Tag: psychogeography blog

Art, Landscape, Psychogeography

Responses: Keith Arnatt’s A.O.N.B (1982-1984).

The photography series, Areas Of Outstanding Natural Beauty (1982-1984), was the first work I came across by Keith Arnatt.  This was some time before he would eventually be back in vogue thanks to Tate Britain’s well received conceptual exhibition, of which his most famous work, Self Burial (1969), was the publicity image for.  Very much like the landscapes that so much of Arnatt’s work captures, … Continue reading Responses: Keith Arnatt’s A.O.N.B (1982-1984).

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Literature, Psychogeography

Muriel Spark’s Ballad Of Peckham Rye

“I shall have to do research,” Dougal mused, “into their inner lives. Research into the real Peckham.  It will be necessary to discover the spiritual well-spring, the glorious history of the place, before I am able to offer some impetus.” To ingratiate myself into newly living in South London, I was keen to find some boundary markers in the area to walk and explore. I had only … Continue reading Muriel Spark’s Ballad Of Peckham Rye

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Art, Psychogeography

Responses: Alison and Peter Smithson’s Architecture (London).

Alison and Peter Smithson are two of the most influential architects of the 20th century.  This is in spite of the fact that only several of their buildings made it past the design stage and that, of those that did in the UK at least, they have often been reviled as the most grim of Brutalist designs.  Yet, apart from their buildings standing out for … Continue reading Responses: Alison and Peter Smithson’s Architecture (London).

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Landscape, Literature, Psychogeography, Short Film

Short Film – Heavy Water.

I remember being sat on a bench on Dunwich Heath in September last year and seeing the dome of Sizewell B for the first time as an adult.  I had just walked a little way down the coast, after a day of filming further down at Orford Ness, from Dunwich beach through to the heath.  I simply was not expecting to be greeted by such … Continue reading Short Film – Heavy Water.

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Film, Literature, Psychogeography

The London Nobody Knows (1969) – Psychogeographic Fluctuation.

Norman Cohen’s filmic version of Geoffrey Fletcher’s 1967 book, The London Nobody Knows, could hardly be called an adaptation.  With the book being a mixture of personal documentary and the historical exploring of London streets, its narrative is one purely of journeys if anything else.  Cohen was already used to this blurring of fiction and fact having unaccredited work on Arnold L. Miller’s cult documentary, … Continue reading The London Nobody Knows (1969) – Psychogeographic Fluctuation.

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Landscape, Literature, Psychogeography

Wanders: Ian Nairn’s Pimlico (London).

I’ve always had a slight relationship with Victoria and Pimlico in London.  As central London areas go, it has always represented two things to me: the awful feeling of leaving the city and the sense of dread at having to wander around somewhere largely built of private buildings, houses and hotels (not the ideal place to burn an hour in wait for a coach or … Continue reading Wanders: Ian Nairn’s Pimlico (London).

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Landscape, Psychogeography, Short Film

Trailer – Heavy Water.

Above is the trailer for the next short film, Heavy Water.  This is to be the longest film this year and the most ambitious in terms of scope in spite of future projects containing narratives and actors.  Heavy Water ‘s difficulty is the connection of its two main themes represented by adjacent places on the Suffolk coast; the strange, liminal landscape surrounding Sizewell nuclear power … Continue reading Trailer – Heavy Water.

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Landscape, Literature, Psychogeography

A Last Glimpse of the Land

“The contours of the Sizewell power plant, its Magnox block a glowering mausoleum, begin to loom upon an island far out in the pallid waters where one believes the Dogger Bank to be, where once shoals of herring spawned and earlier still, a long, long time ago, the delta of the Rhine flowed out into the sea and where green forests grew from silting sands.” … Continue reading A Last Glimpse of the Land

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Film, Folk Horror, Landscape, Literature, Psychogeography

“Wyrd” Wirral – Spirits Of Place (02/04/2016)

This is an edited version of the paper given at Spirits Of Place in Calderstones Park, Liverpool 02/04/2016.  My thanks to John Reppion and Leah Moore for organising the event and for to the other excellent speakers (Gill Hoffs, David Southwell, Gary Budden, Kenneth Brophy, Richard Macdonald, Ian “Cat” Vincent and Ramsey Campbell).  Here’s to the next one. There is strange landmass on the opposite … Continue reading “Wyrd” Wirral – Spirits Of Place (02/04/2016)

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Landscape, Psychogeography

Wanders: Student Flatopia (Liverpool)

It’s an oft-stated critique of Liverpool city centre in recent years that it’s become an increasingly oversized student campus as opposed to a city.  A number of local writers and commentators, including an excellent summation earlier in the year by Seven Streets, have mentioned the suspiciously sheer abundance of developments comprising purely of student accommodation within the centre though it has rarely been quantified as a reality if … Continue reading Wanders: Student Flatopia (Liverpool)

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