dérive (French for drift)
A Dérive is an unplanned walk through a city or landscape where you let your own curiosity and artistic eye dictate the path.
choose your own adventure. . .
Before you go out into the world to shoot your first individual roll of film documenting the principles of composition you will need to make 3 decisions:
Complete the "Choose Your Own Adventure" brainstorming sheet in order to make those 3 decisions - deciding on a place or area and a system for exploring that place. Below are some of the resources you can use to create that system and ideas for places.
- Where will you go to take pictures? This can either be the place you drew your map of or a new place.
- What system or set of rules will you use to guide you through that landscape? Instead of using a map or a set path to follow you will follow directions or a set of guidelines to allow for an unplanned or random journey.
- What system will you use to present your final photos? This can be the same system as #2 or something different (For example: upload photos to Google street view or post your photos on Instagram with the location tagged, etc.)
Complete the "Choose Your Own Adventure" brainstorming sheet in order to make those 3 decisions - deciding on a place or area and a system for exploring that place. Below are some of the resources you can use to create that system and ideas for places.
places
- around your home and neighborhood
- from home to school
- a path through the woods
- a path through the city
- from home to a friend's or relative's house
- a place you have always wanted to visit
- where something important happened
- where something secret happened that only you know about
- a path while on vacation
- somewhere you will never visit again
- somewhere that represents a memory
systems for photographing
- One Million Tweet Map - Uses location data to find the last one million tweets. You could find interesting tweets and go there to photograph in that location or to start your path, like the work of Nate Larson in his Geolocation project.
- Map My Ride - either to keep track of where you go OR to start with a specific shape to direct your path (like WallyGPX, ex: draw a unicorn, draw that onto a map, follow the unicorn path.)
- Worldc.am or Gramfeed - Search Instagram by location. You can find interesting photos around you and go there to take your own photos or to start your path.
- Derive app - This web app (go to the link on your phone then save the website to your home screen and it works like an app) gives you directions on things to look for or observe as you move through a space. You an start in a place and then launch the app to give you directions to randomly move through a path.
- Drift iPhone app - This app gives you specific directions as you move through a space. Find an interesting starting point and launch the app as you take pictures.
- Google Maps and Google Streetview - Find interesting things on Google Maps or Streetview and find the principles of composition in that place.
- Or another system you come up with yourself
systems for presenting your final photos
- Tweet your photos with the location tagged
- Create a Map My Ride map of your path
- Upload your photos to Instagram with the location tagged
- Create a physical map where you attach your contact sheet to
- Print your photos and hang them up in the actual location you took them - add an email address and ask for feedback from strangers
- Create a hashtag for your location and ask for people to collaborate on taking there own photos their as well.