While Deriving on Sunday 13th Sept

Nature Vortex!

Web V

Nightstuff and Time Lapse Inspiration

I made a sorry attempt at taking photos of the sky at 3am 2 nights ago. It required alot of patience and the cold in my bones was just no fun. I didn't have a tripod but managed to balance the cam on a stone which i place on a thin ledge. It didnt really work out. *Sigh* The trials and tribulations one must face when the cosmic dance overhead is just too beautiful to ignore. ;)

On the other hand, this video is an example of a very successful photo shoot in the form of a time lapse video of the night sky. *gasp* It really is something along the likes of stuff I aspire to do at some point. First I must Zen out on patience...

Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party from William Castleman.

Rawscape

Being in Pont Aven, emersed in a fairly alien cultural environment with diverse personalities from all over the globe, with almost surreal experiences and extremely dynamic weather conditions, (all of which illicit extreme positive and negative emotions and responses in my mind), I find that the 'self' within me seems to be an unflinching comfort space that remains a constant.

With these consistently evolving emotions that are sometimes overwhelming, there is a pillar within me that I can fall back on at the end of the day. A space of solidity and silence.

The recognition of this subtle truth within me has been my prime motivation for these unedited photos entitled 'Rawscape'.

Psychogeography, Derive and Flaneur – Process and Evidence

During the Situationist movement, Guy Dubord, intensively studied people and influences in regard to their external environment rather than their own personal motivations, individual characteristics and primal nature. He played a significant role as one of the founders of ‘Situationist International’, before and during he hypothesized and defined the concepts of Psychogeography (1955) and Derive(1958)

My understanding of Psychogeography, Derive and Flaneur is fairly optimistic. It seems to be a kind of mental Elysium and that destroys boundaries between tangible artistically limited urban spaces and a subjective, almost surrealistic open-mindedness towards ones environment. It has a hopeful outlook that tries to rise beyond the banalities of a thought system that has been festering within the linear and restrictive modern development of our age.

It is extremely amusing to know that Dubord and Jorn associated psychogeography with the female body, insinuating that the thrill of using psychogeography, perhaps via deriving or maps, is as pleasurable and exciting as sex. In addition to this, being aware that the term ‘psychogeography’, which one might speak in with a fairly scholarly and poker-faced way, was conceived of during a night of drunkenness, adds to my favourable attitude towards these concepts.

I’m disappointed to know that the term ‘flaneur’ has been bastardized with a negative intimation in French Canada which almost seems like they missed they point.

It makes me reflect upon conventional understanding, societal stains of the past and a sticky microcosmic cognition within and a vast world of suprising potentialities.

As an aspiring photographer and enthusiastic traveler, the situationist response towards new urbanism where they hoped to merge the linear urban landscape with elements that were aesthetically pleasing to all aspects of ones mind and senses, open doors to limitless possibilities for exciting direct experiences within my mind. Although I have been playing my part as a local flaneur in India during frequent spontaneous photo walks and unconsciously deriving over the years, I’m subtly elated to know that these theories solidified by Dubord have survived half a century later and are expressed in performance, literature, architecture, film, comics, poetry and other art forms today. Being an ardent fan of Poe and Alan Moore I’m tickled pink to know they play an preeminent roles within this thought landscape. All due credit must be given to the Brits for the ‘London Psychogeographical Association’ : D

I find these terms extremely relevant and consequential to an artist, observer and the general public (that more often than not seems unsatisfied with their societal nuances and unfulfilled inner expression) as I believe it will open up new avenues for mental stimulation and a positive evolving expansion of the frontal lobe ;)