DÉRIVES

To map the shifting landscape of graffiti production I have drawn from Guy Debord’s notion of the dérive. The dérive is a Situationist "technique of rapid passage through varied ambiences… to find signs of forgotten desires, images of play, eccentricity, secret rebellion, creativity and negation" (Marcus 2002), or what Debord (1958) himself refers to as "unities of atmosphere", such as graffiti sites. It was born out of the Situationists' dissatisfaction with gentrification and lack of concern for play in the experience of everyday life. Today, it is possible to take psychogeographic tours of graffiti sites in cities around the globe.

By clicking on one of the dérives above, the user can embark on a virtual tour of a selection of the graffiti sites documented for this research. These sites have been numbered (with rollovers in blue), and are linked to a series of images which relate to various encounters from different times at that specific locale. The user can print out these maps, retrace the researchers own steps, and take a ‘real’ tour of sorts. As for the Situationists', the reading of these maps becomes a performance of one of many possibilities as the observed graffiti traces may have been rewritten, commented on or buffed from the urban experience.