"From my experience the most often cited text of classic psychogeography is 'Theory of the Derive' (1958) with its opening lines: "One of the basic situationist practices is the dérive, a technique of rapid passage through varied ambiances. Dérives involve playful-constructive behavior and awareness of psychogeographical effects, and are thus quite different from the classic notions of journey or stroll." At the first Psy Geo Con Flux in 2003 it was included in every talk and I thing it was Karen O'Rourke who observed that it became the mantra of the festival.
While backtracking the original sources and quotes I discovered that Debord's slightly earlier 'Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography' (1955) is a far richer source for usable quotations but I don't recall anybody ever referring to it and I certainly don't remember reading it myself even though I must have come across it online and it is also present in my copy of 'Leaving the 20th Century' that I must have lingering on my shelves for at least 10 years..... Do I read Guy Debord? Does anybody? really?? I find his texts unpalatable as a whole, while at the same time they undeniably contain a certain cultish attractiveness through it condensed argumentation, epigrammatic style interlaced with the venomous sneers he is best known for. Was he a great theorist? Probably not. Was he as brilliant as his friends claimed? Well, it is certainly an achievement to write a few little rants that are still read and discussed 55 years later." wilfried houjebek. more... http://cryptoforest.blogspot.com/2011/03/liner-notes-to-critique-of-urban.html _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
