Parsons Paris

A Derive in Belleville

First Year students went as a class to Belleville, where they took a short walk together until they reached the top of the Belleville Park. Then the students decided on a direction and wandered around,  alone or in small groups, in order to experience a “derive”.

According to Guy Debord, a dérive is “a technique of rapid passage through varied ambiances (…)In a dérive 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 (…) 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.”

The result of this experience was to be translated into a map, as part of an Atlas of 4 subjective maps realized for Integrative Studio.