dérive: an experimental mode of behaviour linked to the conditions of urban society; a technique for hastily passing through varied environments. Also used, more particularly, to designate the duration of a prolonged exercise of such an experiment
Dérive :: One of the basic situationist practices is the dérive [literally: “drifting”], a technique of rapid passage through varied ambiances. Dérives involve playful-constructive behavior and awareness of psychogeographical effects, and are thus quite different from the classic notions of journey or stroll.
Rules for a Dérive
- One or more persons may dérive
- The most fruitful numerical arrangement consists of several groups of two or three people.
- It is preferable for the composition of these groups to change from one dérive to another.
- Drop your usual motives for movement and action, relations, work and leisure activities.
- The average duration of a dérive is a day, considered as the time between two periods of sleep.
- The times of beginning and ending have no necessary relation to the solar day.
- The last hours of the night are generally unsuitable for dérives.
- A dérive seldom occurs in its pure form.
- The spatial field of the dérive may be precisely delimited or vague.
- The spatial field depends first of all on the point of departure.
- The maximum area of this spatial field does not extend beyond the entirety of a large city and its suburbs.
- The minimum area can be limited to a small self-contained ambiance (the extreme case being the static-dérive of an entire day within the Saint-Lazare train station).
Extrapolated from Guy Debord’s 1958 Theory of the Dérive
LINKS:
Introduction to Dérive
Rules for a Dérive
Psychogeography and the dérive
the derive
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