THE DERIVE

You will explore the city by means of the situationist dérive,(1) a technique of rapid passage through varied ambiences of repulsion and attraction.

“In a dérive one or more persons during a certain period drop their relations, their work and leisure activities, and all their other usual motives for movement and action, and let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there. Chance is a less important factor in this activity than one might think: from a dérive point of view cities have psychogeographical contours, with constant currents, fixed points and vortexes that strongly discourage entry into or exit from certain zones.”

You will position yourself as the flanuer.(2) With the assistance of a partner you will begin your dérive at an unidentified location. You will record your drift determined by your emotional response to the immediate urban situation. Please remember, your perceived ambiances are a product of all your senses not just visual.

1. dérive: literally “drift” or “drifting.” Like détournement, this term has usually been anglicized as both a noun and a verb. In philosophy, a Dérive is a French concept meaning an aimless walk, that follows the whim of the moment. It is sometimes translated as a drift.

2. flanuer: comes from the French verb flâner, which means "to stroll". A flâneur is thus a person who walks the city in order to experience it. Because of the term's usage and theorization by Charles Baudelaire and numerous thinkers in economic, cultural, literary and historical fields, the idea of the flâneur has accumulated significant meaning as a referent for understanding urban phenomena and modernity