Dérive_Drift. walking, drawing and devising on the architectural, urban and territorial projective practices

Abstract

Historically the notion of drift or drifting (Debord’s dérive) gathers meanings related to erring, digressing and/or wandering with different degrees of intentionality, chance and intuition Careri). On the other hand, walking, drawing, and devising, involved in the primary stages of projective practices, are usually similarly metaphorized. “Methods” as search by trial and error and even divergent thinking are common in those areas. Despite the above, these similarities and tacit practices have not been deepened with greater conceptual rigor. Additionally, the theory of the embodied mind, raised from cognitive linguistics (Lakoff), philosophy (Merleau-Ponty) and neuroscience (Rizzolatti), among others, resituated the nexus body-thinking. In this context, is it possible to understand/conceptualize drifting in territory and in a blank page, and wandering over ideas as synonyms? Are territory, page and mental imagery homologous? This paper addresses the relationship between walking (the territorial), drawing (the graphic) and devising (the mental Imagery) in the architectural, urban and territorial projective practices. This text proposes drifting as an acting procedural technique, relevant to projective practices, and as an alternative way to know (Maturana). But even more so, to project in those areas. Methodologically, this work is a documentary research with a generalist character. The above is done by repairing the three concepts in the light of embodiment, the embodied and the characteristics proper to the case study (walking, drawing and devising) and the correlate mind-body. Finally, the disciplinary scope of the nexus between walking, drawing and devising, associated with drift as a (cognitive/enactive) acting procedural technique, is discussed.