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Lynchian Cognitive Mapping and Situationist Psychogeography

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Lynchian Cognitive Mapping and Situationist Psychogeography Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Retrospective Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 1-1-2006 A critical and historical case study of experience design : Lynchian cognitive mapping and Situationist psychogeography Derek Cori Wallen Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd Recommended Citation Wallen, Derek Cori, "A critical and historical case study of experience design : Lynchian cognitive mapping and Situationist psychogeography" (2006). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 19068. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/19068 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Retrospective Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A critical and historical case study of experience design: Lynchian cognitive mapping and Situationist psychogeography by Derek Cori Wallen A thesis submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF FINE ARTS Major: Graphic Design Program of Study Committee: Paula J. Curran, Major Professor Sunghyun Kang Michael J. Golec Carl W. Roberts Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 2006 Copyright ©Derek Cori Wallen, 2006. All rights reserved. 11 Graduate College Iowa State University This is to certify that the master's thesis of Derek Cori Wallen has met the thesis requirements of Iowa State University Signatures have been redacted for privacy 111 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES iv LIST OF TABLES v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vi ABSTRACT vii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 1 Problem stateme~zt 1 Purpose statement 2 Defining key terms 3 Delimitations and limitations S Significance of the proposed study 6 Methodology 7 CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 8 Historical overview 8 Kevin Lynch and cognitive mapping I1 Situationist psychogeography 27 CHAPTER 3. COMPARATIVE MAP ANALYSIS 57 Introduction 57 Cartographic codes 59 Map analysis 62 CHAPTER 4. CONCLUSION 87 Controlling and constructing 88 Ethical questions of experience design 89 Cultural dimensions of experience design 91 Collaboration and experience design 93 Future projections 96 BIBLIOGRAPHY 97 1V LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 Diagram of overall study 5 Figure 2 Diagram of Kevin Lynch's cognitive mapping 12 Figure 3 Sketch map (1955) (M.I.T. Archives and special Collections) 19 Figure 4 Field notes (1955) (M.I.T. Archives and special Collections) 20 Figure 5 Diagram showing how legibility can affect the individual experientially 21 Figure 6 Diagram of psychogeographic mapping 28 Figure 7 Avant-garde influence on SI (recreated from a similar diagram by Sadler, 1998) 30 Figure 8 Letterist book (Sadler, 1998) 32 Figure 9 Le Corbusier's drawing of rationalist city (Sadler, 1998) 32 Figure 10 "The Leaning Tower of Venice" (Blazwick, 1989) 35 Figure 11 Chombart de Lauwe's triangle of a student's movement (Saddler, 1998) 51 Figure 12 Paris Metro maps (Sadler, 1998) 52 Figure 13 "The residential units of the sector" (McDonough, 2002) 53 Figure 14 Lynch's Sketch map of Boston (Lynch, 1960) 64 Figure 15 The Naked City (1957) (Anderotti, 1996) 66 Figure 16 Guide Taride de Paris (1951) (Sadler, 1998) 66 Figure 17 Comparison of the linguistic code 71 Figure 18 Diagram of tectonic code based on Lynch and Debord's maps 74 Figure 19 Image of Madeleine de Scudery's Carte du Tendre (Sadler, 1998) 77 Figure 20 Comparison between the temporal code 79 Figure 21 The presentational code 81 Figure 22 Diagram comparing aspects of contemporary experience design 95 V LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Differences between Lynch and Debord's use of the temporal code 79 V1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Deepest thanks to my committee members for their time and dedication, my family for their love and inspiration, and Sara for her patience and relentless confidence in me. vii ABSTRACT Since about the late 1990s there has been discussion in the field of graphic design regarding experience design, or what advocates of the movement describe as a refocusing of the designer's attention on the interaction with the designed artifact, rather than the design of artifacts. Given the recent birth of this area in graphic design, it seems fitting to speculate on the past and ask what areas have contributed to, or prefigure experience design, Kevin Lynch's cognitive mapping (developed in the 1950s) has been offered as one precedent, but if Lynch is suggested we also have to look to Guy Debord's simultaneous invention of psychogeographic mapping as a similar, yet distinct precedent of experience design. Lynch was an urban planning professor in the U.S., while Debord was the leader of a leftist group in Paris called the Situationist International. Neither Lynch nor Debord had knowledge of the other at the time. The shared nature of mapping human experience allows Lynch and Debord's experimental _projects to form a fascinating relationship with contemporary experience design. By comparing the semiotic code in Lynch and Debord's maps this study develops a theoretical model of designer "control" versus "construction" for designing experience. These findings inform contemporary experience design by addressing ethically and culturally sensitive questions. Future research is needed to document and clarify the specific areas of experience design that are affected by this model. 1 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION Problem statement Meredith Davis, a graphic design professor from North Carolina State University, writes that the historic focus of graphic design education has been on objects and the skills necessary to produce them. This includes the realm of visual communications and courses such as typography, photography, and packaging design. Since about the late 1990s there has been discussion in the field of graphic design regarding experience design, or what Davis has described as a refocusing of the designer's attention on the interaction or human experience with the designed artifact, rather than the design of artifacts.l The experience here would constitute the physical, cognitive, emotional, social, and cultural dimensions of interactions and the relationship of the experience to commerce, work, learning and community. Given the recent birth of this area in graphic design, it seems fitting to speculate on the past and ask what areas have contributed to, or prefigure experience design. Davis has offered cognitive or mental mapping as one source for experience design, comparing the "schema and metaphor" of Kevin Lynch's first attempts at cognitive mapping (1960) to the design of information architecture and interface design.2 For Lynch, a professor of urban studies at MIT in the 1960s, cognitive mapping was referred to as the subject's mental image of the environment, as he writes, "Every citizen has had long associations with some part of his 1 Meredith Davis, "A Curriculum Statement: Designing Experiences, Not Objects" (Loop: AIGA Journal of Interaction Design Education, November 2000 Number 1). http://loopl.aiga.org/content.cfm?Alias=curriculum0001 (accessed February 12, 2006), 4. 2 Meredith Davis, "Master of Graphic Design; PhD in Design" (AIGA Journal of graphic design, 2006). http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm?ContentID=498 (accessed February 12, 2006), 3. 2 city, and his image is soaked in memories and meanings."3 But if Lynch's cognitive mapping is suggested as a source prefiguring experience design, we also have to look to Guy Debord's simultaneous invention of psychogeographic mapping in Paris, which he defined as, "the study of the specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organised or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals."4 Neither Lynch nor Debord had knowledge of the other at the time, and interestingly, there has not been extensive comparison of the two projects. The shared nature of mapping human experience allows the two projects to form a fascinating relationship with contemporary notions of experience design. This study intends to investigate and uncover the motivations and nature of the threefold relationship between cognitive mapping, psychogeographic mapping and experience design. It is my assumption that the nature of experience, as understood by Lynch and Debord is different, and the understanding of this difference could be important for situating contemporary experience design. The process of analysis will entail three steps: first, acquiring a thorough historical understanding of each project; second, comparing the visual representation of experience through an analysis of maps; and last, locating similarities and differences and relating them to contemporary forms of experience design. Purpose statement The purpose of this study is to explore the issue of experience in a critical and historical case study of Lynch's cognitive mapping and Debord's psychogeographic mapping. To structure the following study I ask the question: Why is a critical and historical 3 Kevin Lynch, The Image of the City (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Technology Press &Harvard University Press, 1960), 1. (My emphasis) 4 Simon Ford, Situationist Internatiofzal: AUser's Guide (London: Black Dog Publishing, 2005), 34. 3 comparison between Lynch and Debord's mapping projects important for exploring experience design? The conjecture of this question accounts for various research questions: 1. What motivated the development of cognitive and psychogeographic mapping? 2. What are the graphical features of Lynch and Debord's maps and how do they relate to the major similarities, differences and compromises in their projects? 3. What ideas from this comparison can inforl~l contemporary models of experience design? Defining key terms The following are some key terms that will be addressed in this study and used in ways specific to this study. The intention is to help define the context of the research problem, along with creating a basis for subsequent information to build upon. Experience will generally relate to the parameters of the subject's condition, or how the `urban experience' affects the subject sensuously, physically, socially, culturally and/or emotionally.
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