A high-cross journey!

In class we were asked to make a 3 minute video on the idea of psychogeography. This is the idea that there is a connection between the human mind and geography. As soon as my tutor explained this to me, immediately got excited. ( both the creative me, and the curious me) Not only was I able create something interesting for people to see I was also able to undertake my own thoughts and processes into the project. The idea of psychogeography fascinated me a lot. I found it true, I can't count the times that I've headed out of my house and headed into the town centre to meet my friends only to ignore everything I've seen until I reach my destination. I think the majority of us go onto "Auto" mode when we head out, ignoring the buildings and the things we see. It could probably link with the fact that when we see something out of the ordinary we seem to shy away....at least I do anyway. Perhaps we do come into contact with things we're not used to, we just don't spot them because we don't actually look.

When the project came about, there were many different ideas using the first letters of the favourite book characters to see where we go. However the one that struck both me and my partner as interesting is a shopping journey but let a dice control we're we go. This was an odd thing to do since when I go shopping i tend to know where I'm going so I can go and then quickly go back home. However letting an object decide for me, was weird. How could I walk part a shop which I know i needed something from but couldn't go because of an object? Or if the object told us to go into a shop which neither of us like very much. This actually happened, the first place in the video is an underwear shop, both of us felt uncomfortable going in and filming yet we did anyway to see were we ended up.

We took this approach because of the work by Like Ryanheart who wrong the book "The dice man." After taking his approach i then decided to do some research on his project to see his results. I then came across this article which explains that even 40 years after the book he's still letting a die control his actions. Once I discovered this I thought about how letting a die control my actions for forty years would effect me. I think it would drive me crazy, It would be good in some ways as you'd be more observant and see things rather than just walk by without noticing however letting an object control me is not something I would particularly like. I like to have control...especially in my own life so although I had fun on the project...I'm not sure if I'd want to do it again.

References
The worksheet given

Wiener. M (2012) Rolling with the dice man [www] Available from: http://www.sabotagetimes.com/people/the-dice-man/ (Accessed:2012)