Stumbled across the term “psychogeography” which Wikipedia describes as “the exploration of urban environments that emphasizes interpersonal connections to places and arbitrary routes.”

I’ve come to realise that I put a lot (maybe too much?) of thought into the routes I choose, be it for commuting, getting across town, or a lunchtime walk. Deciding the route can be driven by.. efficiency, spatial distribution of the destinations, what I need to drop off or pick up, mode of transport (which is again driven by a bunch of decisions)… yada yada..

Outside the urban environment, I plan my routes to another level when running in the mountains, often driven by risk vs reward, and often changing on the fly as difficult or enticing landscapes unfold, weather rolls in, or fatigue or energy kicks in.

I’ve decided to start a wee project and explore the urban side of psychogeography by capturing “desire lines” as I stumble across them. Desire lines are an interesting topic in itself which I feel aligns well to the concept of psychogeography. As part of the project I’ll take photos of the line and explore the reasoning behind them. I might eventually include some maps to get the wider picture.

I’ll kick off with today’s short 3km loop to the corner store.

This desire line sits on a street corner and descends from a bike pump track and playground. The bikes have rutted out the top and made it an obvious line of attack. At the top I walked across the pump track and the adjoining sports field to connect to a formed track. A very common desire line cutting a corner. I doubt any bike rider would take the hard corner. Potentially walkers would on a wet day. Two tiers here. Mountain biking is a big thing here and kids create these everywhere. I love seeing the kids wielding shovels and egging each other on to do the jumps. There is a wee jump at the top of the green patch here. This is the top section. Convenient connector as the Council-maintained formed path adds some unnecessary distance. Looks fun for the kids too, especially when they hit the jump just to the right off screen. Standard corner footpath desire line at a roundabout. Much quicker for the able-bodied and traffic-aware. Again bikes are forming this up well.

#DesireLine #DesirePath #psychogeography