Rethinking Mythogeography : In Northfield Minnesota

Since 1998 , Phil Smith's 'mythogeography' has developed as a paranoid, exploratory, detective-like approach to space and place. It has prioritised anomalies and 'in-betweeness', working in gaps, extolling 'voids', and constructing general ideas from the 'and and and' of the accumulation and assemblage of disparate parts.It has also given attention to patterns, assuming such patterns to be an emergent meaning in themselves. Part of that attention to patterns has been a careful attempt to use 'limited myth' - myth-like accounts that are capable of symbolically representing patterns (e.g. of power or cultural paradigms) but are rendered questionable by their pop-cultural exploitation, blatant fiction or absurdity.Since 2010, when Phil Smith's book Mythogeography was published, the thinking and practice surrounding psychogeography, mythogeography and radical walking have moved on significantly.This book is a 2018 upgrade - an update for anyone interested in the subject . It consist of an essay by Phil and photographs by John Schott taken during Phil's recent invitation to be Artist-in-Residence at Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota.