Mental Space_Psychogeography

At this stage, I want to find something about the Psychogeography.   by Coverley, Merlin 

The term "psychogeography" is used to illustrate a bewildering array of ideas, from ley lines and the occult to urban walking and political radicalism-where does it come from and what exactly does it mean?   Psychogeography is the point where psychology and geography meet in assessing the emotional and behavioral impact of urban space. The relationship between a city and its inhabitants is measured firstly through an imaginative and literary response, secondly on foot through walking the city. This creates a tradition of the writer as walker and has both a literary and a political component. This guide examines the origins of psychogeography in the Situationist Movement of the 1950s, exploring the theoretical background and its political applications as well as the work of early practitioners such as Guy Debord and Raoul Vaneigem. Elsewhere, psychogeographic ideas continue to find retrospective validation in much earlier traditions from the visionary writing of William Blake and Thomas De Quincey to the rise of the flâneur on the streets of 19th century Paris and on through the avant-garde experimentation of the Surrealists. These precursors are discussed here alongside their modern counterparts, for today these ideas hold greater currency than ever through the popularity of writers and filmmakers such as Iain Sinclair and Peter Ackroyd, Stewart Home and Patrick Keiller. This guide offers both an explanation and definition of the terms involved, an analysis of the key figures and their work, and practical information on psychogeographical groups and organizations.

Hiromura masaaki

Add caption

The Production of Space／by Lefebvre

Henri Lefebvre has considerable claims to be the greatest living philosopher. His work spans some sixty years and includes original work on a diverse range of subjects, from dialectical materialism to architecture, urbanism and the experience of everyday life. The Production of Space is his major philosophical work and its translation has been long awaited by scholars in many different fields. The book is a search for a reconciliation between mental space (the space of the philosophers) and real space (the physical and social spheres in which we all live). In the course of his exploration, Henri Lefebvre moves from metaphysical and ideological considerations of the meaning of space to its experience in the everyday life of home and city. He seeks, in other words, to bridge the gap between the realms of theory and practice, between the mental and the social, and between philosophy and reality. In doing so, he ranges through art, literature, architecture and economics, and further provides a powerful antidote to the sterile and obfuscatory methods and theories characteristic of much recent continental philosophy. This is a work of great vision and incisiveness. It is also characterized by its author's wit and by anecdote, as well as by a deftness of style which Donald Nicholson-Smith's sensitive translation precisely captures.

An extraordinary work of interdisciplinary speculation on the creation and meaning of social environments. Combining philosophy, aesthetic theory, social criticism, and the social sciences, Lefebvre reflects on vast expanses. Lefebvre's use of "space" reflects in part the concerns of ecologists, urban planners, and anthropologists. If what Lefebvre means by "space" is ultimately nebulous, he is convincing about the need for an idea both more and less than "world View," "form of life," or "culture." Familiar topics of cultural history Greece, Rome, the Middle Ages, the rise of capitalism, urbanization and modernism (Picasso and Bauhaus architecture) are discussed with fresh insight. Signs and semiotics appear often. Marx (with an emphasis on the non-economic, Hegelian side) is the greatest influence, but there is no hint of doctrinaire Marxism. Other frequently discussed figures include Barthes, Hegel, Heidegger, Kant, Kristeva, and Nietzsche. The afterword by geographer David Harvey (The Limit to Capital, CH, Mar'83) is a good, brief, intellectual biography of Lefebvre, an important French intellectual for over 60 years. The book reads very naturally; one is unaware of the translator except for judicious notes. D. Christie; University of New Hampshire

Descriptive content provided by Syndetics™, a Bowker service.

City Cultures Reader

City Cultures Reader is an outstanding collection of 60 texts, focussing on the cultural aspects, frameworks and perceptions of cities. Organised into twelve sections this text draws on material from cultural studies, architectural criticism and theory, cultural and human geography, urban design and critical theory. This exciting collection of readings draws out the comparisons and contrasts of the city by the juxtaposition of texts in each section. The excellent line up of contributors discuss a variety of current issues including:
· utopian and dystopian visions 
· ecology
· social justice
· city form
· possible futures.
· every day life

Biography

Malcolm Miles is Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at Oxford Brookes University, Iain Borden is Senior Lecturer in Architectural History at The Bartlett, University College London and Tim Hall is Lecturer in Human Geography at Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Education.

Who's Your City?

Visit the book website at www.whosyourcity.com for additional online features.

Overview
How the Creative Economy is Making the Place Where You Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life.
It’s a mantra of the age of globalization that where you live doesn’t matter: you can telecommute to your high-tech Silicon Valley job, a ski-slope in Idaho, a beach in Hawaii or a loft in Chicago; you can innovate from Shanghai or Bangalore.
According to Richard Florida, this is wrong. Place is not only important, it’s more important than ever.
Globalization is not flattening the world; on the contrary, the world is spiky. Place is becoming more relevant to the global economy and our individual lives. The choice of where to live, therefore, is not an arbitrary one. It is arguably the most important decision we make, as important as choosing a spouse or a career. In fact, place exerts powerful influence over the jobs and careers we have access to, the people we meet and our “mating markets” and our ability to lead happy and fulfilled lives.
Who’s Your City provides the first ever-rankings of cities by life-stage, rating the best places for singles, young families and empty-nesters. And it grounds its new ideas and data to provide an essential guide for the more than 40 million Americans of who move each year on how to choose where to live, and what those choices mean for their lives, happiness and communities.

Geo Logics

GeoLogics

Geography, Information and Architecture

Vicente Guallart

Vicente Guallart, pioneer of interaction between nature, technology and architecture examines the urban, social and cultural changes in our information society for new urban building. Presenting the last 15 years of his work, this book investigates architecture’s ability to construct systems for inhabitable environments in diverse environmental, social, and economic conditions. He crosses boundaries through collaborations in geology, sociology, engineering, economics, software and interface design. His projects follow a "natural" logic, referring to components originating in nature, as well as to environmental systems. A logic that connects nature with the transformations of urban spaces, social organizations, and the digital world.

Look inside: 
http://issuu.com/actar/docs/geologics

Space Graphysm

This bilingual publication in English and Japanese presents recent Japanese architectural projects for which graphic design plays the leading role. It presents the frequently award-winning designs of Hiromura Masaaki, a Japanese designer who made a name for himself with innovative projects which combine graphic design and architecture. 

The projects are showcased and discussed in four sections:
System - information design to clarify the structure of buildings, Graphysm - the use of typography in spaces to clarify the purpose of the space, Presentation - graphic design for exhibitions and installations, and Visual Identity - creating a visual identity for a space or building. To emphasize the importance of multidisciplinary teams in creating graphics for spaces, author and designer Hiromura Masaaki interviews professionals who collaborated on various projects, for example, an architect, a scientist, an artist and a photographer. Much of this concerns ?signing?, a subject long deserving attention. Space Graphysm fills the gap perfectly, providing readers versed in architecture as well as graphic and information designers with a wealth of innovative and inspirational projects. 

http://vimeo.com/5471619