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<\/a>Overlooked Oxford<\/p><\/div>\n
For a while now, I\u2019ve referred to psychogeography as \u2018the art of getting lost\u2019, and it\u2019s this I\u2019ve been doing a lot of so far during this residency; deliberately getting lost as a way of uncovering the overlooked and as a means to understand this place on my own terms. The term was first coined by Situationist Guy Debord, who was interested in \u201cdrifting\u201d through the urban environment as a way of unpicking the power it might hold over everyday lives. The focus here is on travelling aimlessly, going without purpose, but paying keen attention to one\u2019s moods, psychic reactions and feelings as the changing landscape casts its charm.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Overlooked Oxford<\/p><\/div>\n
Will Self, psychogeographer-extraordinaire, referred to the Situationists as \u2018a group of insufferably pretentious French Marxists\u2019. He was probably correct. That said, even if we remove the anti-capitalist stance of reclaiming the consumerist power structures of our spaces, there is still much to gain from the practice. We move in the same ways day after day and week after week – moving to work, home, the homes of family and friends – our landscapes have been designed to help facilitate this utilitarian movement. We lose so much of the potency of place in doing this. I say, get lost. I say, go down roads, lanes and alleyways you\u2019ve never been down before. Go by bike, bus, hopping even – anyway that takes you out of the mundane and everyday and forces you think about you and your locale in different, idiosyncratic ways. The psychogeographer travels without functional purpose – armed with curiosity and a magpie-esque attention to the genius loci.<\/p>\n
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