Dérive and the art of getting lost
Last week I did a very atypical-Haley thing and selected a typical Florentine lampredotto panino for lunch. That’s cow stomach. To be fair, it was 4€ and smelled like really great BBQ pulled pork. I mean, we’re constantly eating other parts of cows anyway, right? Wrong. I understand why people appreciate the flavor — that was pretty good — but the texture was what I would imagine biting into chopped brain feels like. Or, chopped stomach I suppose. Kind of chewy and slimy and insubstantial. *no thank you* But hey, experiences!
I’m pretty sure that’s the only food I’ve disliked so far. Don’t worry, I’m not going to make this post about food. Don’t want to make my readers too jealous…
As my friends and family will testify, I get knocked for often being lost in my own world. Like, it’s pretty common for me to space out for way too long or pass someone I know without realizing it. Though I prefer to think of my spaciness as hyper concentration …
Anyway, on my solo walks through the city I’ve decided to embrace this tendency to mentally “get lost” and adopt the physical concept of dérive.
Dérive — French for “drift”; an unplanned journey through a landscape, usually urban, on which the subtle aesthetic contours of the surrounding architecture and geography subconsciously direct the travellers, with the ultimate goal of encountering an entirely new and authentic experience
Yadda yadda psychogeography sure whatever. But seriously. Bear with me. This is something I learned in one of my art theory classes freshman year at USC and I’ve wanted to be able to apply it ever since. It doesn’t really work for LA. Technically, dérive is intended for Paris but it suits Florence well.
Florence originated as a small, contained square and grew outward pretty haphazardly so there isn’t a north-south-east-west grid pattern like the cities designed by Hot Shot 19th Century American Urban Planners. Instead, streets intersect each other like 13th century spaghetti (ok, that mental image didn’t really go as planned) and it can be challenging to remember which direction you started. Plus, the buildings are so tall and streets so narrow that it’s only really possible to put one foot in front of the other and trust you’ll get somewhere soon enough. Not so convenient for the directionally-challenged like myself.
So I’ve essentially abandoned my map (and relinquished control) and have begun to rely only on intuition when walking around. I’m really resisting my type-A tendency to plot out the most efficient route and I’ve found that it’s way, way harder to get lost than you would think. There are major landmarks around practically every corner that quickly orient me somewhere. The clock tower that she’s pointing to above can be seen in most open areas of the city as well as the Duomo (the large dome cathedral).
Dérive is helping me find a better eye for my photography. There’s a certain mindfulness achieved through abandoning conscious choice, if that makes sense. As I forget navigating the big picture, I remember to pay attention to the smaller details that lend themselves to interesting photos. Of course I’m still learning.
My favorite place to walk is around the corner from SACI. This old man is constantly posted, filling the streets with beautiful accordion music, like something out of Lady and the Tramp. He’s adorable.
The Italian culture continues to crack me up. We are blessed with a small TV in our apartment that refuses to activate English subtitles, so distinguishing the content of the programming has been pretty amusing.
Italian TLC plays a show called “Take Me Out” which, yes, uses the Franz Ferdinand song as its theme. It’s essentially the Italian version of The Bachelor and features a panel of ladies who are competing for the interest of one Italian goober after another. Literally, they’re all goobers.
The host plays a video that captures the guy’s interests, personality, flaws, etc. The girls begin vetoing him one-by-one (their buzzers turn red if they aren’t into it) until there are a few left for him to choose from. The worst guys don’t have any girls left at the end. It’s super weird and difficult to describe without actually watching, but I’m a fan.
I’ll be fighting an uphill battle against being perceived as a tourist my entire time here. I look way too American. There is a line of caricature artists outside the Duomo and one night, walking home, they just shouted “Jennifer!” hoping to get my attention. I was the only one around. I’m sorry I didn’t get the memo — are all white girls suddenly named Jennifer now?
I guess I’ll just embrace my inner (outer?) American and roll with it.
I’ve just finished syllabus week and I’m digging all my classes so far. I’m particularly excited for my Drawing class, as I’ve always loved drawing but have never had formal training. What better place than a Florentine art school? Plus…Drawing class means two words: nude models.
Hah. So I had my first experience drawing the naked human figure and it was cool. Much easier to adjust to than I imagined. She was an older woman who had clearly done this before. We were instructed to do a gesture drawing. For the uninitiated, this essentially means drawing the “movement” of the figure rather than a contour outline. It’s capturing the effect on the artist through quick wrist gestures and is not necessarily a precise reproduction of the figure. You’re supposed to keep your eye on the subject rather than on the paper.
The top exercise shows the woman’s positions using 2 lines each, for about 10 seconds each. In the bottom exercise, she was constantly moving from one side of the room to the other while we attempted to capture her essence in swirls of lines without lifting our pencils for about 5 minutes. (Prof had us erase some extraneous lines)
Both exercises felt clumsy and awkward, but not because she was nude. It was as if I had to look through her — not at her.
I’m excited to get better at drawing. It’s my one studio class that isn’t somehow related to digital art so it’ll be a nice change of pace from my technology-dominated IML classes at USC.
It was strange to again relinquish control and let the energy of the subject guide my pencil. Almost like dérive. There’s a lot of that whole energy-guiding thing going on in this city. For a photo assignment I’ll be venturing out to the “edge” of the city tomorrow, whatever that may be in my mind. Very excited to use dérive to get there.
Ok enough blabbering thanks for getting this far. I’m trying to do one of these per week so stay tuned. ❤
