The 1950's social theorists in France known as the Situationist International coined the term psychogeography for their interest in the psychological dimensions of urban geography. To study the relationship between the physical geography of an urban landscape and the psychological experience of it the Situationists developed a technique they termed dérive (drift). In "Theory of Dérive" Guy Debord, a leading SI theorist explained: “In a dérive one or more persons during a certain period drop their relations, their work and leisure activities, and all their other usual motives for movement and action, and let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there.“ Since April 2004 I've made thousands of dérive and walked thousands upon thousands of kilometres through the streets and pathways of every part of London out to its very margins and from end to end letting myself and my camera be drawn by the attractions of the terrain as I followed the psychogeographical contours of London's varied landscape. The first appearance of the phrase "gimbel in the wabe" was by the photographer-mathematician-writer Charles Lutwidge Dodgson in his famous book "Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There" in a poem known as Jabberwocky. Though Dodgson first used the word gimbel in its verb form, I choose to use it as a noun as these images truely are "gimbels" in the wabe. This is perfectly consistent with Dodgson's thinking as he goes on to explain in a dialogue between the characters Alice and Humpty Dumpty: "When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in a rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less." "The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean different things." "The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master –that's all." Alice was too much puzzled to say anything, so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again. "They've a temper, some of them – particularly verbs, they're the proudest – adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs – however, I can manage the whole lot! Impenetrability! That's what I say!" Impenetrability indeed. Henry Moore in his "Writings and Conversations" states: All art should have a certain mystery and should make demands on the spectator. Giving a sculpture or a drawing too explicit a title takes away part of that mystery so that the spectator moves on to the next object, making no effort to ponder the meaning of what he has just seen. Everyone thinks that he or she looks but they don't really, you know. So this introduction is my invitation to you to look carefully at these "gimbels in the wabe" of this most ancient and modern city, to enjoy the mystery that these photographs contain and take what meaning comes to you.
Eric Perlberg
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