Healy/Safford

Mapping Meaning

Mapping Meaning: Brooklyn Version

(a.k.a. hey baby, take a dérive on the wild side…)

For this map, you and your partner will take a “dérive" through Brooklyn’s neighborhoods in the vicinity of the PEN conference.  

“In a derive, one or more persons during a certain period drop their relations, their work and leisure activities, and all their other usual motives for movement and action, and let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there. Chance is a less important factor in this activity than one might think: from a dérive point of view cities have psychogeographical contours, with constant currents, fixed points and vortexes that strongly discourage entry into or exit from certain zones.”

-Guy Debord

Use the following ideas Debord talks about:

-let yourself be drawn through the streets

-look for areas that discourage your sense or movement….so where are the points of interest, but what discourages you from accessing or sensing them?

-identify fixed points, vortexes, and currents in your dérive

Upon your return, you will create a document or object addressing your findings.

**Every project must include at least 3 objects/materials you find on your dérive and speak to one fixed point and one vortex

Things to consider:

·       How do you interpret your surroundings?

·       Do you include everything, or are you selecting or noticing some things more than others?

·       Are all things experienced equally?

·       How does the physicality of the space affect your experience? How does it affect your interpretation?

·       How will you present your final information? Does it need to be in map form? Chart form? Could it be a new form such as…?

·       What materials will you use? All materials you gather in Brooklun? Cloth? Could it be 3d?

·       During your exploration, you will also be eating lunch. Your dining experience is part of the exploration...think about what your experience tells you about your neighborhood.