City Diary - Athens, Greece 2016

Posted by Dr. Theodor Yemenis July 06, 2016

City Diary - Athens, Greece 2016

Drifting throught the Streets of Athens or Psychogeography and Photography

[ City Diaries ] - Working on my long time project "City Diaries". Utilising analog and digital capture and postprocessing techniques to find creative solutions for my goal to investigate the urban spaces of modern european cities. Cities are complex constructions in space and time ( history, memory ). The Cities which I have already investigated or I am still investigating are: Athens, Berlin, Hamburg, Kiev, Lisbon, Porto. Some more are soon to come ... here some snapshots on work done on Lisbon and Porto ( Portugal ).

[ DE ] Städte-Tagebücher: Die Auseinandersetzungen mit Orten und Städten. Durch den Einsatz verschiedene technischen Aufnahmemedien wie analoge und digitale Kameras werden Ansichten der Städte aufgezeichnet und gespeichert ( für die Zukunft aufbewahrt ). Hier sollen die Geschichten der Häuser, der Straßen, des Ortes eingefangen und aufgezeichnet werden. Das Projekt thematisiert, wie durch verschiedene Medien Erinnerung gespeichert und wieder erweck werden kann.

Leit-Begriffe: Erinnerung ( Mnemosyne ), Geschichte, Erinnerungsräume, kulturelles Gedächtnis.

[ www.photovisionproject.com ]

City Diary - Athens, Greece 2016

Wandering / Drifting along the narrow streets of the city, with a photographic camera and no particular destination in mind, is the perfect way to catch the unique flavor of the city.

Psychogeography is an approach to geography that emphasizes playfulness and “drifting” around urban environments. It has links to the Situationist International. Psychogeography was defined in 1955 by Guy Debord as “the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals.”

In psychogeography, a dérive (French: [de.ʁiv], “drift”) is an unplanned journey through a landscape, usually urban, on which the subtle aesthetic contours of the surrounding architecture and geography subconsciously direct the travellers, with the ultimate goal of encountering an entirely new and authentic experience. Situationist theorist Guy Debord defines the dérive as “a mode of experimental behavior linked to the conditions of urban society: a technique of rapid passage through varied ambiances.” He also notes that “the term also designates a specific uninterrupted period of dériving.”