6. Dé rive : literally “drift” or “drifting.”
• A technique of rapid
passage through varied
ambiences
• First developed by
French Situationalist
philosopher Guy Debord
in 1958
• Used in his studies of
architecture and the urban
environment
7. “In a dérive one or more
persons…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.”
- Guy Debord, “Theory of the Dérive,”
Inte rnatio nale Situatio nniste #2 (Paris,
December 1958)
10. In a nutshell:
Dérive is the exploration of a built
environment without preconceptions
11. “…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.”
- Guy Debord, “Theory of the Dérive,”
Inte rnatio nale Situatio nniste #2 (Paris,
December 1958)
Dérive in an Urban Setting
12.
13. Map of the internet on November 23, 2003. Via the Opte Project.
15. Dérive Browsing
•Regular browsing with the
volume up
•Less goal-oriented
•Following sense of curiosity
•Fewer presumptions
•Very definition of browsing
16. The Workshop
Goal: To create data visualization portraits of
each participant’s unique travels online.
We’ll be using a variety of tools:
-Personas, by Aaron Zinman
-Wordle
-Google Maps
-Dendro, by Kevin Sweeney
20. • Custom visualization tool
• Visualization of how you
spend your time online
• Created by Kevin Sweeney,
interactive developer at
Fantasy Interactive
22. Using tr.im
• Visit http://tr.im
• Click on “extras”
• Scroll down to “bookmarklets”
• Drag the “tr.im NW” bookmarklet to your
bookmarks bar
23. Rules for E-Dérive Browsing
1. Start at Fark.com
2. Click around and explore. Follow any link that
piques your interest. If you wish, Google a word
or phrase from the text that intrigues you.
3. Tweet out a short description, the hashtag
#ederive, and a link for each page you go to.
4. If you revisit a page, you could retweet your
previous description
5. Each new page must be linked to the last or
discovered via Google.
6. Cover as much ground as possible
Here we would talk about the way we usually traverse the urban landscape—moving from point A to point B with minimal digression and typically frequenting the same spots we’re used to. We tend to move as if with blinders on, focusing only on our destination and getting there as fast as possible.
Here we would talk about how the internet, with it’s multitude of interconnected “locations,” is much more conducive to random exploration.
Explain futher that it’s also a quest for new information, new experiences, and new levels of awareness regarding the familiar
