Description

A study on the representation of space, time and mood in literature of urban environments a field of study labeled by me "literary psycho-geography". It is both about the influence of the urban environment on the mind (as represented in literature) and the projection of a state of mind, a mood onto the urban space. The research project stems from an involvement with citizens actions in the inner town of Amsterdam in the sixties and seventies of last century, whereby the aim was to combine the old and new in a harmonious way instead of imposing new structures upon a city structure without any regard to the past. It was precisely the question about "which past" that led to the study of historic sources of how the urban environment has been experienced over time by different generations. It was found that literary descriptions form - even when a story is partly fictional - the only source that will convey such experience over the centuries. After a first series of researches on the city of Amsterdam a test of the same principles of literary-psycho-geography was done on the city of Edo/Tokyo. This research has been financed by the Japanese government through their Japan Foundation senior fellowship opportunities. The research was also supported by two academic institutions in Tokyo: Tokyo Gedai Art Academy (FUJIHATA Masaki) and Hosei University (JINNAI Hidenobu). The research period was October 200 tot March 2001. The report presented here is the original end-report version. A more detailed report is in the making, as I plan to take up the work again after a delay of almost 9 years. One of the reasons for this was the limitations of mapmaking at the time of the Edo/Tokyo research. Now we have the facilities of Google Maps and Google Earth. Using such facilities nine years back was a most costly undertaking beyond my scope. From the beginning there have been ideas to make the study of literary psycho-geography a public enterprise in the sense that many people are needed to participate in such a project. My aim is to make just a sample set of 500 to a 1000 examples, to show the way to wander through time, space and mood of the past... and through this a new conscience may arrive and give this exercise some significance for shaping the future of our cities.

Tjebbe van Tijen/Imaginary Museum Projects, Amsterdam October 6th. 2009