Just posting this here for future reference. The feeling of place has been a subject of long fascination for me and I particularly like the situationist notion of drifting through and paying attention to the subtle shifts in feeling of urban and other landscapes – the notion of dérive. Here’s Guy Debord on the subject:
The sudden change of ambiance in a street within the space of a few meters; the evident division of a city into zones of distinct psychic atmospheres; the path of least resistance which is automatically followed in aimless strolls (and which has no relation to the physical contour of the ground); the appealing or repelling character of certain places — these phenomena all seem to be neglected. In any case they are never envisaged as depending on causes that can be uncovered by careful analysis and turned to account. People are quite aware that some neighborhoods are gloomy and others pleasant. But they generally simply assume that elegant streets cause a feeling of satisfaction and that poor streets are depressing, and let it go at that. In fact, the variety of possible combinations of ambiances, analogous to the blending of pure chemicals in an infinite number of mixtures, gives rise to feelings as differentiated and complex as any other form of spectacle can evoke. The slightest demystified investigation reveals that the qualitatively or quantitatively different influences of diverse urban decors cannot be determined solely on the basis of the historical period or architectural style, much less on the basis of housing conditions.
Guy Debord, Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography, Les Lèvres Nues #6 (September 1955). Translated by Ken Knabb
Debord, Guy. Introduction to a critique of urban geography. Praxis (e) press, 2008.
Refracted Input 