The Fourth World Congress of Psychogeography: Heritage and Hiraeth
6th, 7th & 8th September 2024
Canterbury, Kent, UK
The return of the face-to-face congress!
We are delighted to host 4WCoP in person again in 2024, with the option for those unable to join us in geographical space to be with us virtually for parts of the programme. The congress will be hosted in the historic city of Canterbury. Thanks to financial support from Canterbury Christ Church University, we will have an event base in the footprint of a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Our theme this year 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.
These are the O.E.D. definitions – what are yours?
We seek your explorations, explanations and questionings of these concepts; creative and critical responses to place-based nostalgia, psychogeographical approaches to heritage, sites of hauntings and longings, pilgrimage and site-specific (be)quests.
We welcome proposals responding to heritage and/or hiraeth for:
- talks and presentations (face-to-face or online, up to 15 minutes)
- creative readings and performances (face-to-face or online, up to 30 minutes)
- walks, workshops and walkshops (face-to-face, any length up to 120 minutes)
- completed short films for a programmed screening on Friday evening (various running times*)
- walking scores for self-directed wanders
*Films can be super-shorts up to 2 minutes, shorts of 5-10 minutes, or extended shorts of 10-20 minutes running time. We also welcome proposals for place-based psychogeographical pop-ups, interventions and other happenings that do not fit the parameters above.
NB: Programming of talks and presentations will be concentrated into Friday 6 September to make use of hybrid conferencing facilities. Saturday will host walks, workshops and creative interventions in and around the city. Sunday 8 September (morning only) will host DIY and small group walks, subject to interest.
How to apply
Submit your Outline Proposal by email to [email protected] by 17.00 BST on Tuesday 30th April 2024.
Your submission should be an MS Word document or a PDF and address the following headings:
- Your Name and email address
- Biographical info (30 words)
- Your website, or links to examples of previous work / institutional profile; online link for short films
- The title of your proposed activity
- Type of activity (e.g. walk, workshop) and approximate duration / film length category
- Description of your proposed activity and how it fits with this year’s theme (100 words)
NB: All events must be free for participants to access. A limited number of small bursaries for travel and accommodation are available for postgraduate students, early career researchers and independent artists: please indicate with your submission if you would like to receive details.
We look forward to receiving your proposals!
