Are you looking for an event for your team? Something to unfold creativity, stimulate critical thinking and get your team out of the office? A PhotoDérive is the perfect fit.

PhotoDérive is an excellent way to promote a conscious and alternative perception of urban spaces through awareness, mindful observation and visual story telling. Art and creative activities stimulate critical thinking and support alternative problem solving approaches, something all teams at work can use. Art matters, in ways we sometimes are not aware of. Here you can read why art matters and how it links to critical thinking.

We organise walking workshops (a.k.a walkshops) walking, having discussions and taking photos -it is all part of the art practice embodied in the concept of Dérive. With an artist as an initial guide, PhotoDérive participants go out to explore an area, critically observe and comment the surroundings. They also learn new visual storytelling skills and this combination becomes their own and unique art performance.

The inspiration for these walking workshops comes from the Dérive as an artistic practice in the context of psychogeography, an exploration of the effect that spaces have on how we feel and how we think. Spaces are defined by what is there (or what isn´t there) and how we use them. Through psychogeography we seek to redefine and transform these spaces. Psychogeography poses a challenge to the established use of spaces: shopping, entertainment, work, leisure, living. If not for these uses, how could we approach these spaces? How would we feel if we did different things there? or if they were different?

What is a PhotoDérive?

PhotoDérive explores walking and photographing as art practices, uniting urban exploration, mindfulness and political critique with story telling. As a companion to PhotoDérive, Andrea designed and developed a companion card kit for the urban explorations, to help spark creativity and add random situational clues and prompts to support the photographic interpretation of the spaces visited during the Dérive.

Dérive translates as “drifting”, to move slowly without control or direction. A Dérive is one way to live the psychogeographical experience: we will walk through, search, reflect on and photograph the spaces. We will go on a dérive by walking and purposefully giving up control to allow random explorations. In doing so, we will see the spaces in a new light, understand them differently while learning about ourselves through how we think or feel about them. The photographs will tell a story of the thoughts and perceptions during the PhotoDérive.

How a PhotoDérive can work for your company or organisation

A PhotoDérive is a good match for companies, cultural or social organisations, universities and schools with an interest in creativity and social issues, urban spaces, environmental aspects of the city.

  • Host a PhotoDérive using the standard deck of cards. After a short workshop, you and your teams are ready to go to explore, take photos and create an alternative story. You can explore your surroundings, or use the day to explore a new part of town for your employees to discover.
  • Create your own deck of cards for a custom made PhotoDérive that reflects your values. In a participative workshop we help you create your own set of cards for your team and city, or even neighbourhood. We can go as local or as global as you wish. After you create your custom made set of cards, a PhotoDérive will follow, tailored to suit your needs.
  • Offer your teams a chance to engage creatively with their surroundings while discussing current matters around urban spaces, city planning, environment and lifestyle.

If this sounds like something your company or organisation, drop us a line at info@photoderive.org. We can schedule a call and see where it takes us…quite in sync with the principles behind a Dérive.

PhotoDérive in times of COVID19

A PhotoDérive in global pandemic times needs to make some adjustments. We have developed a contact-free version of all activities to ensure everyone can participate without increasing health risks.  Supported by video chats and conferences and the traditional card deck, participants can still go outside alone to explore the spaces and take photos. We encourage everyone to respect the official guidelines by your health authorities in terms of protection against infection. Read how we adapted the PhotoDérive to keep everyone safe and healthy.