Rethinking Mythogeography

Overview

In 2010, Phil Smith reinvented psychogeography with his own unique take on the subject. He called it Mythogeography and it is at the heart of any discussion/practice of radical walking, site-specific urban performance, 'drift and d�©rive' and 'guiding and misguiding.' In this new book, he has reinvented Mythogeography. This beautiful book contains an essay by Phil Smith and images by John Schott taken during Phil's recent invitation to be Artist-in-Residence at Carleton College, Minnesota. Phil Smith addresses 16 key themes: 1. On being touched, but not obliged-how to fully engage with places with no surrender of our nomadic self. 2. Pilgrimage-how to weave the practice of pilgrimage in and out of our daily lives. 3. The big picture and the zero-local history, tourist guides, our stories always start from somewhere-everything before that gets deleted. 4. Breadth & Narrowness-the 'narrowness' of everyday lives is often compared to the 'openness' of history. But mythogeographers find and explore them curled up inside each other. 5. Individual embodying an idea. 6. The mob-"I want people to walk mythogeographically, but under their own steam; not led". 7. The compromised body as an agent of joy-put our bodies (not ideas) back at the centre of walking. 8. The "talented" walker ready to pounce-how to leave an action until the last moment. 9. Dread space-how to transform a feeling of sourceless fear into an act of liberation. 10. Walking with your imagined self-we can enter our own fantasies about and in a place as we walk. 11. From classic pilgrimage to ambulant architecture-building new shrines, installing trip hazards, overlaying mazes across the path as we walk. 12. Ritual and repetition-walk a place repeatedly until you make up your own ritual of the place. 13. Using architecture as a magic wand-Find 'new menhirs.' 14. Provisional mythogeography-allow your research and maps to unravel in the face of a place. 15. Fighting the Spectacle with the power of zero-look for the infinitesimal change that can disrupt. 16. Evangelising-readers must do this stuff in their own and better ways. [Subject: Mythogeography, Radical Walking, Psychogeography, Performing Arts]