Derives
a Stuart Derive, 2016
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--a dérive is “an unplanned journey through a landscape, usually urban, on which the subtle aesthetic contours of the surrounding architecture and geography subconsciously direct the travellers, with the ultimate goal of encountering an entirely new and authentic experience” (Wikipedia, 2014). ---a dérive is “a technique of rapid passage through varied ambiances” (Debord, 1958). According to Debord, a dérive should be playful with a goal to study a terrain or to emotionally disorient oneself. Most important it involves dropping all other activities--letting go. It can include one or more persons, but Debord suggests the most successful dérives consist of several small groups of two or three people who have reached the same level of awareness. Any weather is acceptable with the exception of prolonged rain. It usually takes place within a period of a few hours, however it can be shorter or longer. A dérive can be in a city, its suburbs, a single neighborhood, or a single block of houses. |
My derive took place on Saturday, February 6, through historical downtown Stuart, Florida. The participants included myself, my husband Ray, and my son Justin. It is the height of tourist season so our starting point was determined by where we could find a parking place. The place we ended up parking worked out nice because it was on a back street along the river. Since it was a nice day we decided to walk along the sidewalk on the riverside of the street.
The first thing that caught our attention as we walked along the sidewalk was a mermaid mailbox (top left photo). As we were looking at the mailbox, we realized the white fence around the yard had mermaid cutouts. Then we saw the mermaid birdbath. We continued our walk and noticed there were a lot of white fences in front of the houses along the water.
We continued to walk along the waterside of the road. When we got to the end of the road the smell of food cooking drew us to Stuart Boathouse (top right). We walked through the restaurant and decided to get something to eat. I’m not sure if you are supposed to do this on a derive or not, but we did. When we came out, there was music playing. We followed the sound to the stage by the river (top middle right photo). After listening for a little while, we aimlessly started walking.
As we turned the corner we began looking in store windows. There was a chair in the window of a store called Go Fish (bottom middle right photo). It was made from old boat wood. The store had other furniture made out of the wood and various colorful artworks. When we came out of Go Fish, an Indian totem pole and pipe tobacco smoke met us (bottom right photo). My dad smoked a pipe and rarely do I smell pipe tobacco, so we went in and investigated the smoke store and I thought about my dad. Next we saw the HOT SAUCE sign (bottom left photo). None of us had ever heard of a hot sauce store so we had to go inside and explore. I have never in my life seen so many bottles of hot sauce. We explored and investigated other stores along the way including a gallery, a hippie store, and a real estate business. As we walked we talked about the different types of sidewalks, the architecture, the numerous fences, and the broken down docks, and seawalls.
The last place we decided to check out was a coffee shop called Blue Door (middle left photo). We were not only drawn by the smell of coffee but we also liked the charm of the building and it’s blue door. We sat down inside and drank coffee and discussed our derive of historical downtown Stuart. We enjoyed the time together. We learned new things about Stuart. We decided to do this again.
The picture in the middle was on a t-shirt in one of the shops we went in.
https://flic.kr/s/aHsktW6BK3
References:
Debord, G. (1958). Theory of the dérive. Internationale Situationniste Retrieved from http://library.nothingness.org/articles/SI/en/display/314
Wikipedia. (2014, December 9). Dérive. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dérive
The first thing that caught our attention as we walked along the sidewalk was a mermaid mailbox (top left photo). As we were looking at the mailbox, we realized the white fence around the yard had mermaid cutouts. Then we saw the mermaid birdbath. We continued our walk and noticed there were a lot of white fences in front of the houses along the water.
We continued to walk along the waterside of the road. When we got to the end of the road the smell of food cooking drew us to Stuart Boathouse (top right). We walked through the restaurant and decided to get something to eat. I’m not sure if you are supposed to do this on a derive or not, but we did. When we came out, there was music playing. We followed the sound to the stage by the river (top middle right photo). After listening for a little while, we aimlessly started walking.
As we turned the corner we began looking in store windows. There was a chair in the window of a store called Go Fish (bottom middle right photo). It was made from old boat wood. The store had other furniture made out of the wood and various colorful artworks. When we came out of Go Fish, an Indian totem pole and pipe tobacco smoke met us (bottom right photo). My dad smoked a pipe and rarely do I smell pipe tobacco, so we went in and investigated the smoke store and I thought about my dad. Next we saw the HOT SAUCE sign (bottom left photo). None of us had ever heard of a hot sauce store so we had to go inside and explore. I have never in my life seen so many bottles of hot sauce. We explored and investigated other stores along the way including a gallery, a hippie store, and a real estate business. As we walked we talked about the different types of sidewalks, the architecture, the numerous fences, and the broken down docks, and seawalls.
The last place we decided to check out was a coffee shop called Blue Door (middle left photo). We were not only drawn by the smell of coffee but we also liked the charm of the building and it’s blue door. We sat down inside and drank coffee and discussed our derive of historical downtown Stuart. We enjoyed the time together. We learned new things about Stuart. We decided to do this again.
The picture in the middle was on a t-shirt in one of the shops we went in.
https://flic.kr/s/aHsktW6BK3
References:
Debord, G. (1958). Theory of the dérive. Internationale Situationniste Retrieved from http://library.nothingness.org/articles/SI/en/display/314
Wikipedia. (2014, December 9). Dérive. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dérive
A Virtual Derive--The egyptian antiquities at the louvre
a Virtual Derive, 2016
Carina, Alexandra, & I met on Skype Wednesday night. We began by discussing different options for a derive and decided to search for a virtual art museum tour. We selected Egyptian Antiquities at the Louvre in Paris. Before starting, we had to figure out the tour navigation tools. There was a map on the bottom left that contained descriptions and links for each room. When you entered the rooms there were objects you could click on for more information. Once we felt we comfortable, we proceeded to view the exhibit. Some rooms we chose by name, some we chose by randomly selecting a number. There were times when we got separated and we were calling each other to come see what we found. We all agreed on a few favorite stops along the way. The first was something we referred to as the baboon paperweight in Room 6. It had a gold ball on its head, green and blue coloring and beautiful carving. The jewelry in Room 9 also got our attention. There was a gold serpent bracelet and a ring of welded coils. The ring included water lily buds and the craftsmanship was amazing. I believe our derive was a good experience. None of us had done anything like this before and we all enjoyed our time together.
We took screen shots throughout our tour and created a Pinterest board to document our derive:
https://www.pinterest.com/brendamccullers/a-louvre-egyptian-antiquities-virtual-tour/
We took screen shots throughout our tour and created a Pinterest board to document our derive:
https://www.pinterest.com/brendamccullers/a-louvre-egyptian-antiquities-virtual-tour/
