The following is a short 'mytho-geographic' film about two distinct and separate locations in the city of Belfast. The locations are not linked, but I never-the-less created a mythic link between them.
Mytho-geography is a technique derived from the art practice of artist Phil Smith as a reaction to the Situationist Internationale's Psychogeography. My own personal take on it is that, where Psychogeography assumes that, through the use of detournement (or distraction), one can decontextualise the city revealing the sociologically objective framework upon which we all build our subjective meanings and interpretations of urban space; Mythogeography is aware of the need to break away from this Cartesian construct and knows that, once the city is decontextualised one needs to recontextualise it. This is done in a surprising way which allows for a deeper reading of the city.
In the film I mythologise myself as a cartographer and urban researcher, casting myself as a film noir detective investigating the death of the city of Belfast. Of course I discover that Belfast was never dead in the first place as time and space are mere constructs and the city actually exists in the lived phenomenological present.
Below are excerpts from my sketchbook which detail my thoughts before during and after the filming of 'Tomb.'
