Remapping High Wycombe is a pleasantly laid out 112-page book, the outcome of a project by Cathy and John Rogers. In the face of major re-developments of urban space in High Wycombe, this was a to re-map and re-imagine the town before it changed forever.

The books documents a number of walks or derives, drifting through the town. Some represent a personal journey through the town, others involve groups of walkers using an algorithm such as "2nd right, 2nd right, 1st Left, repeat" to decide their perambulations.

Rogers doesn't use a confrontational approach, but subtly through this simply-written documentation of these simple walks through the town, it gets you thinking about basic questions of space its territorialisation and individual autonomy : who owns the space that we move through? who owns the rights to the imagery that we see? what is "trespass"? what is freedom of movement through "public" space? The corporate owners of a shopping mall are allowed to use video surveillance, yet individuals are not only prevented from making their own video recordings, but denied access to recordings made of themselves without their consent. Space is also privatised by secret US military installations.
I have never knowingly been to High Wycombe, but I love this book. And another thing, there's extracts from a book by SPB Mais whose psychogeographicising predates the Situationists by more than 20 years and is a lot more fun to read.


Lots of photos and diagrams.