Psychogeography
- the study of the influence of geographical environment on the mind or on behaviour.
Tate:
"How do different places make us feel and behave? The term psychogeography was invented by the Marxist theorist Guy Debord in 1955 in order to explore this. Inspired by the French nineteenth century poet and writer Charles Baudelaire’s concept of the flâneur – an urban wanderer – Debord suggested playful and inventive ways of navigating the urban environment in order to examine its architecture and spaces.
As a founding member of the avant-garde movement Situationist International, an international movement of artists, writers and poets who aimed to break down the barriers between culture and everyday life, Debord wanted a revolutionary approach to architecture that was less functional and more open to exploration.
The reimagining of the city proposed by psychogeography has its roots in dadaism and surrealism, art movements which explored ways of unleashing the subconscious imagination. Tristam Hillier’s paintings such as La Route des Alpes 1937 could be described as an early example of the concept.
Psychogeography gained popularity in the 1990s when artists, writers and filmmakers such as Iain Sinclair and Patrick Keiller began using the idea to create works based on exploring locations by walking."
The Conversation:
"Psychogeography, as the term suggests, is the intersection of psychology and geography. It focuses on our psychological experiences of the city, and reveals or illuminates forgotten, discarded, or marginalised aspects of the urban environment.
Both the theory and practice of psychogeography have been around since 1955, when French theorist Guy Debord coined the term. While it emerged from the Situationist International movement in France, the practice has far-reaching implications. It’s relevant, for instance, in contemporary Sydney.
Psychogeographers advocate the act of becoming lost in the city. This is done through the dérive, or “drift”.
Because purposeful walking has an agenda, we do not adequately absorb certain aspects of the urban world. This is why the drift is essential to psychogeography; it better connects walkers to the city."
Could I explore this concept when I am out and about taking footage? Could I use nature and forgotten pieces of land to explore by walking/drifting instead of urban environments? Areas of land have memories as well as urban environments. Could these bits of land create nostalgia for the viewer? How could I experiment with how different places make me feel? Could the sound I put on top of the video of the place create a different feel? Connecting the viewer to the land through video and sound.
Sonder - the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own.
This is a word I have come across recently that I love due to having always felt this realisation quite profoundly when on the bus, or walking through town and never realising that there was an actual word for it! Unsure of how it relates to my practice at the moment but I felt I should note it down just in case!
Liminal Spaces
1. relating to a transitional or initial stage of a process.
2. occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold.
(Inbetween, Wasteland between 2 towns, Edges, Wild, Unclaimed, Neglected)
Liminal Space Aesthetics
"True to its etymology ("liminal" is derived from the Latin word limen, meaning "threshold"), the concept of a liminal space classically encompasses physical spaces that, due to their function, are transitional - hallways, waiting rooms, parking lots and rest stops are the archetypical examples of such places. Liminal space aesthetics relate to the unique and combined feeling of eeriness, nostalgia, and apprehension one gets when presented with such places outside of their designed context. Most notably, their function as intermediary points between origin and destination. For instance, an empty stairwell or hospital corridor at night might appear as sinister or uncanny because these places are usually brimming with life and movement. Therefore, the absence of external stimuli (such as conversations, people moving around, or any kind of dynamism) creates an otherworldly and forlorn atmosphere.
While this definition is the closest to the usual, academic meaning of liminality, it should be noted that liminal space aesthetics have recently expanded in scope to include images of places that are simply nostalgic, dreamlike, and/or uncanny, to the point where the only remaining common trait across these ramifications is the striking absence of people. While this diversity waters down the definition of a "liminal space" by quite a lot, it also explains the memetic status of physical liminality by linking its mysterious allure to the childhood memories and aesthetics of its fans, usually by invoking the cultural memory of the Millenial/Z generations. At this point, the strong link between liminal spaces and Traumacore, Hauntology, or other related aesthetics becomes apparent.
Liminal space aesthetics also have a significant overlap with those of After Hours, since both explore the atmosphere of vacant spaces - which are easier to find during night time. But while the After Hours aesthetic plays with feelings of peacefulness and a tranquil mindset, liminal spaces have a more unsettling appeal."
Locations for filming footage of Liminal spaces/After Hours I could visit:
- Holton Heath
- Portland
- Corfe
This concept reminds me of the pandemic lockdown. Some images I took during lockdown that remind me of liminal spaces/After Hours. No people, no crowds in what would normally be, quite busy places.
Using this concept loosely to guide me to specific locations, I am interested in connecting the viewer to a place I have been. I want to provide an alternative way of viewing that place. I am really interested in creating an alternate reality through moving image and sound. The alternate reality could come through post-production when I play around with editing. I used symmetry a bit in my last video of the flesh. Where I used the same image four times, flipped horizontally and vertically. It gave a kaleidoscopic visual. I am planning to use this again to help the viewer expand their vision and help them to see the location differently, creating an alternate reality.
In Praise of Blandness
- François Jullien
"This book provides a consideration of blandness not as the absence of defining qualities but as the harmonious union of all potential values - an infinite opening into human experience. Already translated into six languages, Francois Jullien's "In Praise of Blandness" has become a classic. Appearing for the first time in English, this groundbreaking work of philosophy, anthropology, aesthetics, and sinology is certain to stir readers to think and experience what may at first seem impossible: the richness of a bland sound, a bland meaning, a bland painting, a bland poem. In presenting the value of blandness through as many concrete examples and original texts as possible, Jullien allows the undifferentiated foundation of all things - blandness itself - to appear. After completing this book, readers will reevaluate those familiar Western lines of thought where blandness is associated with a lack - the undesirable absence of particular, defining qualities. Jullien traces the elusive appearance and crucial value of blandness from its beginnings in the Daoist and Confucian traditions to its integration into literary and visual aesthetics in the late-medieval period and beyond. Gradually developing into a positive quality in Chinese aesthetic and ethical traditions, the bland comprises the harmonious and unnameable union of all potential values, embodying a reality whose very essence is change and providing an infinite opening into the breadth of human expression and taste. More than just a cultural history, "In Praise of Blandness" invites those both familiar and unfamiliar with Chinese culture to explore the resonances of the bland in literary, philosophical, and religious texts and to witness how all currents of Chinese thought - Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism - converge in harmonious accord."
The quality of blandness: no sooner do you identify it then it begins to appear at every turn. Blandness, by definition, pays little heed to the borders our various disciplines like to draw. As the embodiment of neutrality, the bland lies at the point of origin of all things possible and so links them. — François Jullien
Blandness: that phase when different flavors no longer stand in opposition to each other, but, rather, abide within plenitude. It provides access to the undifferentiated foundation of all things and so is valuable to us; its neutrality manifests the potental inherent in the Center. At this stage, the real is no longer blocked in partial and too obvious manifestations; the concrete becomes discrete, open to transformation.
The blandness of things evokes in us an inner detachment. But this quality is also a virtue, especially in our relations with others, because it guarantees authenticity. It must also lie at the root of our personality, for it alone allows us to possess all aptitudes simultaneously and to summon the appropriate one in any given situation.
On this common ground of the bland, all currents of Chinese thought--Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism--converge in harmonious accord. None of these systems conceive of it as an abstraction (for the purposes of establishing a theory) or, at the opposite extreme, as ineffable (in the service of some mystical calling). But it is precisely the bland that the arts of China reveal to us through their uncluttered spareness and allusive depths.
By taking us to the limits of the perceptible, that place where perceptions assimilate and nullify each other, the bland brings us to experience a world beyond. But this movement does not open up onto another, metaphysical world, cut off from the senses. It simply unfurls and expands this world (the only one): drained of its opacity, returned to its original virtual state, and opened up--forever--to joy. — François Jullien
Joseph Grange has reviewed this book and given a good insight to it for me as I couldn't get through the book during this term but is one I would like to read in future when I have more time. Grange explains that the author Jullien 'weaves these contracts and comparisons through the history of Chinese culture, especially in the evolution of it's painting and poetry.' A key point of Jullien's 'blandness' is how it is a qualities associated with inner detachment. Grange suggests that Jullien 'attempts over and over again to show how the seemingly weak is actually rhe strong, that the far awat is really close to hand, that emptiness is charged with spontaneous creative evergy'. To me, this feels similar to the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze and the French psychoanalyst Félix Guattari's '1000 plateaus'., and the 'rhizome'. I could be wrong as I have only skim read it. The point i agree with though is that 'gustatory sense is the primary base of faeur, dan, and blandness. The body is the region within which the bland can have its most powerful effect'.
Another thing that stood out to me in Grange's review of the book was that
'Jullien's major concern is aesthetics. He clearly demonstrates how emptiness, clarity unblocked by objects, and words that fortunately and through the genius of the poet directly and intuitively express what is going on are all essential moments in the development of Chinese aesthetic expression. Blandness never dominates by character of the one who sees or enjoys or hears or tastes or smells'
John Cage
"The theories of avant-garde American composer John Cage (1912-1992) on music, sound, and silence are of more interest than his musical compositions. To Cage, there is no such thing as silence. Music is a succession of sounds and the composer the "organizer of sounds." Historically, music has been a communication of feelings, but Cage argues that all sounds have this potential for conveying feeling in the mechanical and electronic sense. As Cage puts it in the essay "History of Experimental Music in the United States": "Debussy said quite some time ago, 'Any sounds in any combination and in any succession are henceforth free to be used in a musical continuity.'"
Silence was perhaps the pivotal aspect of Cage's theories. If silence could be shown not to exist, then feelings, too, could be pushed into the category of nonexistence. "
"In the essay "Experimental Music," Cage appears to want to draw inspiration from nature and human emotion.
Hearing sounds which are just sound immediately sets the theorizing mind to theorizing, and the emotions of human beings are continually aroused by encounters with nature. Does not a mountain unintentionally evoke in us a sense of wonder? otters along a stream a sense of mirth? night in the woods a sense of fear? Do not rain falling and mists rising up suggest the love binding heaven and earth? Is not decaying flesh loathsome? Does not the death of someone we love bring sorrow? And is there a greater hero than the least plant that grows? These responses to nature are mine and will not necessarily correspond with another's. Emotion takes place in the person who has it. And sounds, when allowed to be themselves, do not require that those who hear them do so unfeelingly. The opposite is what is meant by response ability.
John Kabat Zinn
"Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. is internationally known for his work as a scientist, writer, and meditation teacher engaged in bringing mindfulness into the mainstream of medicine and society. He is Professor of Medicine emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he founded its world-renowned Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Clinic (in 1979), and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society (in 1995). He retired from his positions at the medical center in 2000. The Center for Mindfulness has been under the leadership of Dr. Saki Santorelli since that time, and during those years, it has grown remarkably and its programs have become more and more influential both in the US and internationally."
To read:
Coming To Our Senses
Wherever You Go, There You Are
Full Catastrophe Living
I have bought these books and will be reading them in due course. I feel they will be insightful for me, for mental health but also to for inspiration into my practice.
The Zen of Creativity: Cultivating Your Artistic Life (2005) by John Daido Loori
My process for taking footage is like that of John Daido Loori, who wrote the book - The Zen of Creativity: Cultivating Your Artistic Life (2005) – in an extract from this book, he explains how he began an interesting strategy for taking photos –
‘Venture into the landscape without expectations. Let your subject find you. When you approach it, you will feel resonance, a sense of recognition. If, when you move away, the resonance fades, or if it gets stronger as you approach, you’ll know you have found your subject. Sit with your subject and wait for your presence to be acknowledged. Don’t try to make a photograph, but let your intuition indicate the right moment to release the shutter.’ (Daido Loori, 2009) These were his tutor, Minor’s instructions to him at the time he was attending one of his workshops in 1971.
Admiralty Park
"In 2003, DRA Holton Heath, (now re-branded as Admiralty Park), was sold by Defence Estates to Poole based commercial property developers and investors Birchmere Limited who are systematically working through the site, improving infrastructure and refurbishing to modern standards the original buildings wherever possible to provide a unique business park within a mature woodland setting."
The History of Admiralty Park
"Admiralty Park comprises part of the former Royal Naval Cordite Factory, Holton Heath, originally a square mile site constructed in 1915 on the specific orders of Winston Churchill, the then First Lord of the Admiralty. The primary reason for its’ construction was to ensure the Royal Navy obtained a significant quantity of finest quality cordite, this being the primary ingredient for the propellant of ordnance.
The site represented a magnificent achievement in that construction took around a year to complete despite having to provide a power station, reservoir, train station and numerous factory buildings.
For the remainder of the First World War, around 2,000 people were employed on the site although, by its heyday in 1938, this had grown to 4,500 workers.
After the end of the Second World War production reduced to the point where, in 1957, it ceased altogether. The facility continued as an operational Naval establishment primarily concerned with underwater activities and cutting edge technologies with a reduced workforce of between 300 and 400 up until the gates closed in 1997. In 2003, DRA Holton Heath, (now re-branded as Admiralty Park), was sold by Defence Estates to Birchmere Limited, a Poole-based commercial property developer and investor who are systematically working through the site, improving infrastructure and refurbishing to modern standards the original buildings wherever possible to provide a unique business park within a mature woodland setting."
Here are some photographs of this Historic Business Park taken around 1968.
Images Courtesy of https://www.admiraltypark.co.uk/
I have contacted Admiralty Park to see if I have permission to view some of the buildings inside the park for photographic/filming opportunities.
Ben Russell - Psychedelic Ethnography
Ben Russell, a filmmaker, artist and curator who ‘challenges the conventions of documentary representation from within to produce intense, hypnotic, and, at times, hallucinating experiences.’ (Peleg, 2021) Hila Peleg describes his filmmaking as unfolding between ‘experimental cinema and a form of speculative ethnography; he calls it “psychedelic ethnography.”' In this talk Russell explains this subject and his practice. Russell explores the ‘phenomenological experience’ which is something I am exploring within my own research and practice. I am less concerned with bringing human life to my films but rather gesture towards humanness and providing the audience with a phenomenological experience.
One thing I took from this talk was Russel;'s primary interest in giving the audience agency. When it comes to the Phenomenological, which is the study of consciousness or the object of experience. My interests lie with placing the audience into the work itself, by creating an experience for them. For everyone to be a part of it, the author, audience and whatever I am filming. There is an interest for me in understanding myself through creating the work and the audience to understand the self through experiencing the work. By giving the audience/viewer headphones to immerse them into the piece is a way I would do this in an exhibition space.
Comments