Thursday, August 13, 2009

Liminal Clusters

When doing work in liminal geography (nee psychogeography) patterns of things are bound to appear. What those patterns are and how they manifest themselves depend on the individual, the environment one is working in, and even something as simple as one's mood at the time. Once, on an algorhythmic walk (Right/Left/Right, in this case), I noticed very early on in the walk that I was seeing yellow arrows everywhere, painted on the concrete, on walls, and even one sticker pointing upwards towards a possible point of interest. On another walk I became aware of posters for lost dogs, on another the ironic logos that places that sell meat use to advertise their wares: dancing cartoon pigs, giant fiberglass cattle, etc. Sometimes these patterns appear over greater distance and time, seen on many different adventures over many years. One such pattern that many researchers have noticed is the ubiquitous Muffler Man.

We refer to these patterns as "liminal clusters". These clusters can take the form of objects as noted above, or can be sound patterns, smells, or feelings. The possible range of liminal clusters is only limited by the ability of the human mind to find connections between things.

The Liminal Geographic Society

The Liminal Geographic Society was formed to promote research in the emerging field of liminal geography (also known to some as psychogeography, deep topography, and by other names as well.) To date, the majority of the research done in this field has taken place in urban areas, and the majority of that in the United Kingdom, particularly greater London. One of the main goals of the Liminal Geographic Society is to promote research in other parts of the world as well as in rural or semi-rural areas.

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