CHEMICAL EXILE
A Psychogeographies Project
October 2021 - July 2022
CREATED BY Randy Baker, Kylos Brannon, Jenny McConnell Frederick, Shayla Roland, and Jonelle Walker
A scientist boards a plane from Amsterdam to Washington. Returning to a world she thought she knew, she discovers nothing, and nowhere, is what she expects. CHEMICAL EXILE takes participants to eight locations across the DC area as a complex story unfolds about families, forgotten histories, and the uncharted frontiers of the mind.
PSYCHOGEOGRAPHIES is Rorschach Theatre’s visionary new experience that takes participants to unexpected locations around their city while a season-long fictional narrative plays out over layers of history and magic realism. Guests receive a box in the mail monthly that includes a new Chapter in the story, each box containing hand-crafted objects – letters, drawings, souvenirs, photos, or even snacks – and a map to a location in their city. The season ends with a live in-person event that culminates the story.
“Three chapters in, I’m hooked…”
What is PSYCHOGEOGRAPHIES?
“Psychogeography” is a term coined by philosopher Guy Debord in the 1950s and refers to the intersection of psychology and geography. Our own psychological experiences of a city reveal hidden places – forgotten, discarded, or marginalized aspects of an urban environment. Locations have a history, a soul, a meaning beyond the dirt and bricks that surround it. These meanings range from the historical to the aesthetic to the personal, but all of these things give the space its resonance.
