This year's Fourth World Congress of Psychogeography is hosted in the historic city of Canterbury. Our theme for the congress is ‘heritage and hiraeth’.

Heritage (attributive): Characterized by or pertaining to the preservation or exploitation of local and national features of historical, cultural, or scenic interest, esp. as tourist attractions.

Hiraeth (Welsh English): deep longing for a person or thing which is absent or lost; yearning; nostalgia; spec. homesickness.

Through a series of presentations, films, walks, walk scores, provocations, performances and workshops, the congress will explore the concepts of heritage and hiraeth. Expect to experience creative and critical responses to place-based nostalgia, psychogeographical approaches to heritage, sites of hauntings and longings, pilgrimage and site-specific (be)quests.

Thanks to financial support from Canterbury Christ Church University, our events we will take place in the footprint of a UNESCO World Heritage site, with the option for those unable to join us in geographical space to be with us virtually for parts of Friday's programme.

Booking

Tickets are free, though booking is encouraged. Walks and workshops have limited availability. Attendees will be able to sign up for different events at Old Sessions House on Friday. Any remaining spaces will be allocated 'on the door'.

Technical support

The full programme, and other useful information, will be emailed to all ticket holders few days prior to the event. If you have any questions about the event, or if you have any technical issues if attending online, please email info.4wcop@gmail.com. The links to attend online can be found on your e-ticket. Please test these promptly so that we can remedy any problems before the event starts.

Programme

FRIDAY 6 September

Venue: Old Sessions House, Canterbury Christ Church University, Longport, Canterbury, CT1 1PH, and online

11.00 Congress opens

Check-in, sign up for activities, take a campus wander, browse art installations and bookstall. OS Foyer & OS.0.03

12.00 Bill Laybourne & Helen Garbett Discussion with the artists. OS.0.03

12.30 Introductory remarks OS.0.19 / Teams Meeting Room 1

12.45 Walk Score Introductions OS.0.19 / Teams Meeting Room 1

13.30 Panel Session 1 Creative Explorations OS.0.19 / Teams Meeting Room 1

Panel Session 2 Methods and Provocations OS.1.17 / Teams Meeting Room 2

14.45 Bill Laybourne & Helen Garbett Meet the artists. OS.0.03

15.00 Panel Session 3 Hidden Heritages and Palimpsests OS.0.19 / Teams Meeting Room 1

Panel Session 4 Home is…’ OS.1.17 / Teams Meeting Room 2

Story-Mapping Workshop Playful mapping using what3words, with Jack Lowe. OS.1.16

16.30 Bill Laybourne & Helen Garbett Meet the artists. OS.0.03

16.45 Panel Session 5 Paths and Pilgrimages OS.0.19 / Teams Meeting Room 1

Panel Session 6 Longing, Belonging and Identity OS.1.17 / Teams Meeting Room 2

18.30 Bill Laybourne & Helen Garbett Discussion with the artists. OS.0.03

19.00 Psychogeography Shorts Film Screening. OS.0.19

Friday installations:

‘Lucky Dip: A Diviner’ by Elspeth (Billie) Penfold; ‘Sonic Lighthouse No.1: Hinkley Point C - A Call to the Fishes’ by Bill Laybourne and Helen Garbett; ‘The 4WCoP Pop-Up Reliquary’ by Alexandra Le Rossignol.

Bookstall Hosted by the CCCU University Bookshop and Less Than 500 Press.

SATURDAY 7 September

Venues: The Church and Parish Hall of St Paul’s without the Walls, Church Street Saint Paul's, Canterbury CT1 1NH; The Beaney House of Art & Knowledge, 18 High St, Canterbury CT1 2RA; Fruitworks, 2 Jewry Lane, Canterbury CT1 2NP.

NB: Walks and workshops have limited availability. Please book a place using the sign-up sheets available in Old Sessions House on Friday. Any remaining spaces will be allocated ‘on the door’.

10.00 ‘Atlas of Intangibles Walk and workshop with Priti Pandurangan. 2 hours. St Paul’s Church

‘Down Memory Lane' Walk with Tamsin Grainger. 90 minutes. St Paul’s Church

10.30 Slow Walk with Sketchbook Walkshop with Alexandra Le Rossignol. 90 mins. Beaney Orange Room

12.00 Lucky Dip: A Diviner Walk with Elspeth (Billie) Penfold. 1 hour. Beaney Orange Room

12.30 Harleigh Fungalford Castle: an audio guide to a fictional historic ruin

Guided walkscore with Kristina Rothstein. 45 mins. St Paul’s Church

13.00 Longing and Belonging: Hiraeth and ‘Y Filltir Sgwar’

Walk with Jenny Alderton. 90 mins. St Paul’s Church

Mapping Overlooked Fragments of Kent Together

Walk and workshop with Tricia Enns. 2 hours. St Paul’s Church

15.30 The 4WCop Tea Party

An afternoon of creative readings and psychogeographical performance lectures. St Paul’s Parish Hall

19.00 The 4WCop Night Shift Featuring ‘Doggerland’ by Helen Tennison and congress plenary. Fruitworks

SUNDAY 8 September

Venue: The Beaney House of Art & Knowledge, 18 High St, Canterbury CT1 2RA

10.00 #DistanceDrift Live

Guided walkscore with Sonia Overall, in person and on Twitter (X). 1 hour. Beaney front steps / #DistanceDrift @soniaoverall

11.30 Winter Theory School discuss…

Hosted discussion of walkscores with David Upton and Tim O’Connor. 90 mins. Beaney Orange Room

Anytime walk scores available during the congress:

‘Toddler Walk Score’ by Ashley Schick; ‘Keep Walking Until You Can No Longer Hear the City’ by Acoustic Mirror’; ‘Turntabling: Voulez-Vous’ by PS Walks; ‘The ChatGPT Tales’ by Tim O'Connor and Winter Theory School; ‘So you've done your pilgrimage – what happens now?’ by David Upton and Winter Theory School; ‘Harleigh Fungalford Castle: an audio guide to a fictional historic ruin’ by Kristina Rothstein; ‘3 Beaney Walkscores’ by Sonia Overall.

Find out more

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