This paper describes and contextualizes the Situationist concept of psychogeography as a radical political strategy that can transform our experience in public space and examines three psychogeography-inspired public art experiments in New York City. These projects are designed to invoke the Situationist goal of momentarily disrupting routine and expectations in public space using the psychogeographic tactics of play, chance, dérive and détournement, as well as the similar anarchist notion of temporary autonomous zones. The paper documents the goals and outcomes of these experiments to see how brief transformations in public space can become liberating political acts.