The psychological basis of the metropolitan type of individuality consists in the intensification of nervous stimulation which results from the swift and uninterrupted change of outer and inner stimuli. Man is a differentiating creature. His mind is stimulated by the difference between a momentary impression and the one which preceded it. Lasting impressions, impressions which differ only slightly from one another, impressions which take a regular and habitual course and show regular and habitual contrasts - all these use up, so to speak, less consciousness than does the rapid crowding of changing images, the sharp discontinuity in the grasp of a single glance, and the unexpectedness of onrushing impressions. These are the psychological conditions which the metropolis creates.
from The Metropolis and Mental Life by Georg Simmel, 1903
Buildings have been man's companions since primeval times. Many art forms have developed and perished. Tragedy begins with the Greeks, is extinguished with them, and after centuries its "rules" only are revived. The epic poem, which had its origin in the youth of nations, expires in Europe at the end of the Renaissance. Panel painting is a creation of the Middle Ages, and nothing guarantees its uninterrupted existence. But the human need for shelter is lasting. Architecture has never been idle. Its history is more ancient than that of any other art, and its claim to being a living force has significance in every attempt to comprehend the relationship of the masses to art. Buildings are appropriated in a twofold manner: by use and by perception - or rather, by touch and sight. Such appropriation cannot be understood in terms of the attentive concentration of a tourist before a famous building.
from The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin, 1936
The production of psychogeographic maps, or even the introduction of alterations such as more or less arbitrarily transposing maps of two different regions, can contribute to clarifying certain wanderings that express not subordination to randomness but complete insubordination to habitual influences (influences generally categorized as tourism that popular drug as repugnant as sports or buying on credit). A friend recently told me that he had just wandered through the Harz region of Germany while blindly following the directions of a map of London. This sort of game is obviously only a mediocre beginning in comparison to the complete construction of architecture and urbanism that will someday be within the power of everyone.
from Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography by Guy Debord, 1955
Read and briefly ponder the above collection of excerpts regarding the psychological basis of our experience of the city.
Now: shake your arms, spin in a circle, and do a jumping jack: clear your mind.
Using the provided set of arbitrary directions, trace a path departing from the lobby of 100 McCaul Street. On a single sheet of paper, take sketch and prose notes of everything you see, think and feel. Scan your sketch and post it, unedited, to the blog.
Upon completion, re-read the collection of excerpts. How does the psychogeography of the city affect our ability to map its characteristics?
Now: shake your arms, spin in a circle, and do a jumping jack: clear your mind.
Using the provided set of arbitrary directions, trace a path departing from the lobby of 100 McCaul Street. On a single sheet of paper, take sketch and prose notes of everything you see, think and feel. Scan your sketch and post it, unedited, to the blog.
Upon completion, re-read the collection of excerpts. How does the psychogeography of the city affect our ability to map its characteristics?
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