Psychogeography vs Deep Topography

Whenever a new podcast of Ventures and Adventures in Topography becomes available I listen to it as soon as I can. The podcasts, hosted by Nick Papadimitriou and John Rogers, are 30 minute radio shows combining studio discussion and field recordings, slightly tongue-in-cheek, but also, in the combination of the knowledgeable and laconic Rogers and the original and slightly crazy Papadimitriou, bursting with off-beat insights of a unique blend of psychogeography and urban exploration that Papadimitriou calls 'deep topography'. Afterwards I always want to go outside and walk the unexplored outer fringes of Utrecht, but, sadly, I never do. In the podcast on Ilford a remark about the apparently typical 'psychogeographical sneer' leads Papadimitriou to the following observation:

I think the broad distinction between psychogeography and deep topography is that psychogeography at heart is Christian. It is always dealing with the notion of fallen man in his dumpy landscapes whereas deep topography is essentially tantric, it sees a kind of joyful sexuality in all things, even sewage farms. In fact particularly sewage farms.

He is right of course, psychogeography started with a group of people who are most famous for their fundamentalist self-righteousness. & For whom the Left Bank was the centre of the world. I hope this blog is doing better, having taken the Amazon (and the Arctic) as the centre of the world.