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Harry Watson's avatar

Definitely giving this a try Andrew - a different way to meander around Newcastle and to maybe discover a few things I've strolled by without a second glance ....

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Andrew Eberlin's avatar

I look forward to seeing the results of your meander Harry.

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Finding Ourselves's avatar

Great images, Andrew! I’m a fan of a bit of Dérive myself... This is very inspiring.

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Andrew Eberlin's avatar

Hello Steve! I suppose it has some similarities to your 1000 Steps so it makes sense that you are a fan.

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Finding Ourselves's avatar

Absolutely; and I know that the idea of psychogeography is a little disparaged these days but I still enjoy the writings of that period.

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Andrew Eberlin's avatar

I only came across it a couple of months ago via the magazine Superstore Wilderness. It's a fascinating concept. Did you see the magazine - the people behind it were behind a cycling magazine called The Ride Journal?

https://magculture.com/products/superstore-wilderness-1

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Finding Ourselves's avatar

Thanks for pointing that out - it looks very interesting! I'll place an order right now.

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Caroline Howard's avatar

Hi Steve, it does seem that psychogeography has fallen out of favour, but do you know why? What objections do people have to it? I love the playful approach to engaging with cities.

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Finding Ourselves's avatar

Hi Caroline, it’s a good question… I wonder if it is now seen as a preoccupation of white, middle aged, middle class men and has lost its sense of political engagement among more activist concerns such as race, gender etc. in the urban environment?

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Caroline Howard's avatar

Hi Steve, you may be right about that. I'm not sure if it's fair though. As far as pastimes go, it seems to me a pretty democratic one, and I think close observation of the city can be channeled into political engagement. Also, while it was for a long time a male pursuit, the flaneuse got into her stride quite some time ago. Thank you for your thoughts!

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Dawn Collins's avatar

Hi. I am in Bath. I say well done nothing more difficult than photographing the over exposed city.

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Andrew Eberlin's avatar

Hello and thank you!

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Mark White's avatar

andrew, I'm trying but with no luck whatsoever to create prompts and decks in the Derive app. It's a disaster. It seems you started with the App as an idea generator but went with your own set. Is that corrects? I'm curious also how you centralized your images from the group? Did you use a particular platform or app to share them? I love the idea and want to give it a shot, but the Derive site and app are driving me nuts!

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Andrew Eberlin's avatar

Hello Mark. Yes, I think the Dérive app has been neglected so all I used it for was ideas for prompts. I adapted them and added a photography related prompt. I then printed them out for each person. Our group has a Flickr group so some have posted there and some on Instagram. We plan to share one or two each at our next meeting.

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George Appletree's avatar

Great and wicked walk, perfect 🤩 to get lost forever. Thanks for your mention, the correct French spelling of Depardon’s is “Errance”, he got lost not in a city but among the roads and streets of some far deserted land. Very advisable. Also the concept is mentioned in at least one of the street photo books maybe some day I can have again in my hands for referring. Cheers

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Andrew Eberlin's avatar

Ah that was damn spell check. And I thought I’d checked it too! It sounds like a fascinating book. Unfortunately I can’t find an English translation.

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George Appletree's avatar

Maybe wasn't ever translated, but images are everything in that small book. Yes, Depardon explains what's about but those vertical strong contrasty photographs are really captivating

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Andrew Eberlin's avatar

In that case I will buy a copy if I can. Thanks for the tip.

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Trey Hill's avatar

“they are ok, but that is all”

Except #7, which is profound.

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Andrew Eberlin's avatar

Thank you. Yes that photo has more to it than others. I'd like to have spent a little more time on getting it right but we had places to go!

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Mark McGuire's avatar

I recently came across a similar exercise used by a keen observer of the city of Toronto.

"Walking the city: Shawn Micallef's undergrads get lost and found"

https://www.utoronto.ca/news/walking-city-shawn-micallefs-undergrads-get-lost-and-found

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Andrew Eberlin's avatar

That looks like the same idea - Dérive was developed by the Situationists who are mentioned in your link but called ‘smell walks.’ I think I prefer that term!

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Mark McGuire's avatar

Ah. I'll have to look up more info about Dérive. Smell walks, eh? We don't normally consider the olfactory when reflecting on our experience of cities. I suppose that, in the days of the horse and cart, it was best not to think about it.

However, the audio component of the urban experience has been given more attention. During my time in Vancouver (I lived there for a few years in the 1980s) I learned about the work of R. Murray Schafer and the Vancouver Soundscape project. They recorded sounds of the city and released two audio CDs, ten years apart, to document the changing urban soundscape. Sound walks are still a common way of introducing people to the ideas behind acoustic ecology. It developed into an academic discipline with focussed conferences and talented practitioners. It added a new layer to the ways we think about cities.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._Murray_Schafer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_ecology

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Andrew Eberlin's avatar

Fascinating. I'm listening to The Falcon's Trumpet as I write.

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Emma Cragg's avatar

Fantastic! You've just solved my conundrum over what to do this weekend :)

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Andrew Eberlin's avatar

Glad I could help! I hope you enjoy it and discover new places.

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Shannon Hemmett's avatar

I love this! I'm a touring musician and I bring my camera on tour. I will definitely give this method a try at home, and on the road.

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Andrew Eberlin's avatar

I hope you enjoy getting lost and discovering something new!

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Christi MacPherson's avatar

Excellent! I went down a very long psychogeography rabbit hole at the end of last year and came to the conclusion that most of us (especially photographers) practice it in some form or other.

As part of an MA, a collaborative group I was in, derived (!) an exercise not unlike this but less structured for the rest of our cohort to do.

I have _some_ issues with Psychogeography. Mostly to do with its early history, and what I perceive as a long sequence of gatekeeping with the practice. It’s only valid in Paris, or London or an urban area. That sort of thing. Which I see as largely erroneous.

To me, the collision of psychology and geography is something that can be observed by anyone, anywhere. Nice to see it in action. ;)

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Andrew Eberlin's avatar

Thank you very much. I know very little about the concept of Psychogeography - beyond what I read on the link I shared! I would like to learn more, but as a keen photographer I enjoy drifting around cities and finding different places / angles which others may miss.

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Christi MacPherson's avatar

If you’re curious then I’d recommend “Psychogeography” by Merlin Coverley.

It’s a very good grounding in its history and many of the issues around it. I came away (whilst still a little frustrated by the metrocentricism at play) with a much better understanding of the subject than when I went in. And I had a whole list of further reading that turned out to be more attuned to the way I see it.

Surprisingly, Will Self is one of the more prominent thinkers in the field. Famously he said it was “more the traversal of one than a field itself” or something similar, which I quite like. He’s also a decent starting point.

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Andrew Eberlin's avatar

Thank you. I enjoyed reading this article last year by Will Self about walking in London. And he ends with a highly beneficial reason why walking in cities can help us all:

“I truly feel that if all Londoners walked out of the city once a year, it would do more for our sense of civic pride than any number of mayoral or local governmental initiatives. What’s more, it wouldn’t cost the proverbial penny.”

https://www.standard.co.uk/esmagazine/will-self-how-traversing-london-has-mapped-the-city-across-my-heart-a3177891.html

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By Nat's avatar

Love this! I haven’t heard of the app before now so I’ll certainly be downloading and giving it a go. Great photos

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Andrew Eberlin's avatar

I hope you enjoy the experiment and get some good photos!

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By Nat's avatar

I will try, thanks for the download :)

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Marcel Borgstijn's avatar

Wow, this is new to me. Great way of taking 'other' types of photos. Will try it out soon

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Andrew Eberlin's avatar

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

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Susanne Helmert's avatar

I never heard of it, but it sounds fun. Especially for a group. Thank you for sharing your experience and the photos.

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Andrew Eberlin's avatar

It seemed to go down well with the group. One person fed back that a dozen prompts and 1.5 hours would have been enough. But Bath is a small city so I’d think in an average to large city you could easily spend longer.

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Susanne Helmert's avatar

If it just one person who felt it was too much, I think you chose a good number of prompts!

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Anne H's avatar

I hadn't heard of this - very cool!

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Andrew Eberlin's avatar

I hope you give it a go!

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Paddy Gilmore | HumourScope®'s avatar

Nice! A great idea!

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Andrew Eberlin's avatar

Get lost. And I mean that in the nicest possible way!

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Andy Adams's avatar

This is great! Thanks, Andrew.

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Andrew Eberlin's avatar

Thank you very much Andy.

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