FINAL PROJECT... (Beyond Mapping)

The idea was to move through an urban setting on foot, following impulse to determine which direction to go.

The inspiration was Guy Debord's "Theory of the Derive".

The theme was walking vs. driving.

Here's what I did:

Starting in downtown San Francisco at the parking garage on Mission and Fifth, I set out to track my Downtown Derive with the GPS in my iPhone using an app called "Trails". I brought my video camera along and documented my walk through the downtown area. I had no destination in mind, or predetermined direction planned. I pocketed the GPS device, using it only to track my movements. I did not look at a map.

My plan was to videotape all the "walk" signals I came across at each intersection, to be edited together in a rhythmic fashion at a later time.

As I wandered through the urban landscape, I let the city itself guide my path, deciding which direction to go based purely on impulse. The psychogeography of the landscape was my guide, pulling or pushing me in one direction or another. I found that I was drawn toward areas of high foot traffic, moving from block to block, pulled toward centers of activity. It was not my intension to follow the crowds, but the directions I tended to go were highly populated.

The scenes I video taped were initially based on my plans to focus on traffic signals. The experience in the actual environment was quite different, of course, than I had anticipated. There were so many things I could have focused on, and having the plan saved me from just recording a bunch of random stuff. I focused on my theme of walking, getting a variety of scenes to support the chosen theme.

The next phase of the project was to map the path I had taken. I loaded up the GPS path in Google Earth, and found that it was quite different from the path I had actually taken. Using the GPS path and the video as a guide, I was able to accurately retrace my steps, drawing a path in Google Earth.

In the map, the GPS path is blue and the accurate path is drawn in green.

The next phase of the project will be the video. I will incorporate Google Earth imagery with the street level video, edited together to express the mood of the environment using the theme of walking through urban landscape.