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Questionnaire on the Psychogeography of Les Halles

Internationale SItuationniste #2 (December 1958)

Translated by Reuben Keehan

  1. Do you have any theoretical knowledge of human ecology? Of psychogeography? Which?
  2. Have you conducted one or more dérive experiments? What did you think?
  3. What exactly is your experience of the Les Halles district (short visits, regular frequenting, ongoing habitation)?
  4. Do you agree with the limits of this unity of ambiance as they are proposed in our plan? What adjustments would you see fit to make to it?
  5. Does the division of Les Halles into distinct zones conform to your experience of the terrain? What other potential divisions would you judge to be closer to reality?
  6. Do you believe in the existence of psychogeographical hubs in the urban environment in general? Particularly in Les Halles? If this is case, where would you locate them?
  7. Could you recognize a center in the unity of ambiance studied? At what point?
  8. How do you enter Les Halles? How do you leave it? (Draw the axes of your main progression, excluding all usage of mechanized transport).
  9. What route do you follow within Les Halles?
  10. What emotions does Les Halles provoke (sector by sector)? Why?
  11. What changes in ambience do you notice during that time?
  12. What sort of encounters have you had in Les Halles? And elsewhere?
  13. What changes to the architecture of Les Halles seem desirable to you? In what area, and in what direction, would you like to see an extension of this unity of ambiance? Or, conversely, a destruction?
  14. If the economic activity of Les Halles is moved elsewhere, to what should the area be devoted next?
  15. Do you feel that you have what it takes to be a psychogeographer?
  16. If you are not a situationist, briefly explain what's stopping you from becoming one?

Address your responses to A.Khatib, 32 Rue de la Montagne-Geneviève, Paris-5e.