We received the following email:
Hello,
Do you know of any active groups that go out and do dérives in London?
Thanks
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For anyone who doesn’t know what a “dérives” is, like myself, check here
Clearly I don’t know. Does anyone know?
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I have been looking for people interested in this too.
I “do” lots of dérives but not with or as an “active group”. I suppose some of Iain’s walking would qualify as dérive by wikipedia standards. In fact you can call it drifting. It sounds good too. Dérive is actually a nautical metaphor (maybe wikipedia talks about this – havent checked it): dérive is basically the constant deviation with regard to your predefined route that needs permanent correction. Why? Because navigating involves dealing/negotiating with a fluid. In a urban dérive the fluid tends to be the medium where the subjective pathos/drive deals/negotiates with the sort of physical real that is there. Inevitably. It can be political. But some of us prefer not to make a lot of noise about it. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.