The concept of the dérive has its origins in the Letterist International; , an avant-garde and Marxist collective based in Paris .The dérive was a critical tool for understanding and developing the theory of psychogeography, defined as the “specific effects of the geographical environment (whether consciously organized or not) on the emotions and behavior of individuals.
Guy Debord defined the dérive as “a mode of experimental behavior linked to the conditions of urban society: a technique of rapid passage through varied ambiances.” It is an unplanned journey through a landscape, usually urban in which participants drop their everyday relations and “let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there”.
