Psychogeography

One of the things we looked at in our workshop was Psychogeography. We talked in class about it and discussed where it may be used.

Psychogeography was defined in 1955 by Guy Debord 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."

Another definition that was create was "a whole toy box full of playful, inventive strategies for exploring cities...just about anything that takes pedestrians off their predictable paths and jolts them into a new awareness of the urban landscape."

We had to get into group and use Psychogeography as a way of getting somewhere.

I was in a group with two other girls, Katie and Beth. We discussed the different ways that we could creatively guide ourselves around somewhere and see where we ended up in a certain time.

We decided that the method we would use to get around would by doing rock, paper scissors between the three of us. We started off walking down a street and when we got to a cross roads or two new turnings we would each stand with our back to a road, do rock paper scissors and whoever won, we would go down their road. We did this continuously for about 25 minutes and recorded as we went. We also got shots of when we were making the decision on what way we would go.

We went through Leicester town and ended up on the outskirts of the town center. It was a fun assignment to do as I had never done anything like that before and never thought to have rock, paper, scissors in charge of what direction I went in and where I ended up.

This has helped with what we may do in the future as it has introduced to me that this is part of media in a way where it has been studied and used within media.

I had never heard of Psychogeography before this class so when we were told about what it was and when I had researched it a bit more. I found it really interesting and really enjoyed going out and using rock, paper, scissors to decide where to go as I had never had thought about using something like the decide where I would go and what direction I would travel in.

This activity is something that I would enjoy carrying out again as I did find it very interesting.

I learnt that using rock, paper, scissors or even a method such as rolling a dice can be a good way to direct you around although it would be a very good idea as you may end up lost.