Visual Identity Politics and Remix Society

D

Dérive

The dérive refers to a revolutionary strategy of drifting through cities and landscapes without plan, purpose or map.

This post is at stage 0: Found footage/ objet trouvé. I borrowed this definition from my wonderful colleague Gabrielle Marks. Check out what she does here and on her LinkedIn.

The term dérive (French for “drift”) refers to a revolutionary strategy proposed by the Situationist Guy Debord. According to Situationist theory dérives were necessary, because of the increasingly predictable and monotonous experiences of everyday life. It refers to drifting through cities and landscapes without plan, purpose or map. One leaves behind the usual, everyday and practical reasons for moving through an urban environment and wanders around a city without purpose.

Another way to describe the dérive is:
as an algorithmic process (…) created by Situationist artists that produces an unplanned journey. 
A dérive asks participants to “drop…[their] usual motives for movement and action” through a city and to replace them with experiences motivated by randomness. 
Dérives are intended to change the participant’s way of thinking about space by making new experiential or emotional connections that otherwise would never have happened.
quote accessed 160821