Tag: psychogeography

Film, Landscape, Literature, Psychogeography

Interview: John Rogers on London Overground and Psychogeography.

John Rogers has been one of the most prominent psychogeographical writers and filmmakers of the last decade.  Fiercely independent and with a strong DIY sensibility towards his creative responses to London, his work is a vital component and documentation of a city still in a phase of hyper-development and gentrification.  Ahead of his adaptation/response to Iain Sinclair’s most recent book, London Overground, I met up … Continue reading Interview: John Rogers on London Overground and Psychogeography.

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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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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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Art, Film, Landscape, Psychogeography

Wanders: The Magnet and The Last Resort (New Brighton).

As a last hurrah of being on Merseyside before moving, I decided to revisit a place just down the road from where I’d lived on The Wirral; armed with a desire to dig up some of its surprising past glories.  I’ve been going to the seaside resort of New Brighton for as long as I can remember, often as a place to sit off and … Continue reading Wanders: The Magnet and The Last Resort (New Brighton).

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Art, Landscape, Psychogeography

Responses: Richard Long’s A Line Made By Walking (1967).

Like the work of sculptor Andy Goldsworthy, Richard Long’s work immediately asks an intriguing question: which part of the work is the official segment of “art”?  Is it the very process of making it and performing which constitutes the work or is it the documentation of such a process?  It needn’t be such a binary state of affairs; the two potential options have a fluid … Continue reading Responses: Richard Long’s A Line Made By Walking (1967).

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Folk Horror, Landscape, Television

Wire and Grass Landscapes

At the recent Alchemical Landscape conference in Cambridge, there was some interesting discussion of the landscape seen in the opening segment of Alan Clarke and David Rudkin’s Play for Today episode, Penda’s Fen (1974). The point of the discussion was to show the subversive nature of the opening titles of the film in regards to its melding of two potentially differing realities of English landscape. … Continue reading Wire and Grass Landscapes

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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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Art, Landscape, Literature, Psychogeography

Responses: Jeremy Millar’s A Firework For Sebald (2005).

The strongest moment in Grant Gee’s documentary on W.G. Sebald, Patience (After Sebald) (2012), is courtesy of a photographic work by the artist, Jeremy Millar. Towards the end of film, the inevitable addressing of the tragedy of Sebald’s life being cut short in a car crash in 2001 comes to be addressed and uses one photo from a series of works by Millar titled A Firework … Continue reading Responses: Jeremy Millar’s A Firework For Sebald (2005).

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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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