Psychogeography - Anna Lucas

I had been given the artist Anna Lucas to research in order to find a piece of work she had produced, and that related to psychogeography. At first I was a bit dazed and confused on the whole concept of psychogeography but eventually got the grip of things. After researching about it I had found that the word itself has a lot of history and art behind it.

Example of Psychogeography work.

ANNA LUCUS 

http://annalucas.co.uk/work/lost-2/  

The above video is a piece called Lost by Anna Lucas. The film portrays a group of young people interpreting their idea's of lost.

From the link above you can see a range of work by Anna Lucas. I found that this film unconsciously fitted in the genre of psychogeography, as the film was actually in response to a exhibition called Lost curated by Tania Kovats.

I believe that being Lost is another interpretation of the whole concept and genre of Psychogeography and Journeys. Relating this film to psychogeography.

Overall I had the chance to exchange emails with Anna Lucas in which she has been very helpful with explaining the film herself. I wasn't expecting her to reply but when I had checked my emails her reply was sitting there.

Email received 02/10/14 at 10:16

Email I had sent Anna Lucas on 30/09/14 at 15:19

The email I had sent Anna Lucas was very basic, explaining who I am and why I was emailing her. I Had asked Anna three questions as I didn't want to bombard her with question after question.
I asked Anna;

• How does Lost relate to Psychogeography? 
• What made you want to create that specific piece? 
• Whats the meaning behind it? 

Anna's response

This is what she had to say; 

"Hi Dowan

Thanks for your interest in my work. I would be interested to know how you found out about me in the first place. Have you had a tutor recommendation?

In answer to your questions:

I was not concerned with Psychogeography particularly whilst making the work although I am happy to consider some of the concerns within the work in the context of pyscho-geography. As it mentions on the website, the work was a commission in response to an exhibition curated by Tania Kovats at ikon Gallery around ideas of what 'Lost' might mean. I worked with the curator Michael Prior who supported me through discussions and advice as I had not worked with a school group in this way before. We interpreted the idea of the exhibition to encompass being physically lost, but also lost in thought, or time, as a mode of escapism, perhaps loneliness and thus a sense of being lost even in familiar surroundings, or lost in the mode of being engaged in play, or in your surroundings in such a way as to lose sense of time perhaps. 

I worked with the young people on these ideas through visiting the exhibition, creating objects and having discussions about the ideas of being lost. I interviewed them within the school environment, and then had meetings at their homes or in local spaces to make the film. It was a real privilege to have access to the young people and their lives outside of school. I met their families and spent time with them in their community spaces, learning about how they used and experienced their environment.

At that time I was working a lot with Super 8 film as I found it an immediate and cheap medium and i like slight uncertainty of the outcome through the materiality of the film and the quality of timelessness and response to light. In some ways the qualities of the film also augment or focus attention on unspectacular, everyday spaces. I liked the possibility of drawing attention to these young people and their position within their urban environment, particularly in the rare moments they were unsupervised and free to do what they wanted.

I do not have a specific meaning behind the work, but suggest it as an observation of these children and their location at that time. I hope it is charged with an atmosphere and qualities that a viewer may relate to and be curious about, that extend beyond the moment of making the work and it's specific participants.

I hope this helps.

Best wishes

Anna"