Digital Dérive

When we were initially tasked with the assignment I had no idea what a “dérive” was. But after some explaining, I was quickly hip to the idea. I realized I do not normally browse the internet aimlessly. I typically go into the deep, dark depths of the internet with a specific purpose in mind.

So, to kick things off, I started on our canvas home page to look over the assignment details once more. After that, I headed straight to Google to figure out how to screen record my journey for this assignment. I knew how to do it at one point so before I had a chance to click on one of the myriads search results at my disposal, I remembered how to record!

I am going to insert the entire screen recording here because I find it fascinating how our technology lets us view ourselves enjoying the technology — I find it all to be extremely meta. So once I got the screen recording going, I had no idea what to do. I went to Google once more to hopefully find something that would spark my interest. When I did not find anything of interest I searched for “something interesting.”

That search led me to a page about different serial killers. I always thought serial killers were interesting but, in complete contrast to that fascination, I think that studying them leads to glorifying them. We should not be lifting these people higher in society because that is exactly what most of them want out of killing dozens of people. Anywho, I read a little bit on Wayne Gacy and his path to become a serial killer, which was shocking. There was a hyperlink/ad [Love, Sex, and Romance] to another article on “Love, Sex, and Romance in Ancient Rome” in the middle of the paragraphs (as they usually are) so I clicked on it.

This link led me to learn some new information on sexuality in ancient times. I know those things were taboo back then but that does not mean sex was not happening — sex had to happen to keep the species going. There were a ton of pictures of naked ancient women that were no new sight for my eyes.

Soon, I was tired of looking at that so I started a new search. I am a photographer interested in fashion photography so heading back to the belly of the beast to find a great pathway to that career. I found a top 7 list website that was full of more ads and hyperlinks. The website was advertising a free downloadable cheat guide to photography. Since it said “free”, I immediately signed up. Turns out, it was not completely free, which I should have known. I need to unsubscribe from the email I gave them.

Finally, I headed back to Google one last time to look up this movie I have been meaning to see: 10 Cloverfield Lane. It quickly led me to the Youtube trailer for the movie and subsequently led to the prequel.

And that is where my journey ends. It was very random, yet not. I tried to be spontaneous but I found myself wanting to look up specific things. I will now add my screen recording of my digital dérive here.

P.S. Turns out I can not add a video.