In the lecture, the word "psychogeography" perhaps was new for many participants. it was brought about by the French Situationist representative Guy Debord, as "the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals." It has also been defined as "a total dissolution of boundaries between art and life". it basically associates with an exploration of urban environments that emphasizes playfulness and "drifting", and by which people can also have a reflection on their relationship with the current environment. Maryclare Foa the lecture conductor introduced a list of artists, authors, directors etc. whose works can be taken as the relevant and supportive reference to the continuum of the psychogeography theory.
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including :
Richard long-"A Line Made by Walking 1967"
Jaques Tati Traffic -Film - released 1971
Maurice Merleau-Ponty 1908-1961-
‘Between the seeing and the seen some sort of blending takes place... color light depth which is there before us, are only there because they awaken an echo in our body.' in ‘Eye and Mind’ in The Primacy of Perception, USA: Northwestern University Press,1964 pps162-164.
Phil Smith is a member of the performance collective Wrights and Sites, they launched their A Misguide to Anywhere at London’s ICA (April 8th 2006). Each Wrights and Sites member led a participatory walk .
'Suite Vénitienne'1980 in which Calle followed a man (she met at a party) to Venice, also La Filature - The Shadow 1981, in which Calle asked his mother hire a private detective to follow her, "without him knowing that I had arranged it, and to provide photographic evidence of my existence."
http://www.iniva.org/dare/themes/space/calle.html ( accessed March 22 09)
Charles Baudelaire in his text The Painter of Modern Life also sees that the ideal position 'For the perfect flâneur' is to be 'away from home and yet (feeling) oneself everywhere at home C. Baudelaire, The Painter of Modern Life and Other Essays, trans, J. Mayne, ed, J. Crépet, US UK: Phaidon, 1964.p.9.
As people are changing the environment, the environment is also making difference in the course of humanity development, sometimes it will be a negative and even devastating situation.
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According to UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) the global population of forcibly displaced people in 1997 was 33.9 million, in 2016 was 65.6 million and today (2019) the figure is 68.5 million...
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In the end, perhaps now we can acknowledge how humankind influences this planet at least as much (perhaps even more), than the planet influences humankind – the relationship we have with the environment is a two way street – I say it’s time to change the term Psychogeography that tells of the emotional affect of the environment on humankind to Reciprocalgeography acknowledging the interactive relationship between humankind and the environment. Perhaps this might go a little way towards a common understanding that we need to be more kind to, and careful of our planet.
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More details about the lecture, please click