I loved this story, apropos to the discussions of last week on mapping. I read it just a day before class.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/28/nyregion/28map.html?_r=1&oref=login

This idea of psychogeography is an interesting notion. I think that often the function of a public space is not fully considered in respect to how it inhibits human behavior. It is almost accepted that some inhibition is a good thing. Is it useful to discuss these far fetched approaches to city planning? They are interesting concepts, however they clearly can never be a reality. In the case of Walt Disney, much of his ideology has become a reality in a controlled setting, with the same basic rules of decorum applied to acceptable conduct within these spaces. Despite the effort to appear otherwordly, Disney World is still a place that requires the same general societal rules that apply anywhere else. It has in fact become a symbol of the corporate entity that controls our free thought and expression more today than ever before. A great deal of money is spent to draw our attention to this product, that movie or tv show and to return our own money to that cause of continuing to build a larger and larger capitalist empire.

There is no question that to a certain extent the Situationist views of psychogeography were never meant to become a reality, but more to influence our thoughts about how we design public spaces. In this respect it is a useful contribution as it does provoke some thought and it seems this is the fundamental function of art.

I am interested in the ethnocentric views of mapping that occur, particularly within this country. Americans are largely unaware of the world around them, unaffected by anything outside of their own realm. This comes down not just to ignorance of geography, but of culture as well. The map of the upside down world is one of the more interesting illustrations of this:

http://flourish.org/upsidedownmap/

Clearly, our most basic assumptions about the orientation of things is quite an arbitrary convention that has no basis in scientific fact but is more politically motivated than anything else.

Of course maps are about more than just geography. They have a vastly diverse matrix for the understanding of art, culture and the exploration of ideas.