About the group
The research group “Dérive” conducts psychographic analyses of the metropolis of Oslo, categorising and understanding people based on their lifestyles, values and attitudes
The group’s name is taken from the conceptual apparatus of the Situationists of the 1950s and 60s, where the French term dérive denotes forms of drifting and flânerie in urban space.
We aim to read the city as we read texts, to uncover the city’s different semantic layers and shed light on what a city is today, above all in an age of AI, mass migration, environmental challenges, and crises of identity.
The research group is interdisciplinary and consists of scholars in literature, film, art history, architecture, design, health sciences, the social sciences, and media and cultural studies.
Our modes of work include seminars, conferences, reading groups, and city walks, which we will organize in collaboration with the City of Oslo.
Objectives
The research group “Dérive” aims to develop new ways of reading the city.
One concrete objective is to produce new psychogeographical maps of Oslo. We will do this by using city walks as a method, combined with analyses of literature, images, narratives, films, and visual art.
In addition, we will publish a book on curated and theoretically informed city walks, supplemented by podcasts based on the same walks. We will also publish a collective, broadly conceived anthology of urban analyses.
We are also planning an exhibition at the National Library of Norway, supplemented by public lectures.
