The Circuitous Route : Slice Three

Continuing the meaty bits (or the stale bread bits) of my recent talk, "The Circuitous Route : Chance, Information and Geography" .......

It is time to reflect on the question, "how did I become a psychogeographer?". The answer - given what I have said so far - is, of course, "by chance".

 

Indeed until a few weeks ago I had no idea I was a psychogeographer as I had no idea the movement existed. And then one day I was describing my Ten Square project to a friend and he declared, "What you are doing is psychogeography, there is a whole group of people who meet in Leeds to discuss various aspects of psychogeography, I must tell them about you". I am thus the Grandma Moses of psychogeography : the equivalent of the little old lady happily splashing away with her paint and brushes and in blissful ignorance that what she is producing is what others will call art. My friend told the Leeds Psychogeography Group about this Grandma Moses living out in Huddersfield and you very kindly invited me to come along and tell you about my work. 

Of course the first thing I did was to look "psychogeography" up in Wikipedia. Wiki provides us with two definitions, the first is the classic 1955 definition by Guy Debord : "the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organised or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals". The definition might have been a bit heavy, but at least it let me know that psychogeography existed and I wasn't the subject of a complex practical joke, Psychogeography, I discovered, wasn't quite as esoteric as I had imagined : one British newspaper had featured a regular column on psychogeography by the celebrated writer Will Self. But it was the second definition that held my attention : "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". "Mama", I shouted to myself, "I have come home"

Shortly after I started my News From Nowhere Blog in 2006 I was stood in the Fish and Chip shop one day when I noticed that they had a Mission Statement pinned to the wall. It proclaimed : "It is our aim to serve our customers with the very best freshly-fried and nutritious fish and chips, prepared from locally sourced products and served by attentive, courteous and well-qualified staff". I quickly decided that if a fish and chip shop could have a Mission Statement. a blog should have one as well and soon came up with "Never to go in a straight line when a circuitous route is available". I have tried to remain true to my mission in the four years I have been blogging, avoiding getting to the point with the nimble skill of a Victorian cutpurse. The discovery that what my old school-teacher called "Alan's inability to stick to the point and reach a conclusion" could be the proud badge of a psychogeographer, was a happy discovering indeed.

So in the knowledge that I am a fully-paid up member of the Chartered Institute of Psychogeographers, let is move on to the third of my ten squares ...