Pyschogeography is defined by The Oxford Dictionary as “The study of the influence of geographical environment on the mind or on behaviour“. The term Dérive which translates to drifting, and is a “technique of rapid passage through varied ambiances.” It looks at the environment and culture and what our journeys could inform us about our city, bringing an awareness of subtle uniqueness’ of usually urban landscapes.
We had to take a forty minute walk and take photographs of virtually anything we found could represent or symbolise our journeys. I chose to look at sign/graphics, drains/metal objects and doors/locks; these are my three categories i assorted my photos into.
I created contact sheets for each group to display clearly all the images, contact sheets are mainly used for quick referencing nowadays however in the past it was on a displaying on the images on a film roll.
I then created a few sheets of each subject area, for the doors I used a grid to evenly place each image on the page, using a brown and white colour pattern as these were the reoccurring colours.
I then placed the assorted the drains in three rows roughly from small to large, creating a mundane array of colour over all.
I used one of the brick wall images and placed the remaining sign and graphic photos onto that one as shown here. I did this by using the Magic Wand and Quick Selection tools in Photoshop, to remove the background edges of each sign.
I found this display on London’s Southbank which I thought was a great connection to my collection of signs.
Louise Boulter 