Library Research Guides: Topic: Carceral Geography in El Paso, Texas: Psychogeography

Psychogeography

Psychogeography: The exploration of urban environments that emphasizes interpersonal connections to places and arbitrary routes.

“The first rule of psychogeography is to walk through the streets without preconceived notions; just drift and let the city's underground currents take you where they will” (David Romo, Ringside Seat to a Revolution)

“Psychogeography was defined in 1955 by 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.” He and the other members of the Situationist International aimed to disrupt habits of moving through a city, as these habits are often the result of an ideological apparatus that gains strength through its invisibility. In this moment when virtual space seems to be changing our relation to actual space quite dramatically, it’s just as important (if not moreso), to be aware of how the built environment is gently leading us in one direction rather than another. This column will call attention to geographical counter-narratives in poetry and art, online and off, because—as Guy Debord puts it—“…nothing really new can be expected until the masses in action awaken to the conditions that are imposed on them in all domains of life….” (Jena Osman, https://jacket2.org/commentary/activist-flaneur)

“Debord defines the dérive as "a mode of experimental behavior linked to the conditions of urban society: a technique of rapid passage through varied ambiances." It is an unplanned journey through a landscape, usually urban, in which participants drop their everyday relations and "let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there". Though solo dérives are possible, Debord indicates that the most fruitful numerical arrangement consists of several small groups of two or three people who have reached the same level of awareness, since cross-checking these different groups' impressions makes it possible to arrive at more objective conclusions. The dérive's goals include studying the terrain of the city (psychogeography) and emotional disorientation, both of which lead to the potential creation of Situations.” (David Gurteen).

“Flâneur (/flæˈnjʊər/; French: [flɑˈnœʁ]) is a French noun referring to a person, literally meaning "stroller", "lounger", "saunterer", or "loafer", but with some nuanced additional meanings (including as a loanword into English). Flânerie is the act of strolling, with all of its accompanying associations. A near-synonym of the noun is boulevardier. Traditionally depicted as male, a flâneur is an ambivalent figure of urban affluence and modernity, representing the ability to wander detached from society with no other purpose than to be an acute observer of industrialized, contemporary life” (Courtesy of https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/f/flaneur ).

Additional Resources

Benjamin, Walter. “Paris, the Capital of the Nineteenth Century” and “Convolutes M: The Flâneur” in The Arcades Project. Cambridge and London: The Belknap Press of the Harvard University Press, 1999. by Walter Benjamin; Howard Eiland (Translator); Kevin McLaughlin (Translator)
Call Number: Click on title to access pdf of book.
ISBN: 0674008022
Publication Date: 2002-03-30
“Walter Benjamin was a German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic and essayist. An eclectic thinker, combining elements of German idealism, Romanticism, Western Marxism, and Jewish mysticism, Benjamin made enduring and influential contributions to aesthetic theory, literary criticism, and historical materialism. Focusing on the arcades of nineteenth-century Paris-glass-roofed rows of shops that were early centers of consumerism--Benjamin presents a montage of quotations from, and reflections on, hundreds of published sources, arranging them in thirty-six categories with descriptive rubrics such as "Fashion," "Boredom," "Dream City," "Photography," "Catacombs," "Advertising," "Prostitution," "Baudelaire," and "Theory of Progress." His central preoccupation is what he calls the commodification of things--a process in which he locates the decisive shift to the modern age.

The Arcades Project is Benjamin's effort to represent and to critique the bourgeois experience of nineteenth-century history, and, in so doing, to liberate the suppressed "true history" that underlay the ideological mask. In the bustling, cluttered arcades, street and interior merge and historical time is broken up into kaleidoscopic distractions and displays of ephemera. Here, at a distance from what is normally meant by "progress," Benjamin finds the lost time(s) embedded in the spaces of things” (Courtesy of https://hup.medium.com/fourier-or-the-arcades-6ba86b15d043 ).

Osman, Jena. “Activist Flaneur.” November 3, 2013.
The concept of the “activist flâneur” has me thinking of a number of poetry projects that begin with walking. And although these walks might not cause trouble in the same way that a detachable island might, they do upset static notions of a place.
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Text from: The activist flâneur. Jacket2. (2013, Nov 3). Retrieved May 2, 2022, from https://jacket2.org/commentary/activist-flaneur

Certeau, Michel de. “Walking in the City.” in The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 1984. by Michel De Certeau; Steven F. Rendall (Translator)
Call Number: HN8 .C4313 1984 (Print book available at the Northwest Library/ click on title to access eBook)
ISBN: 0520047508
Publication Date: 1984-01-01
“Michel de Certeau was a French Jesuit and scholar whose work combined history, psychoanalysis, philosophy, and the social sciences. He was known as a philosopher of everyday life and widely regarded as a historian who had interests ranging from travelogs of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to contemporary urban life. De Certeau’s essay centers on the idea that ordinary people are not merely passive and submissive consumers but active and can manipulate the environments around them through everyday actions. De Certeau divides society into two groups – the producers of culture (or the ruling class) and the users (the ordinary people). He also claims that culture is not just made up of products and systems, but of ways users interact with and appropriate these. He sees this production as a means of exercising power and a mechanism of discipline. He maintains that users can manipulate these mechanisms and “conform to them only in order to evade them.” This echoes Gramsci’s views (2009) on hegemony – a site of contest and negotiation between the ruling class and subordinate groups. De Certeau is interested in the operations and actions people use every day to resist the ruling structures and powers.

De Certeau offers an interesting base for understanding the power-relations within society that is different from the binary Marxist models. It is important not to read this text and manifestations of power too simplistically and consider a range of factors not covered here. One example is that producers are also users. Another is that these limited freedoms may be factored into strategies. Also, the resistance by people and groups and their awareness of it varies. Some may actively seek to resist the dominant ideology, while others are content with their position in society, yet subvert it unknowingly” (Courtesy of midnightmediamusings.wordpress.com).

Topic: Carceral Geography in El Paso, Texas: Psychogeography

Psychogeography

Psychogeography: The exploration of urban environments that emphasizes interpersonal connections to places and arbitrary routes.

“The first rule of psychogeography is to walk through the streets without preconceived notions; just drift and let the city's underground currents take you where they will” (David Romo, Ringside Seat to a Revolution)

Recommended Readings

Additional Resources