Day 121 - Murder on the streets of London - on the floor of my office, Aberystwyth

With his gothic descriptions of London in the grip of fog, locations dis-connected, a haze, a dreamlike sense of place, Robert Louis Stevenson may have been the first psychogeographer. A year after the publication of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Jack the ripper may have been the first 'psycho' geographer. I wonder whether my new reading position on the floor of my office might be a cause for concern for anyone that were to pass by and peer through the window to see my feet sticking out from beneath my chair.

I am considering the mathematics of place versus the mythology of place. The certainty with which we are able to pin down a particular location does little to make anything about that particular location certain. In fact all it serves to do is convince us that we know enough about a good many places not to take the time to find out anything more. We might do well to throw the maps out. At least for an hour or two. And then we might begin to see a world of places connected only by experiences and not by mathematical proximity. Barmouth is an hour away from Aberystwyth. Or, Barmouth is three days from Aberystwyth. The mathematics changes when the transport changes. Distance is in time and not in metres. Time, interestingly, is metered too.

For details of the Barmouth project follow the link.


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