One of the more personal methods I used while conducting research for Erotic Resistance: The Struggle for the Soul of San Francisco was psychogeography. Associated with figures from the Situationist International movement established in France in the late 1950s, such as Guy Debord, the psychogeography is a walking practice (or in the words of the Situationists, a “drifting” practice). It is a spontaneous study of place and space, with an emphasis on an individual’s emotional and embodied responses. Oftentimes, I approach it as a contemplative practice—more specifically, a cross between walking meditation and open awareness meditation.

During my primary research period from 2014-2017, I captured many pscyhogeographic videos to acquire a deeper and felt sense of the city’s human geography. In June of 2022, I returned to San Francisco to conduct another psychogeographic exploration and to observe its post-pandemic character, the results of which informed portions of the conclusion to the book. This series of short psychogeographic video vignettes, begins in Land’s End, and ends in South of Market.