Mapping Assignment

Mapping Assisgnment: The Dérive
















After rereading Guy Debord’s essay, “Theory of the Dérive,” plan to undertake a dérive of your own. Choose a place that’s off the beaten track, where you don’t usually spend any time. Taking into consideration Debord’s description of the dérive, attempt to identify and pursue a “unitary ambiance.”  You will need to figure out how to respond to the ambient qualities of space as you travel through it. Doing this will require you to think carefully about Debord’s assertion that a dérive involves “playful-constructive behavior and awareness of psychogeographical effects.”  What sort of behavior does the space solicit? What kind of effects does it produce? Your goal will be to produce a map of your experience. You will present this map as well as a carefully elaborated account of your experience to the class on Wed Nov 17th.  

When designing your map, consider the limitations and strengths of the Situationists’ maps. Your map need not replicate the style of Situationist mapping; it must, however, take up the challenge of psychogeography, which refuses many of the conventions of ordinary mapping. It will be your task to present a map capable of charting the psychogeographic experience of your derive. Make sure you consider issues of time as well as space.

Report due November 17th in class.

3 PAGES TOTAL (12-pt. Times font, double-spaced, standard margins)

1) Give a rich descriptive account of your derive. (1 page) [You will read this section OUT LOUD in class. Come prepared.]
2) Describe how you translated this experience into a map. (1 page)
3) How does your map respond to, or even critique, the limitations of Situationist mapping? (1 page)