Debord (1955) Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography
From Inventiopedia
Debord, Guy (2006) [1955] "Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography" in Ken Knapp: Situationist International Anthology. Berkeley, CA: Bureau of Public Secrets. Originally published in: Les Lèvres Nues #6, September 1955.
In this short article/manifesto Debord presents the concept of psychogeography and its fundamental premises. He explains it as follows:
The word psychogeography, suggested by an illiterate Kabyle as a general term for the phenomena a few of us were investigating around the summer of 1953, is not too inappropriate. It is not inconsistent with the materialist perspective that sees life and thought as conditioned by objective nature. Geography, for example, deals with the determinant action of general natural forces, such as soil composition or climatic conditions, on the economic structures of a society, and thus on the corresponding conception that such a society can have of the world. Psychogeography sets for itself the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, whether consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals. The charmingly vague adjective psychogeographical can be applied to the findings arrived at by this type of investigation, to their influence on human feelings, and more generally to any situation or conduct that seems to reflect the same spirit of discovery.
The text postulates that this project is one of political rebellion, more than aesthetic art practice: "...the groping quest for a new way of life is the only thing that remains really exciting. Aesthetic and other disciplines have proved glaringly inadequate in this regard and merit the greatest indifference."
Debord criticizes the banality of bourgeoisie happiness, "an idea of happiness whose crisis must be provoked on every occasion by every means." His proposed way of rebellion is a kind of playful, but serious intervention:
The first of these means is undoubtedly the systematic provocative dissemination of a host of proposals tending to turn the whole of life into an exciting game, combined with the constant depreciation of all current diversions (to the extent, of course, that these latter cannot be detourned to serve in constructions of more interesting ambiances). The greatest difficulty in such an undertaking is to convey through these apparently extravagant proposals a sufficient degree of serious seduction.
However, Debord remains vague on the idea of psychogeography as a methodology for conducting studies of a scholarly kind, even though he speaks of the activities as 'research':
The research that we are thus led to undertake on the arrangement of the elements of the urban setting, in close relation with the sensations they provoke, entails bold hypotheses that must be constantly corrected in the light of experience, by critique and self-critique.
The fact that psychogeography seems to have devolved into an art practice rather than a scholarly field of study should therefore not be surprising, even if it contradicts Debord's expressed vision for it.
--Anders Sundnes Løvlie 15:07, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
