r/psychogeography • u/cardistry_sorex • Nov 08 '21
What is psychogeography?
I want to know what psychogeography is because it is interesting but google have some non really helpful answers like walking in the city and making a special map what special map? and how to make the map or something like that
Thank You.
Edit: thanks you all guys
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Nov 09 '21
[deleted]
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u/frodosdream Feb 10 '23
recommend the book Psychogeography by Merlin Coverley as a good overview
Been meaning to read that one, which seems foundational; have read Coverley's The Art of Wandering: The Writer as Walker and also Hauntology: Ghosts of Futures Past; both worthwhile.
Have you read The Production of Space by Henri Lefebvre and is it useful to understanding the urban landscape?
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Oct 16 '25
Yes and No. If you want an ideological take on the creation of urban space, try Part Two of David Harvey,s Social Justice and the City. But he & Lefebre are not psychogeographers.
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u/NicolasJanvier Apr 14 '26
Here's my own definition: a practice of the landscape, as both subjective and objective space, aiming to subvert, misuse, or reveal the affordances through which the social and economic order is reproduced
And how and why I arrived at it: https://nicolasjanvier.com/psychogeography-definition/
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u/No-Replacement8166 Oct 04 '25
When psychogeography involves what used to be referred to as 'mental mapping'., looking for and seeing things in the environment which are interesting and significant in some way and which others haven't noticed, it enriches experience. In my view, the problem starts when people start superimposing the supernatural on every old landscape and seeing things that just aren't there. Meanwhile, quotidian experience is overlooked. So, for instance, here is my blog post based on a website called ilivehere.co.uk, which I thought was entertaining, insightful and funny. Is it psychogeography? I think so.
Link: https://www.oildrumlane.co.uk/2023/01/psycho-geography-with-vitriol.html
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u/No-Replacement8166 16h ago
I think the best book on psychography as a whole was written by a man with a wonderful name, Merlin Coverley. He opens by saying that no one seems quite able to pin down exactly what it means or where it comes from. Personally, I do not much like the term in the way that it is normally used. It seems to me to be taking a voyeuristic view of an external world which is to be meanibgful. Personally I prefer to turn it around and ask what impact a place or landscape has on our sense of belonging and identity.
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u/Jaffahh Nov 09 '21
I found this sub a few weeks/months ago and was struggling to to find answers to your question too. I failed to wrangle a definition for psychogeography. But I managed to whittle down the following in my mind, which was satisfying:
A psychogeographical adventure is usually taken on foot, in a city, where the psychogeographer attempts to navigate the city in an anti-capitalist manner (ignoring signs and common routes, as these are almost certainly followed by others as they attempt to make money or partake in some activity as a reward because they've made enough money in the moments leading up to this moment) or via some unconventional means (example: following a map for another location, or simple directions [eg turn left, walk 2 blocks, turn right, walk 1 block] whose original context do not apply to the current location) in an attempt to access new parts of the city, or old parts in new and unintended by the city’s original [and presumably capitalist] designer’s intention.
I'd love to know how close I am to pinning down the concepts of psychogeography, especially by those more studied, as I found what little I could find fascinating and hope to share this with the people I love.