Psy-Geo-Conflux (better known as Conflux) is an annual
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
festival dedicated to
psychogeography
Psychogeography is the exploration of urban environments that emphasizes interpersonal connections to places and arbitrary routes. It was developed by members of the Letterist International and Situationist International, which were revolutiona ...
, where visual, performance and sound artists, writers, urban adventurers, researchers and the public gather for four days to explore the physical and psychological landscape of the city.
Founding
Conflux was co-founded by David Mandl of the
Brooklyn Psychogeographical Association and
Glowlab Glowlab was an artist-run initiative that produced and presented experimental work related to city, cities and psychogeography, including interactive artworks and projects, events, exhibitions, and artists' gatherings. Brooklyn artist and curator Ch ...
's
Christina Ray. The first Psy-Geo-Conflux event was held in May 2003 at
ABC No Rio
ABC No Rio is a collectively-run non-profit arts organization on New York City's Lower East Side. It was founded in 1980 in a squat at 156 Rivington Street, following the eviction of the 1979-80 Real Estate Show. The centre featured an art gal ...
in New York. Psychogeographers from the U.S., Canada, UK, France and the Netherlands conducted experimental walks using computer code, decks of cards and other systems for
navigation
Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation, ...
; a mobile-phone-guided drift through the streets of New York; a life-sized
chess
Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...
game using humans as pieces; several talks and presentations; a noise parade; an art exhibition; and a night of psychogeography-inspired live music, DJs, and video.
Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the creat ...
writer Bryan Zimmerman noted, "The event is centered around a seasoned yet growing field of creative recreation and alt-geographic exploration called psychogeography. Trying to define this obtuse field is an adventure itself, although a relatively straightforward definition includes "the study of the effects of the geographic environment on the emotions and behavior of individuals." One of the boldest characteristics of psychogeography may be its ability to influence and bring together all kinds of artists, social scientists, philosophers, urban provocateurs and spelunkers, and even traditional geographers, in an entirely accessible venue-public space.".
History
Conflux 2004 featured a full program of events over the course of four days, including experimental walks using altered maps and navigational aids; high-tech drifts through the city using wearable computing devices; a walking presentation of an urban documentary project commissioned by the
New Museum of Contemporary Art
The New Museum of Contemporary Art, founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, is a museum in New York City at 235 Bowery, on Manhattan's Lower East Side.
History
The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-named New Scho ...
; a gallery exhibition; a series of temporary installations, lectures, audio and video works and more. The second annual event took place at PARTICIPANT INC non-profit arts center on the
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets.
Traditionally an im ...
, and included over 50 participating international artists and groups.
In 2005, Conflux was replicated by
Providence Initiative for Psychogeographic Studies
{{more footnotes, date=November 2009
Providence Initiative for Psychogeographic Studies (PIPS), sometimes referred to as "People Interested in Participatory Societies," is a small collective of artists in Providence, Rhode Island which promotes art ...
in
Providence
Providence often refers to:
* Providentia, the divine personification of foresight in ancient Roman religion
* Divine providence, divinely ordained events and outcomes in Christianity
* Providence, Rhode Island, the capital of Rhode Island in the ...
,
Rhode Island
Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...
in an event known as Provflux. An additional Conflux-related event titled "Open Lab" was held at Art Interactive in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
,
. The 3rd annual Conflux festival was held in Brooklyn for the first time on September 14–17 2006.
McCaig-Welles Gallery in
Williamsburg
Williamsburg may refer to:
Places
*Colonial Williamsburg, a living-history museum and private foundation in Virginia
*Williamsburg, Brooklyn, neighborhood in New York City
*Williamsburg, former name of Kernville (former town), California
*Williams ...
served as Conflux headquarters, with events taking place in and around the gallery. The 4th annual festival was held at
in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the 5th annual festival at the
Center for Architecture in lower Manhattan, the 6th annual festival at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
in the
Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development
The New York University Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development (commonly referred to as Steinhardt) is the secondary liberal arts and education school of New York University. It is one of the only schools in the world of i ...
on September 18-20th, and the 7th annual festival was held on October 8–10 at NYU Steinhardt's Barney Building, in 2010.
Notes
{{reflist
Bibliography
In Brooklyn, a Confluxion Junctionby Martha Schwendener, New York Times, September 18, 2007
by Patrick Ellis, CIAC Magazine Special Issue: The Virtual City, Autumn, 2004.
Adrift on Memory Blissby Andrea Moed, Knowledge Circuit
niversity of Minnesota Design Institute September 12, 2004.
A New Way of Walking:Artist-explorers called psychogeographers are changing the way we experience the cityby Joseph Hart, Utne magazine, July / August 2004
PSY-GEO-CONFLUXby Alan Lockwood, New York Press
ol 17 - Issue 19 May 12–18, 2004, p. 42.
Psy.Geo.Conflux 2004, psicogeografia a New York Neural.it, November 7, 2017.
Three Days of Psychogeographic Heaven – An Overview of the PsyGeoConflux 2003 in NYCby Dave Mandl, Christina Ray, et al., Year Zero One Issue #12
sychogeography - Space, Place and Perception Summer 2003.
Street Artists, Fighting Over Gentrified Streetsby Corey Kilgannon, The New York Times, May 12, 2003, Section B, page 6.
External links
Conflux Festival websiteGlowlabABC No Rio
Festivals in New York City
Psychogeography