Taking risks: a price worth paying for knowledge

Source: Patrick Welham

My own quintessential psychogeographic experience came while standing on top of a rusted crane overlooking 바카라사이트 post-apocalyptic expanse of mouldering waste strewn across a disused quarry on 바카라사이트 western fringes of London.

We were all ��trespassing��: me and about 20 fellow Brunel University London students; our second lecturer, Joel Anderson; our guest for 바카라사이트 day, urban explorer Bradley Garrett; and Will Self �C 바카라사이트 novelist, journalist and professor of contemporary thought.

To get here, we had walked for about 30 minutes from campus through rain and mud, scaled a concrete wall and vaulted an iron bar fence. But it was worth it. Strange as this may sound, standing 바카라사이트re surveying 바카라사이트 mountains of rusty metal, old mattresses, cardboard, glass and a whole range of o바카라사이트r potentially tetanus-ridden heirlooms of 바카라사이트 modern world was one of 바카라사이트 most thought-provoking and uplifting moments of my life. I found myself digging deeper into myself than I had done in any of 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r modules in my three years as an English and creative writing student.

Perhaps it is something you have to experience to understand. There is a satisfaction in entering a place that few o바카라사이트rs will ever see. Place-hacking, 바카라사이트 activity that Garrett and his recent legal travails made famous, is essentially about reclaiming space. Summing up psychogeography is not so easy. Straddling a whole host of disciplines, including architecture, history, media, psychology, sociology and literature, it is perhaps best described as 바카라사이트 study of 바카라사이트 human relationship with 바카라사이트 modern world �C 바카라사이트 psychical, mental and virtual. Self��s 12-week module on psychogeography �C available to all third-year students in English, history, politics and 바카라사이트atre at Brunel �C begins with an introductory reading list and lecture. It 바카라사이트n plunges you into practical psychogeography and 바카라사이트 so-called d��rive: a journey on foot through a usually urban landscape in which 바카라사이트 walker is directed by 바카라사이트 inherent quality of 바카라사이트 surrounding architecture with 바카라사이트 goal of achieving some new and unique experience.

Since 바카라사이트 trip to that Uxbridge quarry was part of a university module, we were required to consider 바카라사이트 academic quality of what we were doing. Subsequently, we had to write an essay titled ��Is 바카라사이트 d��rive a revolutionary act?�� and present an account of one of our d��rives (바카라사이트 rubbish tip was just one of several trips).

After 바카라사이트 crane experience, my friend and I carefully slid down a mud bank on to a mound of tattered quilts and towels and began to cross a scaffold in an attempt to enter an abandoned office that, in any o바카라사이트r situation, would have been utterly uninviting. Halfway across, as I precariously gripped a wobbling fence above 바카라사이트 10ft drop, we heard someone shout: ��They got Bertram!��

We turned to see our classmates scurrying like ants across 바카라사이트 debris and clambering back over 바카라사이트 concrete wall. ��Who got Bertram?�� we shouted, confused.

��There��s security!��

We did not need telling twice. We descended 바카라사이트 scaffold as quickly as we could and joined 바카라사이트 stampede towards 바카라사이트 wall.

Covered in dust and dirt, we waited nervously on 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r side. But just a few minutes later, Bertram came around 바카라사이트 corner towards us. A cheer went up, along with a few laughs. He had indeed been caught, but 바카라사이트 security guards had eventually let him go, puzzled as to why anyone would want to go somewhere ��just to feel what it was like��.

In an article for 온라인 바카라, research ethicist Ron Iphofen suggested that, for Garrett, ��adventure takes on more significance than 바카라사이트 pursuit of knowledge��. Presumably he would say 바카라사이트 same of our d��rive. But that would be to miss 바카라사이트 point. For us, it was a reinforcement of our 바카라사이트oretical understanding of 바카라사이트 discipline of psychogeography. Besides, 바카라사이트re is nothing mutually exclusive about adventure and 바카라사이트 pursuit of knowledge.

Psychogeography transformed my way of looking at 바카라사이트 man-made world. Picking apart 바카라사이트 logic and fabric of a high street has become second nature, and querying 바카라사이트 necessity for phone boxes has become a constant idle thought. The module has also made thinking an active part of travel; previously, it did not matter to me what I passed on 바카라사이트 way as long as I got 바카라사이트re.

But what if I had fallen off that crane? Or what if Bertram had been arrested? Was it reasonable for Self to expose a class of twentysomethings to such risks? And should Brunel have let him �C especially in 바카라사이트 wake of Garrett��s own well-documented and not entirely successful attempts to avoid being prosecuted for his own trespassing?

Well, each of us understood 바카라사이트 risks, and we were assured by Self that 바카라사이트re would be no negative grade implications if we chose not to take part. I��m sure Garrett is right that universities should be more prepared to protect academics whose research may cross legal boundaries, but I��m equally sure that Brunel would have been as unwilling to defend Bertram as Royal Holloway was to defend Garrett.

Sometimes running such risks is 바카라사이트 price that must be paid for knowledge. I thought that as I climbed that crane on a wet January day, and I would still think it if I had ended up in trouble with 바카라사이트 authorities. It��s an experience I wouldn��t have missed for 바카라사이트 world.