Space, Place &
Psychogeography

Foss4g13

Chippy Tim Waters - @tim_waters

Other Projects:

OSM / HOT

MapWarper.net

OpenHistoricalMaps

Topomancy LLC

Open Gazetteers

No time for questions I promise to finish early ifyou promise to go outside.

Post stuff to #foss4g13

Psychogeography

Debord / Situationism

the Situationists found contemporary architecture both physically and ideologically restrictive, combining with outside cultural influence, effectively creating an undertow, and forcing oneself into a certain system of interaction with their environment.

Debord

Tortoise

Chambert de Lauwe - All trips made in one year by a student living the sixteenth District 1950s

The Theory of the Derive

One of the basic situationist practices is the drive [literally: drifting],a technique of rapid passage through varied ambiances. Drives involve playful-constructive behaviour and awareness of psychogeographical effects, and are thus quite different from the classic notions of journey or stroll.

In a drive one or more persons during a certain period drop their relations, their work and leisure activities, and all their other usual motives for movement and action, and let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there. Chance is a less important factor in this activity than one might think: from a drive point of view cities have psychogeographical contours, with constant currents, fixed points and vortexes that strongly discourage entry into or exit from certain zones.

We define ourselves by our surroundings and our situations.If you are brought up in a neighbourhood that resembles a rat trap, pretty soon you are going to come to the conclusion that you are probably a rat. If on the other hand you have got to the tool of psychogeography or poetry, then you can look at the ordinary world around you with the eye of a poet. If you have that kind of insight into the tawdry and debased streets in which most of us spend our lives, then instead of walking down a rat trap you are walking through cataclysmic history from your personal memories to the local legends then the rat trap becomes a fable, a mythological landscape. And just as living in rat trap will give you the impression you live in a rat trap, then l suspect that living in a mythological landscape might after a while give you the subliminal impression that you are at least a mythological figure. A heroic character in your own narrative

Denis WoodTwo types of psychogeography

Debordian / SituationistLynchian

Situationist approach for cities

Urban Planning

Current approach

One around play

Why?

Because the cities and towns where we live are increasingly militarised and made banal. Because there is a conspiracy of boredom against the city. Because the Great God Pan, the rural deity, is long dead and we need different myths now. Because the city is chopped and parcelled up like a rack of commodities. Because the city is streamlined for ignorance and meaninglessness. Because hidden inside the functionality of the city are the secrets of texture and grain. Because the lost or stolen symbols of the city are still available for stealing back. Because the self-possession of the non-rich has always been a work of imagination. Because of the erosion of public space. Because no matter how much is planned and how much is subject to opportunism, this is only goes to producing accidental playgrounds and launch pads and caves. Because of violence, property, loss and neglect of people and space. Because we are mobile. For the sake of remnants and traces. To be prepared and spontaneous. Because we are prepared to be spontaneous. Because we are poised.http://www.triarchypress.com/pages/Sardine-Street-Box-of-Tricks.htm

Examples

Urban exploration?

Free Running?

The aim of the LunchTime Drive was to study how, by following a simple instruction, a group of workers could re-experience the town during their Lunch Break. The daily hunt for a prawn sandwich or Chicken Tikka Marsala Ready Meal will be replaced with a drift motivated by following a basic algorithm Left left right

http://mappingweirdstuff.wordpress.com/Mapping Weird Stuff is a course offered as part of the OWjL summer camp at Ohio Wesleyan.

BiomappingChristian Nold

Unconscious reflection

Make Playce Leeds

http://my.parkingday.org Parking Day

Beating the bounds

Bring booze!

Power of Maps

Classic Examplesordnance surveyaldermaston

in Brazil, Google said it would tweak the sites [Google Maps'] design, namely its text size and district labeling to show favela names only after users zoomed in on those areas.

Map Kiberadwelling and the act of mapping dwelling and equalyl the act of not mapping dwelling and instead labelling them vacant land is therefore all about power

maps dont merely represent space, they shape arguments, they set discursive boundaries and identify objects to be considered.

when individuals make their own maps, they offer and expression of what they consider important what they consider to be of interest and for which they are willing to fight for.

challenge to presumed neutrality of the mapmaker.

Maps are made by people.

Reflect our interests.

OSM mapping asa form of derive

OSM have own schema for exploration

Keep Right

(or keep left)

Exploration.

Discovery.

Not regular / allowed activity.

Maps are made by people.

Reflect our interests.

Gender
Baby HatchPubCrecheChildcare

wedothisbecauseweforget

Useful for blind people? Navigation aids

Whats there?

Permanent?

NoiseLitterChildrens play equipment

Denis Woodgeography of the children of detroit.

mapped automobiles, trucks, dogs, cats, green shubs and trees, dead shrubs and trees, bicyles, scooters, rubbish, trash, broken paper, litter cans.Bloomfield: grass, green shrubs and trees, bikes and toys. yards have ponds, toys, gym sets, play area.Mack ave - there are more dead shrubs than living, yards are fenced, no play areas, no bikes.

Trees Last longer than pubs

BinsLitter

Rubbish collection routesLandfillswaste trade - internationalrecycling & sustainability

The end of the talking bit

Go Outside

Afterwards, tweet to #foss4g

Meet up later and chat

1. Get into a group of MAX 3 people

2. Pick up a task one per group

Map textures

Follow someone for 2 mins & repeat

Map shadows

Follow sounds

Turn Left, Turn Right

Follow your nose

Find objects

Close your eyes - let someone guide.

Walk as if you had a tortoise.

----Walk with me on a sound walk (max 8)

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