What is Dérive?

Pronounced “day-rEEv”* [de.ʁiv], is a creative performance and art studio that uses maps as a means to discover, experience, and reorient our perspectives.

*It has several meanings in French, among them “drift” or to just “wander about.”

Dérive explores our life geography—defined as our personal narratives and how we relate to both community and the physical world. The project aims to reimagine how we use public and natural spaces so that we can better understand our place in the world.

The studio is centered on two main projects, a series of street performances, realized as walking tours, as well as a bundle of one-on-one collaborative projects known as life maps.