Blog Task 1: Exercises in Getting Lost and Flanerie

Our first lecture of the course was about 'pschogeography' - how the environment we live in effects the individual.

The geography of the city has been manipulated to meet the demands of daily life and routines. As busy bees, we choose to succumb to these manipulations and let space dictate us. Think about the underground - a labyrinth we speed through to get to the tube.

Nevertheless, the flaneur chooses to rebel against this; they interact with the space and become a man of the crowd and a detached observer on a mission. They seek to encounter a new and authentic experience in the city.

With this in mind, our first task was to embody the flaneur and interact with our city...

The Brief

Exercise 1

I began in Vauxhall, attempting to follow my penny shaped route on the map. I took full advantage of the Starbucks to the left of the station and with a coffee in one hand and my photocopied A-Z map of the area in the other, I set off with an open mind.

It wasn't long before I got lost. I soon became dependent on both paper map and phone map (looking like a proper tourist). I couldn't follow the circular route on the map and concentrate on my surroundings so I gave up and let my instincts lead the way.

Have you noticed people are a bit scared of eye contact? Nevertheless, one woman sat at the bus station seemed quite curious. (I don't actually think she was waiting for a bus) but she smiled and said hello. I think if I'd stopped to sit next to her, she would have probably had a chat with me. Anyway, with a task in hand, the greeting was reciprocated and I walked on.

At one point, whilst I was waiting to cross the road, a man said to me "You know you don't need to wait for the lights to change before you cross...why are you waiting?" He was evidently flabbergasted by the fact that I actually choose to wait for the man to flash green before I cross. I think this confirms the idea that people have become detached from their environment; they're in too much of a rush to stop and observe.

I took the opportunity to appreciate the view along the Thames. There was a lot of building work going on in the area, and this alone seemed to dictate the path I took, which indeed got me lost. I ended up on a building site, following a road to who knows where. Strangely, not a single builder I passed stopped to offer guidance, they just left me to it. I soon got bored and lonely from the lack of civilization and followed my route back again. The return journey lead me back to the station where a group of offenders on community service were cleaning the street. Nice.

Exercise 2

I began Exercise 2 at a bus stop just outside Kennington Underground Station. After 4 stops I got off, and began to follow my route. It was quite, chilly yet sunny.

I was following the route from the Deer Park to the Ambedkar Market in New Delhi, India. The route consisted of: a straight, right, left, right and final slight left. Since I'm not very good with distances I just had to wing it and turned when it seemed appropriate, but I knew the journey should have taken around 15 minutes.

During the route, I stumbled across some eclectic finds including an Italian day nursery, South Lambeth Library and Arthur Rackham's House (artist and illustrator of children's books such as Alice and Wonderland). Rackham's house is situated in Albert Square around a quaint, little residents only garden, which I really wanted to go into but you needed a key. The area was mainly residential so there wasn't much to see other than the Victorian houses, but it was peaceful and I didn't feel like I was in London.

As I reached the end of my journey, I arrived back onto a main road and ended with the South Lambeth Library, which seemed like a popular place to go. Everyone seemed friendly and there was a strong community feel. Where I live the public libraries seem to be dying out so it was nice to see this one being used, and a pleasant end to my journey.

On the whole, this task was a nice opportunity to go out and explore places I ordinarily wouldn't go to. Why would I ever explore a building site? I just wouldn't do it, but this task encourages you to open your eyes and observe. It's worth a try!