University induction week dice walking

Last year, as part of the Induction week programme for first year Psychology students, a special dice walking event was organised by the Bored in the city collective. The aim of this session was to use dice marked with directions such as left and right to explore the University of Huddersfield campus. The session began with a short presentation of how dice can be used as an anti-navigational method to explore social environments and to reflect on our experiences of places. The idea of living life by the dice was popularised through Luke Rhineheart’s book The Dice Man, whereby he decided to make serious life decisions by letting the dice decide what to do in terms of his job, relationships and friendships. The concept of using dice to make decisions can be connected to the situationist practice of the dérive (translated from the French as drifting), which involved getting lost in cities and reflecting on how environments effect behaviour in order to challenge the rampant process of capitalist gentrification. The issue of the regeneration of cities is particularly important when applied to the redevelopment of Northern cities such as Manchester, Leeds and Huddersfield in terms of whom regeneration really benefits. Individuals and groups can reflect on the changing forms of their cities through using practices such as dice walking. The political importance of using practices such as dice walking was connected to how it can be used to radicalise existing psychological research methods.

At this point, students and staff then formed a dice walking group and we set off onto the campus. Each member of the dice group was given a dice and they took it in turns to roll the dice to determine where we would go. First of all, the dice told us to take the second left which took us across a bridge towards the Canal Side West building. We continued along the road until we were forced to adhere to health and safety policy and disobey the order of the dice. So we then re-entered the campus and were forced along a gravitational pull towards the Freshers’ Fayre where we were plied with biscuits, flyers and posters! We then followed the dice onto a circular island near to the main entrance point of the University where the dice was marked with a question which meant that a member of the group had to decide where to go next. This is where the option of exploring the inside of the buildings came into play, and we found ourselves in the Arts and Design building, which led us to a darkened corridor with an explosive warning. The door was locked and in any case it would have contravened health and safety regulations to have entered!

The dice then told us to leave the building and took us around the outskirts of the campus. We then decided to get some more cookies from the Fresher’s Fayre where we lost two members of our group. The dice then directed us to the Media building and then we ended up outside next to the Milton building. This brought us to the end of the walk outside the Research building on the lawn. We then convened to discuss our thoughts and experiences of the walk and after the walk had concluded, one group member raised the issue of the commercialisation of University space and mentioned a recent article in The Guardian newspaper which discussed the issue of companies forming consumer ‘relationships’ with first year students. For those that are interested in participating in dice walks and would like to discuss issues such as the impact of regeneration on citizens and how dice walking can be deployed in academic research then contact

The Bored in the City Collective intend to use this blog to sketch out their thoughts and plans for further psychogeographical endeavours and for various articles, texts and maps which they hope to put in the public domain. As always, we are interested in hearing from other psychogeographers and others interested in studying/critiquing urbanism using various methods such as dice walking and using maps of other locations. So do contact us at boredinthecity@hotmail.co.uk!

Since we last updated this blog ... which was near on 2 years ago ... we have still been involved in doing dice walks, writing articles and various other psychogeographical activities ...so we hope to put into writing some of what we have done ... on to this blog. At the moment we are keen on doing dice walking. This involves taking the numbers of the dice and replacing the numbers with directions such as 'turn right', 'go straight on', etc. We are keen on writing narrative accounts of walks which are interspersed with photographs and we produce detourned maps of places investigated. Currently we do dice walks in the North of England in places such as Huddersfield, Leeds, Bradford and Oldham.

There is also a really interesting psychogeography group in Leeds which is worth checking out ... they arrange numerous walks, talks and other events. For further details click on this link http://particulations.blogspot.com

The Bored in the City Collective are back!

This blog is now active again - watch out for forthcoming posts!

Just to note to state that the drift planned for 21st February, meeting up at the Queen Vic statue, has been cancelled. However, a series of further drifts will be announced shortly and a zine will be produced based on the drifts through Manchester over the past two months in affiliation with the Bored in the city collective. Also an article to be published in a journal/online forum is in the pipeline :)

reminder about the drift on 11 Jan 2009

just a reminder about the bored in the city collective drift this sunday 11th jan, meeting at the queen vic statue in piccadilly gardens at 11am - we will be investigating the city in terms of how the city is mapped out in terms of addressing issues such as surveillance, social control and power ... this is the first of four drifts which will take place in january and february, where we will be experimenting with different forms of drifting and how to study the city using walking as a practice/method ...

Check out other psychogeographical groups in the North West including the Loiterers Resistance Movement - they do some really interesting walks around Manchester and you can find them at http://nowhere-fest.blogspot.com/ Actually, some members of Bored in the City are part of the LRM as well - so we're all one big family.

One of the aims of the Bored in the City Collective is to be more active in terms of writing articles, zines and creating maps - the walks planned in January and February is only the beginning. And whilst drifting and getting lost is fun and also great to meet new people and be with old friends, we want to make sure we document what we do next year. We also think its important that the drifts and activities that we do gets into serious political and professional forums in order to instigate some kinds of changes - therefore we will be writing some articles in theoretical forums such as journals (community and social activist theoretical journals), magazines (maybe something like mute magazine) and the local press. Quite a bit of psychogeography drifts has come under much flack for being too esoteric or too concerned with the occult for example - we want to draw focus on the importance of a radical political analysis of space, focusing on issues in Manchester such as CCTV surveillance, the impact of social gentrification on local communities and boundaries of inclusion and exclusion in the city centre of Manchester, i.e. that if you've got money the city is a great place to be, but if your strapped for cash and a teenager for example, then the security guards want you out, i.e. check the Triangle shopping centre as the ultimate system of surveillance and what the hell are those chromeplated cctv cameras doing in the Louis Vitton shop, they suck!

And watch out for the next international psychogeography festival and conference in Manchester (TRIP, Territories Reimagined: International Perspectives), which will be in June 2010

Bored in the City's Psychogeographical Investigation 2009

The Bored in the City Collective will be doing psychogeographical drifts around the streets of Manchester and we invite people to join us to make sense of the city and to creatively imagine what cities of the future could look like. We will be conducting a series of drifts across the city centre doing things like using maps of Cairo and New York to walk around Manchester, using dice to determine where we will go and generally enjoying getting lost in the city!

We will be meeting under the Queen Victoria Statue at Piccadilly Gardens at 11am on 11 Jan, 24 Jan, 8 Feb and 21 Feb in 2009.Bored in the City and friends will be undertaking a psychogeographical investigation of Manchester in order to understand urban space and to question and challenge the capitalist order of things. It is a further aim to produce some writings of the investigations conducted and those that would like to be involved should contact boredinthecity@hotmail.co.uk.The Bored in the City Collective are a group of curious people interested in wandering around cities and range from flaneurs, artists, activists, theorists and other people. We're a friendly bunch and we like to meet new people, so do join us :)

Keep checking this blog for further information