radical geography

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radical geography

• part seven art, experimentation, and doing
  geography

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experimental geography

• a blend of art and geography, the area is
  characterized primarily by its interdisciplinary
  nature, an openness to exploration by artists who
  reference multiple physical and conceptual
  sources, from the fields, for example, of
  science, history, economics, politics, culture,
  and even art, in thinking about the human use of
  land. These investigation take the form of maps
  and charts, both actual and virtual bus tours
  and physical intervention in the urban landscape
  or in nature.
• from forward to Experimental Geography by
  Judith Olch Richards

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psychogeography

• PsychoGeography the study of the precise laws
  and specific effects of the geographical
  environment, consciously organized or not, on the
  emotions and behavior of individuals.
• PsychoGeography is
• diverse activities that raise awareness of the
  natural and cultural environment around you
  attentive to senses and emotions as they relate
  to place and environment serious fun often
  political and critical of the status quo
• Derive aimless, random drifting through a
  place, guided by whim and an awareness of how
  different spaces draw you in or repel you.
• (--John Krygier)

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psychogeography
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psychogeography
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psychogeography
"a collaborative psychogeographic experience in
the form of a 24 hour exploration of San Jose.
Participants drifted through new and familiar
city spaces with a Glowlab coach and a mobile kit
of recording tools, contributing to a collective
journey of endurance and discovery with images
from camera phones, audio from voice calls, and
location via geocoded addresses sent by SMS."  
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kanarinka's project to map the evacuation route
of Boston in the number of human breaths it took
"an attempt to measure our post-9/11 collective
fear in the individual breaths that it takes to
traverse these new geographies of insecurity."  
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maps to raise consciousness
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maps to raise consciousness
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maps to raise consciousness
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maps to raise consciousness
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maps to raise consciousness
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activist spatial practice
All space is occupied by the enemy. We are
living under a permanent curfew. Not just the
cops - the geometry. True urbanism will start by
causing the occupying forces to disappear from a
small number of places. That will be the
beginning of what we mean by construction. The
concept of the positive void coined by modern
physics might prove illuminating. Gaining our
freedom is, in the first place, ripping off a few
acres from the face of a domesticated
planet. from Unitary Urbanism by Attila Kotanyi
and Raoul Vaneigem (IS no. 6, 1961)
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activist spatial practice
The closure of the map The last bit of Earth
unclaimed by any nation-state was eaten up in
1899. Ours is the first century without terra
incognita, without a frontier. Nationality is the
highest principle of world governance--not one
speck of rock in the South Seas can be left open,
not one remote valley, not even the Moon and
planets. This is the apotheosis of "territorial
gangsterism." Not one square inch of Earth goes
unpoliced or untaxed...in theory. The "map" is a
political abstract grid, a gigantic con enforced
by the carrot/stick conditioning of the "Expert"
State, until for most of us the map becomes the
territory- -no longer "Turtle Island," but "the
USA." And yet because the map is an abstraction
it cannot cover Earth with 11 accuracy. Within
the fractal complexities of actual geography the
map can see only dimensional grids. Hidden
enfolded immensities escape the measuring rod.
The map is not accurate the map cannot be
accurate. ... We are looking for "spaces"
(geographic, social, cultural, imaginal) with
potential to flower as autonomous zones--and we
are looking for times in which these spaces are
relatively open, either through neglect on the
part of the State or because they have somehow
escaped notice by the mapmakers, or for whatever
reason. Psychotopology is the art of dowsing for
potential TAZs. --Hakim Bey, from The Temporary
Autonomous Zone
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activist spatial practice
In some ways, this kind of revolutionary speech
seems to belong to the last century. In this
century, it seems that the map is less closed
than we thought. The world is too big, or at
least too fragmented complex, for any one
empire / paradigm to control. Nation-states
reveal themselves as flawed fictions. Monolithic
central planning and concrete apartment blocks
and sprawlscapes are revealed as misguided ideas.
Shopping malls across the land are dropping dead.
It seems that new uses for space are not only
possible, but welcomed. What do you think?