42

/ / / / / /HereBe
Dragons

New Geography (Earth Writing)

As a graphic designer interested in the intersection of: faith, ‘urban practice’ and identity, the definition of geography as ‘writing about the earth’ or ‘writing the world’ is fascinating. In fact, one of the more pleasant and unexpected discoveries from last year was the fact that ‘Geography’ has changed– it has been reinvented. The ‘Cinderella’ subject is hip and geographers are tapping into ‘continental’ thought, talking more about Dr Seuss than plate tectonics. My thesis was heavily influenced by this notion of ‘earth writing’, exploring the shared mechanisms of typography and camouflage– a type of desert writing.

Trespassing and hybridity seem to have become the order of the day; as barriers collapse and disciplines fall into constant flux– geography being no exception. New ‘coalitions’ and ‘collisions’ appear all the time, adding to the ever-expanding inventory of practices that locate themselves either in or around the city. An ‘affinity’ of disciplines that could be loosely termed ‘trans-urban practice’; or dare I say, ‘geography’!

Some more obvious examples of these practices would include: the soft, ‘performative’, architectures of Lucy Orta, Iain Borden and Usman Haque– and on a more collective tip, the tactics and interventions of SpaceHyjackers or RTS. Not to mentions, the various ‘species’ of psychogeography perpetrated by the likes of: Iain Sinclair, Stuart Home and Peter Ackroyd. One could even include the Certeau-esque nomadic narratives of ‘Platform’. The list is endless.

A hybridised notion of geography works really well for me. As it provides a context to work out of– a theoretical habitat where both design and spirituality co-exist. I can take the initial (intuited) insight that both fields are closely related and begin to establish some sort of coherent articulation or discourse. Map a territory that (according to one BBC researcher I talked to) is only populated by Cathedrals and Shaker furniture! If only, there are whole worlds out there– and they exist on the emergent ‘line of flight’, where design collides with spirituality.

HauntedGeographies positions itself on the ‘in-between’, an itinerant blog that drifts and wanders. A pilgrimage that documents the trespasses through the ‘real and imagined’, a migration common to both the worlds of design and spirituality. It is the story of an inscription, describing the simultaneous process of writing and being written the narration of a new inscribing landscape.

design | spirituality | geography | writing

Comments

[Kester]

Nice.

Went to hear Will Self and Sinclair talk about 'Disappearing London' the other night. Very interesting discussion, and Sinclairs new book of the same title looks really interesting.

Lovely bit Self read out about Vauxhall, site of the old London Cold Store, and now home to your favourite club 'Hoist':
"Where have the 16000 tonnes of raw meat gone?"

[Nic]

That sounded interesting. Reminds me of that Calvino book, Invisible Cities.

I remember another story someone told me about the old Cold Store, except it involved a different type of meat-packing!

Hold on. Did'nt you recently partake in an S&M communion with Pete Rollins? How Hoist is that!

[Kester]

I think that's what Self was having a wink at ;-)

Was very interesting.

I still need to 'unpack' that little moment with Rollins. Really not sure what to make of it all. Most of them were couples, and I did suggest that it was just a kind of kinky alpha, but Pete suggested it wasn't, and that things were a little more 'fluid'. Hmmm...