When the Walls Spoke: research into psychogeographical approaches to cinema

<p dir="ltr">Psychogeography was defined by Guy Debord (1955, p.23) as a method of reinterpreting one’s emotional connection to a geographical landscape. Beginning with the early definitions and practices of psychogeography proposed by Debord, for example his theories of the derive and détournement, I ask how these principles can be applied to a range of films that have both pre-dated and followed the movement to show how psychogeography can be used as a method of capitalist critique.</p><p dir="ltr">Since the inception of psychogeography in 1955, the politically-transgressive practice has been utilised in cinema to convey emotional relationships between geographical environments and the individual. Countering scholars who have declared the movement an ‘abject failure’ (Coverley 2018, p. 27) in achieving its aims, this research instead proposes an argument for the practice’s success in influencing new artistic methods of representing city and place cinematically. I argue for an updated and expanded definition of psychogeographic cinema, and for its continued relevance in a modern neoliberal world.</p><p dir="ltr">This Masters of Research thesis comprises a written exegesis and corresponding cinematic creative research work that examines what makes a film psychogeographic. The outcomes of this research are a contribution to understanding psychogeography in a contemporary context and critical evaluations of psychogeographic practice in cinema.</p>