192 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
192 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
INTRODUCTION TO A
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CRITIQUE OF URBAN GEOGRAPHY
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Of all the affairs we participate in, with or without interest, the
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groping search for a new way of life is the only aspect still
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impassioning. Aesthetic and other disciplines have proved blatantly
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inadequate in this regard and merit the greatest detachment. We should
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therefore delineate some provisional terrains of observation, including
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the observation of certain processes of chance and predictability in the
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streets.
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The word psychogeography, suggested by an illiterate Kabyle as a general
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term for the phenomena a few of us were investigating around the summer
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of 1953, is not too inappropriate. It does not contradict the
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materialist perspective of the conditioning of life and thought by
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objective nature. Geography, for example, deals with the determinant
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action of general natural forces, such as soil composition or climatic
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conditions, on the economic structures of a society, and thus on the
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corresponding conception that such a society can have of the world.
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Psychogeography could set for itself the study of the precise laws and
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specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized
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or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals. The adjective
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psychogeographical, retaining a rather pleasing vagueness, can thus be
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applied to the findings arrived at by this type of investigation, to
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their influence on human feelings, and even more generally to any
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situation or conduct that seems to reflect the same s pirit of discovery.
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It has long been said that the desert is monotheistic. Is it illogical
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or devoid of interest to observe that the district in Paris between
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Place de la Contrescarpe and Rue de l'Arbalete conduces rather to
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atheism, to oblivion and to the disorientation of habitual reflexes?
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The notion of utilitariness should be situated historically. The concern
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to have open spaces allowing for the rapid circulation of troops and the
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use of artillery against insurrections was at the origin of the urban
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renewal plan adopted by the Second Empire. But from any standpoint other
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than that of police control, Haussmann's Paris is a city built by an
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idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Today urbanism's main
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problem is ensuring the smooth circulation of a rapidly increasing
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quantity of motor vehicles. We might be justified in thinking that a
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future urbanism will also apply itself to no less utilitarian projects
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that will give the greatest consideration to psychogeographical
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possibilities.
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This present abundance of private cars is nothing but the result of the
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constant propaganda by which capitalist production persuades the
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masses--and this case is one of its most astonishing successes--that the
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possession of a car is one of the privileges our society reserves for
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its privileged members. (At the same time, anarchical progress negates
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itself: one can thus savor the spectacle of a prefect of police urging
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Parisian car owners to use public transportation.)
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We know with what blind fury so many unprivileged people are ready to
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defend their mediocre advantages. Such pathetic illusions of privilege
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are linked to a general idea of happiness prevalent among the
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bourgeoisie and maintained by a system of publicity that includes
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Malraux's aesthetics as well as the imperatives of Coca-Cola--an idea of
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happiness whose crisis must be provoked on every occasion by every means.
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The first of these means are undoubtedly the systematic provocative
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dissemination of a host of proposals tending to turn the whole of life
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into an exciting game, and the continual depreciation of all current
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diversions--to the extent, of course, that they cannot be detourned to
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serve in constructions of more interesting ambiances. The greatest
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difficulty in such an undertaking is to convey through these apparently
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delirious proposals a sufficient degree of serious seduction. To
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accomplish this we can imagine an adroit use of currently popular means
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of communication. But a disruptive sort of abstention, or manifestations
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designed to radically frustrate the fans of these means of
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communication, could also promote at little expense an atmosphere of
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uneasiness extremely favorable for the introduction of a few new
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notions of pleasure.
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This idea, that the realization of a chosen emotional situation depends
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only on the thorough understanding and calculated application of a
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certain number of concrete techniques, inspired this "Psychogeographical
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Game of the Week" published, not without a certain humor, in Potlatch #1:
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"In accordance with what you are seeking, choose a country, a more or
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less populated city, a more or less busy street. Build a house. Furnish
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it. Use decorations and surroundings to the best advantage. Choose the
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season and the time of day. Bring together the most suitable people,
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with appropriate records and drinks. The lighting and the conversation
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should obviously be suited to the occasion, as should be the weather or
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your memories.
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"If there has been no error in your calculations, the result should
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satisfy you."
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We need to work toward flooding the market--even if for the moment
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merely the intellectual market--with a mass of desires whose realization
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is not beyond the capacity of man's present means of action on the
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material world, but only beyond the capacity of the old social
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organization. It is thus not without political interest to publicly
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counterpose such desires to the elementary desires that are endlessly
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rehashed by the film industry and in psychological novels like those of
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that old hack Mauriac. ("In a society based on poverty, the poorest
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products are inevitably used by the greatest number," Marx explained to
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poor Proudhon.)
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The revolutionary transformation of the world, of all aspects of the
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world, will confirm all the dreams of abundance. The sudden change of
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ambiance in a street within the space of a few meters; the evident
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division of a city into zones of distinct psychic atmospheres; the path
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of least resistance which is automatically followed in aimless strolls
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(and which has no relation to the physical contour of the ground); the
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appealing or repelling character of certain places--all this seems to be
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neglected. In any case it is never envisaged as depending on causes that
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can be uncovered by careful analysis turned to account. People are quite
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aware that some neighborhoods are sad and others pleasant. But they
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generally simply assume elegant streets cause a feeling of satisfaction
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and that poor street are depressing, and let it go at that. In fact, the
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variety of possible combinations of ambiances, analogous to the blending
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of pure chemicals in an infinite number of mixtures, gives rise to
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feelings as differentiated and complex as any other form of spectacle
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can evoke. The slightest demystified investigation reveals that the
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qualitatively or quantitatively different influences of diverse urban
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decors cannot be determined solely on the basis of the era or
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architectural style, much less on the basis of housing conditions.
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The research that we are thus led to undertake on the arrangement of the
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elements of the urban setting, in close relation with the sensations
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they provoke, entails bold hypotheses that must constantly corrected in
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the light of experience, by critique and self-critique.
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Certain of Chirico's paintings, which are clearly provoked by
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architecturally originated sensations, exert in turn an effect on their
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objective base to the point of transforming it: they tend themselves to
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become blueprints or models. Disquieting neighborhoods of arcades could
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one day carry on and fulfill the allure of these works.
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I scarcely know of anything but those two harbors at dusk painted by
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Claude Lorrain--which are at the Louvre and which juxtapose t extremely
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dissimilar urban ambiances--that can rival in beauty the Paris metro
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maps. It will be understood that in speaking here of beauty I don't have
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in mind plastic beauty--the new beauty can only be beauty of
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situation--but simply the particularly moving presentation, in both
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cases, of a sum of possibilities.
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Among various more difficult means of intervention, a renovated
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cartography seems appropriate for immediate utilization.
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The production of psychogeographic maps, or even the introduction of
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alterations such as more or less arbitrarily transposing maps of two
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different regions, can contribute to clarifying certain wanderings that
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express not subordination to randomness but complete insubordination to
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habitual influences (influences generally categorized as tourism that
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popular drug as repugnant as sports or buying on credit). A friend
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recently told me that he had just wandered through the Harz region of
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Germany while blindly following the directions of a map of London This
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sort of game is obviously only a mediocre beginning in comparison to the
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complete construction of architecture and urbanism that will someday be
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within the power of everyone. Meanwhile we can distinguish several
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stages of partial, less difficult realizations, beginning with the mere
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displacement of elements of decoration from the locations where we are
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used to seeing them.
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For example, in the preceding issue of this journal Marien proposed that
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when global resources have ceased to be squandered on the irrational
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enterprises that are imposed on us today, all the equestrian statues of
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all the cities of the world be assembled in a single desert . This would
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offer to the passersby--the future belongs to them--the spectacle of an
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artificial cavalry charge, which could even be dedicated to the memory of
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the greatest massacrers of history, from Tamerlane to Ridgway. Here we
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see reappear one of the main demands of this generation: educative value.
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In fact, there is nothing to be expected until the masses in action
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awaken to the conditions that are imposed on them in all domains of
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life, and to the practical means of changing them.
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"The imaginary is that which tends to become real," wrote an author
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whose name, on account of his notorious intellectual degradation, I have
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since forgotten. The involuntary restrictiveness of such a statement
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could serve as a touchstone exposing various farcical literary
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revolutions: That which tends to remain unreal is empty babble.
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Life, for which we are responsible, encounters, at the same time as
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great motives for discouragement, innumerable more or less vulgar
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diversions and compensations. A year doesn't go by when people we loved
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haven't succumbed, for lack of having clearly grasped the present
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possibilities, to some glaring capitulation. But the enemy camp
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objectively condemns people to imbecility and already numbers millions
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of imbeciles; the addition of a few more makes no difference. The first
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moral deficiency remains indulgence, in all its forms.
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GUY DEBORD
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From Les Levres Nues #6, September 1955
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