Thursday, 19 February 2009
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 :)
Friday, 9 January 2009
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 ...
Thursday, 13 November 2008
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
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
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
Wednesday, 11 July 2007
Report of the Monkey Magic Walk
Members of the Bored in the City Collective and friends met outside the Palace Theatre, Oxford Road for the Monkey Magic walk. Those involved did not know where the walk would take them, but one person decided to lead the way and walk to the Roman Fort. Before we started moving, a poem was recited:
This is the monkey magic walk
We are monkeys
Monkeys are real situationists
Monkeys are real psychogeographers
Monkeys have fun
Monkey goes where monkey wants
Monkey climbs trees
Monkey finds bananas and a peach
If you find the peach of immortality from the Jade Emperor's Heavenly Garden and if you take one bite, then you will be granted immortality forever.
Let's begin the walk!
So on this note, we began the walk. Fortunately, we were armed with some bananas and a peach - essential food for magic monkeys. One of the members of the collective had recently bought a plastic toy camera (Holga) and they have taken some of the photos included in this blog posting.
What's interesting with photos taken with toy cameras, is that because of the plastic lens and the potential for light leaks into the film, this means that the images which are produced can be unpredictable...sometimes rubbish as a result, but sometimes awesome! Also, photos taken with plastic cameras are not crystal clear, but instead do give much more mood, contrast and also more 'subjective' qualities to images ...
We arrived at the fort, with the Beetham's Tower (known by the bored in the city collective humorously as the 'tower of satan'!). A photograph was taken of the roman fort, with the Beetham's Tower looming over ...
... at the end of the walk, one of the walkers ate the peach from the Emperor Jade's Heavenly Garden and that person was granted immortality forever. Then we walked to the car park for romans ...
A location close to the Emperor's Heavenly Garden ...
The seed of the peach is buried in a secret place in the Emperor Jade's heavenly garden and we hope that it will grow to create more magical peaches to grant others immortality ...... Concluding the walk, we ended up in the Arndale Centre and we ate our bannanas
From the Bored in the City Collective
Members of the Bored in the City Collective and friends met outside the Palace Theatre, Oxford Road for the Monkey Magic walk. Those involved did not know where the walk would take them, but one person decided to lead the way and walk to the Roman Fort. Before we started moving, a poem was recited:
This is the monkey magic walk
We are monkeys
Monkeys are real situationists
Monkeys are real psychogeographers
Monkeys have fun
Monkey goes where monkey wants
Monkey climbs trees
Monkey finds bananas and a peach
If you find the peach of immortality from the Jade Emperor's Heavenly Garden and if you take one bite, then you will be granted immortality forever.
Let's begin the walk!
So on this note, we began the walk. Fortunately, we were armed with some bananas and a peach - essential food for magic monkeys. One of the members of the collective had recently bought a plastic toy camera (Holga) and they have taken some of the photos included in this blog posting.
What's interesting with photos taken with toy cameras, is that because of the plastic lens and the potential for light leaks into the film, this means that the images which are produced can be unpredictable...sometimes rubbish as a result, but sometimes awesome! Also, photos taken with plastic cameras are not crystal clear, but instead do give much more mood, contrast and also more 'subjective' qualities to images ...
We arrived at the fort, with the Beetham's Tower (known by the bored in the city collective humorously as the 'tower of satan'!). A photograph was taken of the roman fort, with the Beetham's Tower looming over ...
One tower, plus two ...
The remains of a roman wall ...
The watchtower ...
A car park for modern day Romans
A location close to the Emperor's Heavenly Garden ...The seed of the peach is buried in a secret place in the Emperor Jade's heavenly garden and we hope that it will grow to create more magical peaches to grant others immortality ...... Concluding the walk, we ended up in the Arndale Centre and we ate our bannanas
From the Bored in the City Collective
TRIP
Territories Reimagined: International Perspectives
Manchester, 19-22 June 2008.
Call for Papers and Projects
Psychogeography
Neogeography
Deep topography
Urban interventions
Locative media
Collaborative Mapping
Between June 19 and 22, 2008, TRIP brings together artists, academics, movers, shakers, do-ers and dissenters in a unique event combining an interdisciplinary conference with a city-wide series of actions, exhibitions, and screenings. TRIP enables the previously separate worlds of theory and practice to interact, initiating new approaches and energies, and furthering techniques to take on and alter the physical environment.
Beginning as a reaction to the industrial revolution, the re-imagining of the city by romantics, bohemians, and avant-gardists evolved into a diverse range of strategies, practices and arguments, from the psychogeographic drift or derive to the artistic intervention. By the 1990s these were being utilised by artists, writers, activists, and historians, attempting to negotiate urban and rural space in the post-modern world.
But practices developed in the twentieth century encounter a different world in the twenty first - a more observed and policed world on the one hand, a more corporate, globally-connected world on the other. Increasingly the body, social, individual and political, is the site of contradictory demands - the demands to consume versus the demands of control.
TRIP will be based at Manchester Metropolitan University, on the city's main southerly corridor, Oxford Road. But we want events to take place throughout Manchester, in as wide a variety of spaces and venues as possible. Like many northern cities, Manchester is changing fast. Perhaps you want to critique the implications of "regeneration", or perhaps you want to stimulate new ways of engaging with an increasingly consumerised environment. Maybe you're passionate about the possibilities of inventive walking and drifting, or maybe you're a performance artist aiming to change the energy of a public space. Wherever you're coming from, TRIP wants to hear from you with your ideas.
To submit a paper, you should send an abstract outlining your subject and the key points of your presentation.
To submit an idea for an intervention, performance or a walk involving members of the public, please outline in one paragraph the aims and ideal locations for your project.
To submit an idea for a gallery-based project, please outline in one paragraph the thinking behind your installation or work..
Please try to keep your paragraphs to a maximum of 200 words. And don't forget your contact details. Deadline for submissions: October 1st 2007.
Submissions should be emailed to: TRIP@mmu.ac.uk
(and for further information on festival announcements, walks, talks and events, then please access our blog-space, which will be updated regularly at :
http://trip2008.wordpress.com/
The festival proceedings will be fully documented and recorded, and an edited volume of essays, art and photography will be published at a later date.
Territories Reimagined: International Perspectives
Manchester, 19-22 June 2008.
Call for Papers and Projects
Psychogeography
Neogeography
Deep topography
Urban interventions
Locative media
Collaborative Mapping
Between June 19 and 22, 2008, TRIP brings together artists, academics, movers, shakers, do-ers and dissenters in a unique event combining an interdisciplinary conference with a city-wide series of actions, exhibitions, and screenings. TRIP enables the previously separate worlds of theory and practice to interact, initiating new approaches and energies, and furthering techniques to take on and alter the physical environment.
Beginning as a reaction to the industrial revolution, the re-imagining of the city by romantics, bohemians, and avant-gardists evolved into a diverse range of strategies, practices and arguments, from the psychogeographic drift or derive to the artistic intervention. By the 1990s these were being utilised by artists, writers, activists, and historians, attempting to negotiate urban and rural space in the post-modern world.
But practices developed in the twentieth century encounter a different world in the twenty first - a more observed and policed world on the one hand, a more corporate, globally-connected world on the other. Increasingly the body, social, individual and political, is the site of contradictory demands - the demands to consume versus the demands of control.
TRIP will be based at Manchester Metropolitan University, on the city's main southerly corridor, Oxford Road. But we want events to take place throughout Manchester, in as wide a variety of spaces and venues as possible. Like many northern cities, Manchester is changing fast. Perhaps you want to critique the implications of "regeneration", or perhaps you want to stimulate new ways of engaging with an increasingly consumerised environment. Maybe you're passionate about the possibilities of inventive walking and drifting, or maybe you're a performance artist aiming to change the energy of a public space. Wherever you're coming from, TRIP wants to hear from you with your ideas.
To submit a paper, you should send an abstract outlining your subject and the key points of your presentation.
To submit an idea for an intervention, performance or a walk involving members of the public, please outline in one paragraph the aims and ideal locations for your project.
To submit an idea for a gallery-based project, please outline in one paragraph the thinking behind your installation or work..
Please try to keep your paragraphs to a maximum of 200 words. And don't forget your contact details. Deadline for submissions: October 1st 2007.
Submissions should be emailed to: TRIP@mmu.ac.uk
(and for further information on festival announcements, walks, talks and events, then please access our blog-space, which will be updated regularly at :
http://trip2008.wordpress.com/
The festival proceedings will be fully documented and recorded, and an edited volume of essays, art and photography will be published at a later date.
The Hacienda has already been built, destroyed and rebuilt
**** IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT ****
The Hacienda is now a big car park with a block of yuppie flats
gentrification is dull
The Hacienda is now a big car park with a block of yuppie flats
gentrification is dull
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