This document discusses psychogeography, which is defined as the study of how specific geographical environments consciously or unconsciously impact people's emotions and behaviors. It explores the history and concepts of psychogeography as developed by the Situationist International in the 1950s and 1960s. The document also examines some modern forms of psychogeography and debates questions around its definitions, popularity, and potential risks of being co-opted for commercial purposes.

1. Psychogeography
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2. Situationist Aesthetics: The SI, Now
University of Sussex
8 June 2012
My Name is Tina and I'm a Psychogeographer
Situating the Addictions and Abuses of Urban Walking Today
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Tina Richardson
University of Leeds

3. Why did the psychogeographer cross the road?

4. The Problems of Psychogeography

Does psychogeography's vagueness mean it
will always escape rigid definitions?

What might the impact be of an increase in
popularity of psychogeography?

How long can it evade being co-opted and
keep ahead of a potential 'psychogeography
industry'?

5. Psychogeography for the SI
The study of the specific effects of the geographical
environment, consciously organized or not, on the
emotions and behavior of individuals.
[the] active observation of present-day urban
agglomerations
cities have psychogeographical contours, with
constant currents, fixed points and vortexes that
strongly discourage entry into or exit from certain
zones.
[A psychogeographer is] One who explores and
reports on psychogeographical phenomena.
(Situationist International)

6. An urban walk does not a
psychogeographer make...

7. Summer 2011 in Holbeck, Leeds
This area of Leeds is in the
process of being pulled down to
make way for the extended
Holbeck Urban Village project.
It has momentarily come to a halt
because the council ran out of
money.

8. Positive aspects providing an
awareness of:

How the built environment impinges on the aesthetics of
everyday life

The encroachment of private space into public space

The politico-economics of space e.g. uneven development
under capitalism

The importance of the body being used, in conjunction with
space, as a form of protest

How psychogeographers can work with urban planners to
help facilitate more conducive living-working environments

The potential value of discussions on community in regards
to a sense of place

9. Forms of Psychogeography
Deep Topography
Nick Papadimitriou and John Rogers
Mythogeography
Phil Smith aka the Crab Man

10. Googling Schizocartography

11. Falling Victim to Consumerism

Unethical organisations can align themselves with
psychogeographers under the guise of appearing to address local
issues

It can be used to appease communities and/or pressure groups

Organisations can add it to their 'CV' in the same way they do with
Corporate Social Responsibility

It opens the floodgates to a potential 'bandwagon' of spurious
psychogeographers

The cheapening or diluting of the term 'psychogeography'

The capitalist machine hijacks it by applying it to consumer
products in order to exploit its commercial potential

A consumerist, watered-down, co-opted version of
psychogeography goes against the basic principles of a critique of
the spectacle

12. The Twelve Step Programme