Psychogeography (Pocket Essentials) [Hardcover]

'A short, but valuable book.' --Niall Griffiths, The Daily Telegraph

'A short guide to psychogeography for beginners.' -- Sukhdev Sandhu, The New Statesman

'Helps explain why psychogeography has become such a buzzword in Britain...an insightful
examination' --Machenalia

'A fascinating read.' --Buzz Magazine

`It would be a fitting tribute to Coverley's unfussy and informative book if it encouraged people in
other cities to try psychogeography.'
--Stuart Kelly, Scotland On Sunday

Psychogeography. Increasingly this term is used to illustrate a bewildering array of ideas from key lines and the occult, to urban walking and political radicalism. But where does it come from and what exactly does it mean? This book examines the origins of Psychogeography in the Situationist Movement of the 1950s, exploring the theoretical background and its political applications as well as the work of early practitioners such as Guy Debord and Raoul Vaneigem. Elsewhere, psychogeographic ideas continue to find retrospective validation in much earlier traditions from the visionary writing of William Blake and Thomas De Quincey to the rise of the flaneur on the streets of 19th century Paris and on through the avant-garde experimentation of the Surrealists. These precursors to Psychogeography are discussed here alongside their modern counterparts, for today these ideas hold greater currency than ever through the popularity of writers and filmmakers such as Iain Sinclair and Peter Ackroyd, Stewart Home and Patrick Keiller. From Urban Wandering to Cognitive Mapping, from the Derive to Detournement, "Psychogeography" provides us with new ways of apprehending our surroundings, transforming the familiar streets of our everyday experience into something new and unexpected. This guide conducts the reader through this process, offering both an explanation and definition of the terms involved, an analysis of the key figures and their work as well as practical information on Psychogeographical groups and organisations.

From the urban wanderer to the armchair traveller, from the derive to detournement, psychogeography provides us with new ways of apprehending our surroundings, transforming the familiar streets of our everyday experience into something new and unexpected.

This book conducts the reader through this process, offering both an explanation and definition of the terms involved, and an analysis of the key figures and their work.

Merlin Coverley is a freelance writer and bookseller and is currently completing a PhD in London Writing at Birkbeck College, London. He is the author of the Pocket Essential London Writing.