Editing Psychogeography (section)

==Contemporary psychogeography==

[[File:Enkutatash-sex-majik-2004.GIF|thumb|A proliferation of psychogeographical groups in the 90s and early 00s was credited to the re-emergence of the London Psychogeographical Association. evoL PsychogeogrAphix 2003]]
[[File:Sex-majik-2004.GIF|thumb|evoL PsychogeogrAphix 2004]]

In 1987 the psychoanthropologist Howard F. Stein of the University of Oklahoma published ''Developmental Time, Cultural Space: Studies in Psychogeography,'' introducing a new way of looking at how human beings deal with geographical entities, and how the latter resonate in their unconscious mind with personal ones. This was followed in 1989 by a book titled ''Maps from the Mind: Readings in Psychogeography'', edited by Howard Stein and by William Niederland, an eminent psychoanalyst, which incorporated fifteen chapters on various psychogeographical subjects by interdisciplinary scholars. The main focus of this new psychogeography was the application of psychoanalytic insights to our interactions with geographical entities.

Since the 1990s, as situationist theory became popular in artistic and academic circles, [[avant-garde]], [[neoist]], and [[revolutionary]] groups emerged, developing psychogeographical [[praxis (process)|praxis]] in various ways. Influenced primarily through the re-emergence of the [[London Psychogeographical Association]] and the foundation of [[The Workshop for Non-Linear Architecture]], these groups have assisted in the development of a contemporary psychogeography.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://psychogeography.org |title=psychogeography.org weblog and archive |access-date=2017-07-28}}</ref> Between 1992 and 1996 The Workshop for Non-Linear Architecture undertook an extensive programme of practical research into classic (situationist) psychogeography in both [[Glasgow]] and London. The discoveries made during this period, documented in the group's journal ''Viscosity'', expanded the terrain of the psychogeographic into that of [[urban design]] and architectural performance. Morag Rose has identified three dominant strands in contemporary psychogeography: literary, activist and creative.<ref>{{Cite thesis|title=Women walking Manchester : desire lines through the original modern city|url=http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/19889/|publisher=University of Sheffield|date=2017|degree=Ph.D.|first=Morag|last=Rose}}</ref><sup>:29</sup>

The journal ''[[Transgressions: A Journal of Urban Exploration]]'' (which appears to have ceased publication sometime in 2000) collated and developed a number of post-avant-garde revolutionary psychogeographical themes. The journal also contributed to the use and development of psychogeographical maps which have, since 2000, been used in political actions, drifts and projections, distributed as flyers.{{Citation needed|date=October 2020}} Since 2003 in the [[United States]], separate events known as [[Provflux]] and [[Psy-Geo-conflux]] have been dedicated to action-based participatory experiments, under the academic umbrella of psychogeography. An article on the second annual [[Psy-Geo-conflux]] described psychogeography as "a slightly stuffy term that's been applied to a whole toy box full of playful, inventive strategies for exploring cities."<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Hart|first=Joseph|date=Jun 1, 2004|title=A New Way of Walking|url=https://www.utne.com/community/a-new-way-of-walking|magazine=[[Utne Reader]]}}</ref>  Psychogeography has also made a methodological appearance in [[Library and Information Science]]. <ref>{{cite journal|last=Evans|first=Woody|date=2020|title=The Library Ceremony: Oracles, Accidents, and Information Discovery|author-link=Woody Evans|journal=Weave: Journal of Library User Experience|volume=3 |doi=10.3998/weave.12535642.0003.104 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

Psychogeography also became a device used in [[literature]]. In [[United Kingdom|Britain]] in particular, psychogeography has become a recognised descriptive term used in discussion of successful writers such as [[Iain Sinclair]] and [[Peter Ackroyd]].<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4" /> Sinclair is '[a]rguably the most high-profile British psychogeographer' and is credited with having a strong influence on the term's greater public use in the United Kingdom.<ref name=":3" /><sup>:9</sup> Though Sinclair makes infrequent use of the jargon associated with the Situationists, he has certainly popularized the term by producing a large body of work based on pedestrian exploration of the urban and suburban landscape.{{Citation needed|date=October 2020}}  Scholar Duncan Hay asserts that Sinclair's work does not represent the utopian and revolutionary foundations of Situationist practice, and instead 'finds its expression as a literary mode, a position that would have appeared paradoxical to its original practitioners'.<ref name=":3" /><sup>:3</sup> Sinclair has distanced himself from the term, declaring it a 'very nasty set of branding'.<ref name=":5" /><sup>:19</sup> [[Will Self]] also contributed to the popularisation of the term in Great Britain through a column in the Saturday magazine of the national [[broadsheet]] ''[[The Independent]]''.<ref name=":3" /><sup>:11;</sup><ref>{{Cite book|last=Self|first=Will|title=Psychogeography: Disentangling the Modern Conundrum of Psyche and Place|others=Ralph Steadman|id={{ASIN|1596914661|country=uk}}}}</ref> The column, which started out in the [[British Airways]] [[inflight magazine]], ran in ''The Independent'' until October 2008. {{Citation needed|date=October 2020}}

Sinclair and similar thinkers draw on a longstanding British literary tradition of the exploration of urban landscapes, predating the Situationists, found in the work of writers [[William Blake]], [[Arthur Machen]], and [[Thomas de Quincey]].  The nature and history of [[London]] were a central focus of these writers, utilising [[Romanticism|romantic]], [[gothic novel|gothic]], and [[occult]] ideas to describe and transform the city.  Sinclair drew on this tradition combined with his own explorations as a way of criticising modern developments of urban space in the key text ''Lights Out for the Territory''.  Peter Ackroyd's bestselling ''London: A Biography'' was partially based on similar sources. Merlin Coverley gives prominence to this literary tradition in his book ''Psychogeography'' (2006).<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|last=Coverley|first=Merlin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QyxHDwAAQBAJ&q=merlin+coverley+psychogeography|title=Psychogeography|date=2018-06-28|publisher=Oldcastle Books|isbn=978-0-85730-270-0|language=en}}</ref> Coverley recognises the situationist origins of psychogeographic practice are sometimes overshadowed by literary traditions, but that they had a shared tradition through writers like [[Edgar Allan Poe]], [[Daniel Defoe]], and Charles Baudelaire.

The documentaries of filmmaker [[Patrick Keiller]] are also considered to be an example of psychogeography.<ref name="Tate Modern">{{Cite web|url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/psychogeography|title = Psychogeography – Art Term}}</ref>

The concepts and themes seen in the popular comics' writer [[Alan Moore]] in ''[[From Hell]]'' are also now seen as significant works of psychogeography.  Other key figures in this version of the idea are [[Walter Benjamin]], [[J. G. Ballard]], and [[Nicholas Hawksmoor]].  Part of this development saw increasing use of ideas and terminology by some psychogeographers from [[Charles Fort|Fort]]ean and occult areas including [[earth mysteries]], [[ley lines]] and [[chaos magic]], a course pioneered by Sinclair.  A core element in virtually all these developments remains a dissatisfaction with the nature and design of the modern environment, and a desire to make the everyday world more interesting.{{Citation needed|date=October 2020}}

[[Aleksandar Janicijevic]], the initiator of the Urban Squares Initiative,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Yılmaz|first=Ebru|date=2016|title=Subjectivity in Design Education: The Perception of the City through Personal Maps|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jade.12005|journal=International Journal of Art & Design Education|language=en|volume=35|issue=1|pages=121–139|doi=10.1111/jade.12005|issn=1476-8070|hdl=11147/6126|hdl-access=free}}</ref> defined psychogeography for the group in the following terms: "The subjective analysis–mental reaction, to neighbourhood behaviours related to geographic location. A chronological process based on the order of appearance of observed topics, with the time delayed inclusion of other relevant instances".<ref>{{cite web|date=2008-12-26|title=Psychogeography Maps|url=http://urbansquares.com/12psychomaps.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090330183148/http://urbansquares.com/12psychomaps.html|archive-date=March 30, 2009|website=urbansquares.com}}</ref> In 2013 Aleksandar Janicijevic published "Urbis – Language of the urban fabric" as a visual attempt to rediscover lost or neglected urban symbols. In 2015 another book was published, "MyPsychogeography", an attempt to synthesize sketches and ideas which have informed his art practice.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://photoblog.urbansquares.com/?page_id=170 |title=psychogeography now – window to the urban future &#124; …… |publisher=Photoblog.urbansquares.com |access-date=2013-04-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130606150623/http://photoblog.urbansquares.com/?page_id=170 |archive-date=2013-06-06 }}</ref>{{Self-published inline|date=October 2020}}