the case with the work
of Gareth E. Rees, particularly his chapter Wooden Stones, where he regards the charred
remains of Hastings Pier, the futility of sentimentality over footprints in the sand, and the
Hastings West Hill ‘striated with benches’ bearing ‘inscription after inscription’ 7 of the dead.
Alongside this, Rees repeatedly draws attention to the death of his childhood friend, Mike, who
fell to his death in Fife. Throughout the piece, Rees parallels the ‘present’ site of the memorial
walks in Hastings with the ‘past’ site of Mike’s body ‘found, laid gently on the rocks beneath
the castle at low tide.’ 8 Through his use of psychogeography, Rees allows the two temporal
sites to coalesce by investigating (or re-covering) the effects of the ‘past’ event on his ‘present’
perceptions of the environment. Rees creates a moment where these seemingly disconnected
moments haunt one another in a way that not only results in a piece of biographical place
writing, but also allows for a deconstruction of the linkage between perceptions of death and
place.
Another central theme within psychogeography is the conscious reimagining of places
and spaces. Practitioners may investigate the haunting elements of places, such as the
messages left behind in graffiti or signs, and use those hauntings to ‘story’ a location in
surprising ways. This is a method used by Iain Sinclair in London Orbital, documenting a series
of walks around the ‘halogen necklace that is the M25’ 9 , where he populates his route with
descriptions of ‘tattered sails of greenery, roadside plantings, overripe saplings fed on diesel’ 10
and ‘weed slippery skeletons of motorcycles, dredged from the filthy water…travellers,
barechested…diving for scrap. Ropes and hooks. Mounds of antique irons.’ 11 Using
psychogeography, Sinclair and Rees illuminate those facets of the urban environment that are
often surprising and idiosyncratic, but often go unnoticed. Their writing represents a conscious
reimaging of spaces where function is taken for granted, with the example of the M25
transforming in Sinclair’s ‘re-storying’ of it from a site dedicated to mass transit to one that is
populated with unexpected, symbolic narratives. This occurs not only in the function of
psychogeographic writing but also in its technique, with many writers including Sinclair and
Rees adopting varied forms of creative non-fiction.
7 Gareth Rees, “Wooden Stones,” in Walking Inside Out: Contemporary British Psychogeography, ed.
Tina Richardson (London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015), 109
8 Rees, “Wooden Stones,” 107.
9 Nicholas Royle, “London Orbital by Iain Sinclair,” review of London Orbital, by Iain Sinclair, The
Independent, September 20, 2002, https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-
entertainment/books/reviews/london-orbital-by-iain-sinclair-177292.html
10 Sinclair, London Orbital (London: Penguin. 2002), 88
11 Sinclair, London Orbital, 53