psychogeography
the practice of exploring the urban environment while being led by curiosity and a paused sense of time and place. While it is important to let your senses absorb the spaces around you, it is equally, if not more important to find yourself in new spaces, spaces stumbled upon by chance; paying attention to the smaller details, the lost objects, the signage, the fragments that make walking a reward in itself, with a slower pace and an increased opportunity to revel in the simple pleasures of things. A sense of wander/wonder is essential to find the simplicity in urban living.
The practice of psychogeography, which in many ways is similar to the activities engaged in by the flâneur is nostalgic on some level; for a time when the pace of life in the city was slower and one could frequently take the time to absorb the details of the city...to drift.
psychogeography
Psychogeography is the study of the effects of geographical settings, consciously managed or not, acting directly on the mood and behaviour of the individual
"I've regarded Toronto ... as a city somehow uniquely blind to its own psychogeography" - William Gibson