Align: Big Ideas and Psychogeography

The Arts: A ‘pub philosophy’ group called Big Ideas are putting on a psychogeography event in January 2010. ‘Align’ melds ley lines, prehistory and 19th century imperialism with music to create a new history for Shoreditch and the magical London of Allan Moore…

London dwellers may be aware of Big Ideas – a ‘pub philosophy’ group which runs a series of events and informal meets and lectures in London covering everything from theism to psychogeography. Big Ideas is putting on another performance of Align at the Bridewell Theatre on 22 January 2010. They’re getting ready to tour with Align, so other UK residents will also have the opportunity to see it…

Align – Find out more and get tickets

What is Align?

Align is a hallucinogenic lecture on London history, prehistory, modernity and geography written by Robert Kingham and Rich Cochrane. Robert tells the story, illustrated with hundreds of arresting visual images. Rich provides the richly atmospheric musical soundtrack. The whole event is immersive, informative, speculative, alarming, engaging, confusing, contentious and invigorating. There’s nothing like a multimedia show to get the ideas flowing!

Align gets its structure from a ley line that is said to run across the centre of London, along which one finds many points of historical interest. Around this, Robert and Rich’s multifarious preoccupations have been allowed to cluster: modernity and prehistory, geography and architecture, literature and music, anthropology and philosophy, culture and language. In using a ley line, they raise the question of ley theory and provide, in parallel, a history of that theory as a product of twentieth century modernity. Since ley theory concerns prehistory, they go on a comfortable philosophy jaunt right back into the Neolithic. In the end, however, Align finds a different story from any of these; an extraordinary story of nineteenth century imperialism, hope, exploitation and idealism. All of these strands are interwoven to create a rich tapestry of ideas, images, personalities and events.

The Big Ideas people behind Align are interested in the kinds of stories we tell about our place in the world we live in, and of that subconscious relationship we have with our cities, which some have named psychogeography (click the link to see Mookychick’s own psychogeography guide). Whether or not you’ve done a little psychogeography yourself, Align is a quixotic and intelligent multimedia event that’s a great place to begin a little journey into your own philosopy – and that of your city’s.

More information and booking details are at www.bigi.org.uk/align.

Trailer: The Big Idea behind Align

Align – Find out more and get tickets