DĂŠrive app
Dérive app Dérive app is a web-based mobile application, to get lost in your city and to record and share that experience with others. Its goal in doing so is to change the perceptions that people have of their urban environment by embedding themselves into their surroundings to not only consume the city, but to understand and engage with it. Dérive app is also a platform for influencing the experiences of others using the app. It is an expandable platform that allows different cities, themes and concepts to be tackled with, within the urban space. Thus, in the spirit of the Situationsist International, we see Dérive app as an exploratory research tool that uses the immediate urban environment to serve up questions about this environment, and offer answers to those questions.
Unidee in Progress 2011, Cittadellarte, Fondazione Pistoletto, Biella, Italy.
The Unidee in Progress exhibition is a showing of all the projects from the Fondazione Pistoletto and Cittadellarte residency programme Unidee. At this exhibition Dérive app 1.0 was launched to the public as an open-source platform with the objective to grow from its initial core. A general ‘urban’ deck was created, to be usable in virtually any urban setting around the world. This was accompanied by in-depth research into the town in which the residency was held, Biella. Thus the first localised version of Dérive app focused on the local specificity of a small Italian town and tried to make visible some of its unique traits through a series of cards, uniquely designed for the town of Biella.
Selection of the first deck of DĂŠrive app cards.
Explanatory video describing the project. (See it HERE).
Abu Dhabi Workshop February 2013, New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi.
After introducing Dérive app 2.0, Dérive app carried out its first workshop in Abu Dhabi. The workshop began with a lecture introducing the participants, who were from various faculties and specialities, to the theoretical concept of the ‘dérive’ and the reasonings behind the app’s technical and functional implementations. This was followed by a lecture by Pascal Menoret on the history of Abu Dhabi’s urban layout. Following these lectures, participants explored Abu Dhabi using a set of ‘urban’ cards that can be used in any urban space, the activity laying the ground for creating new cards to influence locals and newcomers exploring the city of Abu Dhabi. The workshop was a resounding success, producing three dozen unique new cards, now integrated into Dérive app.
Workshop introductory lecture.
First dĂŠrive walk.
Showcasing task cards created by workshop participants.
Group discussion after second dĂŠrive walk.
A selection from the 35 cards created for Abu Dhabi. See online for full texts.
Ithaca & FLEFF Workshop April 2013, Ithaca College, upstate New York, and the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival.
Dérive app’s second workshop, in collaboration with Ithaca university, explores the connections between ‘mobilities’, the theme of the 2013 FLEFF, and the historical connections with the present-day realities of the town of Ithaca. Working on combinations of themes like Movement/Social and Environment/ Urban, half a dozen groups of 2-3 students each have as their objective creating series of themed cards that will allow people attending FLEFF to be nudged out of a purely filmic experience of the festival and into unexpected experiences that bring the themes of the festival to life through real world exploration.
Environmental Health Field Test April 2012, Virtual University of Uganda, with Mwenza Bell.
Lecturer Mwenza Blell used Dérive app as a tool for her pan-African students as part of her ‘Environment, Health, and Development’ post-graduate class. The course has the students look at the everyday poverty, pollution and infrastructural problems around them with new eyes by having Dérive app be a tool for exploring their urban environment in a context that’s relevant for the class. Students were required to write a 1500 word essay on their experiences.
Johannesburg Workshop March 2013, Maboneng Precinct, Johannesburg, South Africa
Johannesburg was the fourth workshop in the Dérive app Workshop series, allowing for a fine tuning of the workshop curriculum and the many upgrades to the application itself. Nearly two dozen individuals from various professions attended the two day workshop. The highly motivated group navigated Johannesburg city on foot with the application and created 36 unique cards delving deeply into the cultural specifics of the city. The workshop was a resounding success, with the group continuing to create cards well after the workshop. Following the workshop, Dérive app presented an exhibition of the workshop’s outputs at Arts on Main for public viewing
A selection from the 36 cards created for Johannesburg. See online for full set of cards and texts.
Workshop Exhibition presenting 30 cards, maps of the dĂŠrives and participant bios.
World Summit Award World Summit Award 2013 Mobile Content, Abu Dhabi.
DĂŠrive app was a winner in the mTourism and Culture category at the bi-annual World Summit Award for mobile content in 2012. Representing Uganda and built on African soil, DĂŠrive app was one of only two winners from Africa, the first time, ever, Africa was represented at the World Summit Award.
Press & Awards 2011 to present, Various
DĂŠrive app has been featured on and written about in: CNN, BBC Travel, Wired Magazine Italy, The Pop-Up City, The Common, 20 Minutos, Da Vinci Network among others. It has won a 2013 World Summit Award for Mobile Content in Toursim and Culture and was shortlisted as an App My City finalist.
visit www.deriveapp.com to see more