“Architecture is always the ultimate realisation of a mental and artistic evolution; it is the materialisation of an economic level/status. Architecture is the pinnacle of realisation for all artistic production because architecture signifies the construction of an atmosphere and fixes a way of living.”
Asger Jorn, "Image et Forme", Potlach 15, bulletin d'information du groupe français de l'Internationale Lettriste, December 1954.

“Psychogeography, the studies of the laws and precise effects of a geographic area, consciously arranged or not, directly impacts on your emotional behaviour and in doing so, it presents itself as a science fiction of urban planning.”
Abdelhafid Khatib, "Essai de description psychogéographique des Halles", Internationale Situationniste N°2, December 1958.

1- Inner City AAA
"The Association of Autonomous Astronauts's Five Year Plan is well on target. This plan aims to establish a world-wide network of local, community-based groups dedicated to building their own space ships and developing their own independent space exploration programs. The Five Year Plan began on St. Georges Day April 23rd 1995 with balloon launches around the world, including one held at Windsor Castle."
Escape From Gravity, N°3, Irregular bulletin of the Association of Autonomous Astronauts-Inner City AAA.

2- London Psychogeographical Association (LPA)
 
The Psychogeographic Comittee of London was one of the initial groups created for the occasion of the Situationist International launch in 1957. In 1992 the LPA resurrected this committee by publishing a large number of newsletters and psychogeographical explorations within the capital. Contrary to received beliefs, the dérive is only one of many techniques used in psychogeography and the work of the LPA proves this point.

Newsletter N°14 :
"Run up to ritual murder", study of the path of the London Marathon and also
"Magna Carta Island, Runnymede, lies in alignment with the Round Tower in Windsor castle and George's Hill, Weybridge, where Gerard Winstanley and the diggers staged their revolt during the English revolution" a meeting at Magna Carta Island

Newsletter N°16 : "Bonfire of Vanities, Fire Ritual used in Emblematic Purge by English Orangeism", trip to Mercer's Chapel, the hospital of the Knights of St. Thomas.

Newsletter  N°17 :
"New Prince New Danger", the new role of Prince William in the UK and a call for discussion around the publication "Revolution is not a Masonic Affair" (Unpopular Books) and the role of government-persecuted masons in the forming of the First International.

"Psychogeography...is a tool of class struggle. When kids from council estates wander into posh housing areas they are immediately harassed by the police...(The police) only accept conventional explanations in terms of economic activity. Psychogeography is always an uneconomic, even anti-economic, activity." Richard Essex
http://www.unpopular.demon.co.uk/lpa/organisations/lpa.html

3- “ Re : Action, newsletter of the Neoist Alliance”

During 1996 and 1997 I received “ Re : Action”, a newsletter published by Stewart Home and the Neoist Alliance.

(N°5) ; "Demolish theme park Britain"

(N°3) ; “call to meet in South West Corner of Langdon Park in Poplar with a bottle of Kaluha to "Celebrate the end of an illusion, on the 450 anniversary of the death of Luther"

(N°7) ; "Alchemical Insurrection"); "cross swords with the earth mysteries' establishment" on megalithic sites in "Psychic War at the Rollright stones!"

4- During the same period, the publication Sucked wrote "The Unacceptable face of Contemporary Psychogeography". This article studies the attempts to recuperate psychogeography in order to serve the monarchy, within the context of Greenwich Millennium celebrations. The Nottingham Psychogeographical Unit "believe that all new buildings are bad and ugly for the simple reason that they are new...", because "with the introduction of modern building techniques, namely reinforced concrete, cities have been transformed in too short time", as reported in Psychogeographical Stories special issue "Stop this building madness". The NPU point to the tradition of long-term building techniques (sometimes a century) used in the history of cathedral architecture. The Equi-Phallic Alliance points to the disintegration of historical Wessex in The Listening Voice N°3, "Wessex caves in!".

5- In a letter to John Major 20/7/94, Stewart Home and the Psychogeographical Cyclists Association proposes that Scotland, Wales, Ulster, Cornwall, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands remain part of Europe and the City of London, with the addition of the boroughs of Newham, Hackney and Tower Hamlets should become an independent city-state, and the rest of Greater London and England should apply to join the United States of America. They did not receive a reply from the Prime Minister.  ("Analecta", Sabotage Editions).

6- Infiltration
Infiltration is a Canadian group that publishes a website and magazine about
"Going places you're not supposed to go".  They describe themselves as "A sort of interior tourism which allows the curious-minded to discover behind-the-scene sights". Their newsletters have been about the following subjects:
"Subbasement-to-rooftop tour of Toronto's best known luxury hotel"
(Newsletter N°1) ; "The Guts of St. Mike's Hospital" (N°2) ;
"Hudson's Bay Centre Security (N°3) ; "Steam tunnel exploration" (N°4) ; "Newest underground stations" (N°5) ;
"Taking the Plunge in Toronto Hotels" (Infiltration N°6) ;
The sites they are interested include: abandoned Sites, Boats, Churches, Drains/ Catacombs, Drains/ Catacombs/ Hotels/ Hospitals, Transit, Tunnels, Utility Tunnels, such as Roswell Missile Silo, Buffalo Central, BC Ferries, Bathurst St. Church.

Infiltration publishes editorials, exploring advice, information, articles on recent expeditions, and interviews, which are illustrated with maps, pictures and diagrams. The current issue of Infiltration (September 2002, #19), subtitled "Houses of the Holy", takes a thorough look over, under, around and through the secret spaces of churches.
http://www.infiltration.org/

7- Jinx Project
Jinx is the magazine of Worldwide Urban Adventure. Jinx publishes its reports on urban exploration and international adventure here, along with dossiers of its Friends and Enemies. The magazine has been published, irregularly, since 1997. It has been online only since 2001. The Jinx Project is a global intelligence organization, not affiliated with any government but engaged in a permanent struggle with the enemies of freedom. The project's core values are anti totalitarianism, humanism, and unnecessary risk-taking.
http://www.jinxmagazine.com/

8- Reclaim the Stars

During the conference Conferenza Intergallatica organized by the AAA Bologna,  1998, the East London AAA invited the Autonomous  Astronauts to follow the pathway of Giordano Bruno in London. The author of the “The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast” was burnt in Rome in 1600 for crimes of heresy after having proclaimed the plurality of the living world and in consequence fled persecution across Europe.

The AAA conference in Bologna also made a program to explore the twelve ports within the historic city centre, which are dedicated to the 12 signs of the Zodiac.

9- Reclaim the Streets
The initiative "Reclaim the Stars" of the AAA was one of the psychogeographic events within the larger movement of Reclaim the Streets. The larger movement took place over 18 days of actions against the financial centre, the City of London (usually referred to as June 18 1999).

It was also during these 18 days that the AA organized the festival “Space 1999” which included the event “Stop Star Wars” in front of the administrative headquarters of Lockheed Martin, industrial military company involved in the militarization of space.

"Ultimately it is in the streets that power must be dissolved: for the streets where daily life is endured, suffered and eroded, and where power is confronted and fought, must be turned into the domain where daily life is enjoyed, created and nourished." Reclaim the Streets
http://rts.gn.apc.org/

10- AAA Aotearoa
In their newsletter "Suspension in Reality" (N°6-june 2000) the New Zealand group of the Association of Autonomous Astronauts (AAA-Aotearoa) tell the story of a hot air balloon launch in the Garden Place of Hamilton (NZ), as a street theatre performance against the tests in the Pacific of the Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) program of the USA.

11- Social Fiction - Jungle AAA
The first time I heard about the Riga conference was in Social Fiction - Jungle AAA magazine "Kapot" that re-published an "Acoustic Cyberspace" lecture given by Erik Davis at X-change conference in 1997 (KAPOT alles moet 9). Jungle AAA is the Dutch group of the AAA and Social Fiction is their global project that also includes works about "Generative Psychogeography". Another possible definition of psychogeography might be that it's an activity that tries to figure out how the cognitive image we have of a certain place has been formed by its design & this image conforms reality by exploring it in a way that is different from normal use of that space. By doing algorithmic walks for instance. Generative Psychogeography is an open source concept that describes a method to explore the urban environment. It is as simple as this: stroll through the city on directions like 'first street left, second street right, first street right, repeat'. The simplicity of this route can be deceptive, it turns out that the route that you will take is difficult to predict for more than 3 turns (in an asymmetrical city, that is). Add to this that by strolling like this you pass through the city in a way, which is so thoroughly alien to the way you normally use the city that you find yourself confronted with the city in new light. The principle is in large part developed from the ideas behind Conway's 'Game of Life'.
http://www.socialfiction.org/psychogeography/index.html

12- GPS drawing
The GPS drawing project was started in 2000 after Hugh Pryor and Jeremy Wood captured a giant GPS FISH. The Gallery of gpsdrawing.com now contains many types of drawings that are part of an ongoing investigation into a method of digital mark making. There are also contributions from Japan, Thailand, China, USA, and South Korea and they have gratefully received tracks from pilots, skydivers, cyclists, and hikers. They have created a GPS-ograph computer program to present the drawings in a variety of ways on their site and for public exhibition prints.
http://www.gpsdrawing.com/

13- 0100101110101101.org/Project VOPOS 2002 Telephone, satellites and the Internet: VOPOS exploits and merges three kinds of nets. The two members of 0100101110101101.ORG are the cell under control. Since the beginning of the project VOPOS they wear a GPS transmitter that, exchanging data with the satellites, constantly transmits to their website their exact position on the urban environment.  Their software draws on a digital geographic map the exact position in which they reside, establishing a path that traces all the movements.
http://0100101110101101.org/home/vopos/index.html

14- Warchalking
Warchalking is the practice of marking a series of symbols on sidewalks and walls to indicate nearby wireless access. That way, other computer users can pop open their laptops and connect to the Internet wirelessly. It was inspired by the practice of hobos during the Great Depression to use chalk marks to indicate which homes were friendly. The first attempt at drawing up symbols resulted in three simple designs: two semicircles back to back to indicate an open node; a circle to indicate a closed node; and a circle with a "W" inside it to indicate a WEP (Wireless Equivalent Privacy, a security protocol) node, which will probably be inaccessible to the public because such nodes use encryption for security. Each symbol has a Service Set Identifier (SSID) at the top, which acts as a password to the node. SSIDs are easily obtained using readily available sniffing software.
http://www.warchalking.org

15- A Map Larger Than the Territory
This project is a place to exchange itineraries. It aims to develop a method of notation which allows participants to represent their urban itineraries online and a Web application capable of conveying their subjective experience of them in the form of images and sounds. Perhaps it is a "Carte du Tendre", or map of the sentiments, charted by surveillance technology.
"A Map Larger Than the Territory" will include:
1. A method of notation for participants to recreate and visualize their itineraries online using both data files they have uploaded and information available on the Internet.
2. A searchable database of urban itineraries.
3. A re-scalable map interface that allows one to view all the itineraries on file.
Karen O'Rourke
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/korourke/map/

16- Psy-Geo-Conflux 2003
"Psy-Geo-Conflux 2003 (May 09- 11 New York City) marks the inauguration of an annual event dedicated to current artistic and social investigations in psychogeography. Part festival and part conference, it will bring together visual and sound artists, writers, urban adventurers and curious city dwellers to explore the physical and psychological terrain of the urban landscape. In 1955, Guy Debord defined psychogeography as "the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behaviour of individuals."(Guy-Ernest Debord. An Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography. ) It has also been summarized as "the active search for, and celebration of, chance and coincidence, concurrently with the divination of patterns and repetitions thrown up by the [meeting/collision] of the chaos and structures of cities, personal histories and interpretations. It is based on the technique of the "dérive," an informed and aware wandering, with continuous observation, through varied environments. It can be sought and can lead anywhere." (Monocular Times. Psychogeography: a working definition.) The idea for Psy-Geo-Conflux originated in an ongoing online conversation with a network of psychogeographers actively pursuing investigations in Utrecht, Rotterdam, London, Berlin, Lisbon, Paris, New York and San Francisco, to name a few places. As part of this dialogue Ray proposed organizing an event in New York as a prototype for an annual gathering to be held in different cities and bring like minds together. The response was enthusiastic, and a steady stream of proposals followed."
Christina Ray, Glowlab founder/editor, February, 2003.
http://www.glowlab.com/psygeocon/psygeocon.html

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This text is the first part of a study of the impact of psychogeography can have on new media in relation to contemporary architecture.

Ewen Chardronnet, 03/03/2003

BIO

In this symposium I am neither architect, geographer, or electrician, nor even directly involved in computer programming. But I am a media analyst with training in science and mathematics, meteorology and navigation. So I will explain to you my itinerary, from the initiatory phases, then as an autonomous astronaut, and I'll go through the different psychogeographic trajectories that have aroused my interest. I will describe the various approaches leading me today to take an interest in the media-architecture symposium, the activities of the X-change/acoustic space lab, and the RIXC. A hypertextual and psychogeographical road map.

I come from Brittany and I grew up in an environment of amateur sea-fishing and sport sailing, thanks to my experienced father. So I learned to use navigation equipment and positioning instruments from an early age. In the late eighties I first learned to use sea charts, light-houses and buoys, compasses, depth-finders and the Decca portable positioning system. The Decca sends out a radio wave to establish a position according to the returning echoes. Thus it is essentially effective near the coast and remains fairly inaccurate, particularly because of complications due to the drifting of marine currents. In the nineties my father bought an onboard GPS device which I often used. For us it was a revolution in terms of maritime navigation. Thanks to the GPS we obtained longitude and latitude positioning points of unequalled accuracy. At this point the precision was limited to +-100 meters because of the encryption due to the American military monopoly (since then the 3-4 meter range has been opened to civilian use). So the Decca went into the closet, the GPS and the sea charts were enough for us to trace reliable routes through the Channel (while continuing to study the currents). I spent entire days and nights at the map table sketching routes for Guernsey, Cornwall, or up and down the French coast. At the time I was a math student, active in university associations and politics, drawn to film, photography and activism. This was also the time when I first heard about psychogeography.

In 1994 I was obliged to do my military service. I chose to be part of the Semaphores, a Coastal Transmission and Oversight service working on the surveillance of military and commercial traffic, fisheries zones, pleasure boating, marine rescue and meteorology. The Semaphores are watchtowers along the coast that had the notable advantage of being only semi-military in function, offering decent pay, being isolated and therefore distant from any barracks, often located on magnificent sites. So I found myself on the Quiberon peninsula on the south coast of Brittany, relaying the watch with three other colleagues. I was trained in a broader use of meteorological instruments, the study of sea charts, the identification of airplanes and military and commercial ships, VHF radio, telex (we didn't yet have internet), and of course, professional Decca Radar. In the end it was a quite rewarding period, alone up in a tower, with all those measuring instruments. After that I would leave Brittany to go study journalism and information systems in Paris.

Upon arrival in Paris I began to collaborate with the hardcore techno fanzine TNT. Thanks to the people doing the fanzine I had access to an incredible number of amateur publications and I discovered the infinite ramifications of fanzine culture. It was an intellectual alternative to academia. In 1995 I discovered the AAA, the Association of Autonomous Astronauts, whose objective was "the construction of a planetary network of people dedicated to the development of their own independent space vessels, outside all scientific, military and commercial interests, for the year 2000"! With a few friends we soon decided to found our own group. And in 1997 I ceased my traditional studies.