The monkey magic walk

Many moons ago there existed a broadly psychogeographical group called the bored in the city collective. They were a group of radical academics, artists and activists from Manchester, Stockport and Huddersfield. They used to do lots of random things like burying time capsules, lunar water walks and undertaking political studies of gentrification of towns and cites. They took their inspiration from such people as the situationists, Baudelaire and de Quincey. Here is an account of one of their drifts which they did in July 2007.

Members of the bored in the city collective and friends met outside the Palace Theatre on Oxford Road, Manchester. There was no set plan other than to simply wander towards the remains of an old Roman Fort. A poem was recited to begin the drift which went something like this:

This is the monkey magic walk
We are monkeys
Monkeys are real situationists
Monkeys are real psychogeographers
Monkeys have fun
Monkey goes where monkey wants
Monkey climbs trees
Monkey finds bananas and a peach
If you find the peach of immortality from the Jade Emperor’s Heavenly Garden and if you take one bite, then you will be granted immortality forever.
Let’s begin the walk!

So the walk began. Fortunately we were armed with some bananas and a peach which is essential food for magic monkeys. One of the group members had recently bought a Holga camera and some of the photos here were taken with that machine. These cameras often create unpredictable effects on photographic images.

So we walked toward the Roman Fort and came across the infamous Beetham Tower, otherwise know as the Hilton Hotel and also the site of the Shaping levitation of that building.

This photo shows not only the Beetham Tower which is visible to human eyes but also reveals two other ghostly replicas of the same building.

And so we moved onwards and found the Roman Fort. There we found another replica of the Beetham Tower.

At the end of the walk, one of the group members ate a peach from the Emperor Jade’s Heavenly Garden. We think that this person has now been granted eternal immortality.

We concluded the drift by walking to the car park for Romans.