In our workshops we were recently presented with the idea of psycho-geography. "Pyscho-what?" was my first reaction to the idea - as I had never heard of it before. After some discussion in class, as well as research, I discovered a good definition of it as "the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organised or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals." Whilst this definition is a bit wordy, it does cover the main point of psycho-geography - seeing an environment in a different way, so that its effect on behavior and emotions can be found.
One way of doing this simply is by taking a stroll through a place you are familiar with, but by taking a different route to normal. By doing this, you are likely to notice new and interesting things that one would not have otherwise seen. This is a simple way of implementing psycho-geography and is one that we were asked to follow in class.
Within my group, we originally decided to take a walk that mapped out the acronym "LOL" on a map of Leicester, but after starting our walk, our attentions wandered and so we just decided to spontaneously walk in a new direction after a certain distance. This random nature of the walk captured the idea of psycho-geography well in my opinion as it allowed us to truly discover Leicester in an individual way as we were looking at it through fresh eyes, due to the random way in which our walk was conducted.
Here is the result of our walk on a modified Google Map:
By using this map, it related our walk back to digital media and showed how a simple project like this psycho-geography one, can be integrated totally within the digital world. Whilst our outcome was simple - we used a Google map with images pinned to it - it could have been much more complex due to the wide variety of websites available. Had we wanted to be more detailed, we could have uploaded video at each location to a site like YouTube or Vimeo. Had we wanted to record sound at locations we could have used AudioBoo. The possibilities are endless for doing this kind of task - and if done on a large scale could have a profound effect on people.
I think psycho-geography is a clever idea, and is one that is open to much development and interactivity in a digital age. When it was originally realised, photography was the only true form of doing a project like this, but thanks to the era that we are living in, pyscho-geography can be so much more. It can transform somewhere mundane into somewhere new. It can allow residents of areas to see their hometowns in new lights, and it can allow tourists to see just what a place has to offer.
Whilst my group may have done a fairly simple project - I think we showed how even a random stroll through town can provide an interesting viewpoint on the place in which we all live and work - something I believe is the aim of psycho-geography.
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