The dérive, or drift, was defined by the situationists as the ‘technique of locomotion without a goal’, in which ‘one or more persons during a certain period drop their usual motives for movement and action, their relations, their work and leisure activities, and let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there’. The dérive acted as something of a model for the ‘playful creation’ of all human relationships. It is a tactic of psychogeography.
This week, you should undertake one of the following four dérive and make field recordings of your journey as you go:
- “Take a street map… place a glass, rim down, anywhere on the map, and draw round its edge. Go out in the city, and walk the circle, keeping as close as you can to the curve.” Robert MacFarlane, Psychogeography: A Beginner’s Guide.
- Make a paper aeroplane and throw it. Walk in the direction in which it lands until you arrive at a street. Walk in a westerly direction along the street. Turn left at the first corner and then right at the next corner. Keep walking on that street for two more streets then turn left again and walk for 100 metres. Now return to your original position using a route alternate to the one you have just taken.
- Choose a colour and follow it wherever it leads you for one hour. For example choose blue and follow blue cars, jackets, flowers, birds, etc. When you run out of blue to follow, wait until more blue comes along.
- Collect three hand drawn maps from strangers and follow them to wherever they lead you. You can determine the directions to some extent when you ask people for directions: “Hey is there a park somewhere near here that I can go to?” Importantly – you cannot ask directions for things where you have to spend money.
On each of the journeys, record the experience as you go, in whatever medium you favour: film, photograph, sound recording…”Capture the textual run-off of the streets: the graffiti, the branded litter, the snatches of conversation… Be alert to the happenstance of metaphors, watch for visual rhymes, coincidences, analogies, family resemblances, the changing moods of the street…” Robert MacFarlane, Psychogeography: A Beginner’s Guide.
Discuss you journey in a blog post and include your pictures, video, sound and text recordings.
What did you discover that you were not aware of before?
You might find hints and inspiration here:
| Liminal City | Ramblanista |
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