FINAL PROJECT... "Downtown Dérive: San Francisco"

"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." - Guy Debord

http://library.nothingness.org/articles/SI/en/display/314

The Project:

In the spirit of the dérive, I embarked on a passage through the varied ambiances of downtown San Francisco, armed with my video camera and GPS tracking software on my iPhone to document the experience.

I focused on the experience of downtown San Francisco on foot, leaving behind the idea of destination or preconceived direction. My movement through the space was determined by the psychogeography of the urban environment. I allowed the contours of the city to guide me, reacting to the "constant currents, fixed points and vortexes that strongly discourage entry into or exit from certain zones".

The relationship to locative media was achieved through the use of GPS to track my movements. Incorporating the GPS track of this experience into Google Earth allowed a site specific documentation of the process.

Focussing on public symbols designed to guide movement through the urban space, juxtaposed with the experience of moving through the space on foot, I documented the psychogeographical effects of the urban environment in relation to my movement through it.

The resulting video shows the locative experience through mapping, as well as the actual confrontation of pedestrian movement with the environment.

The video is a documentation of the process. The editing is designed to emphasize the psychogeographical experience of a downtown San Francisco dérive.

The following video illustrates the documentation and experience of the process...

http://gallery.mac.com/ecaselton#100333