“Dérive” (drift) is one of the fundamental practices of the Internationale Situationniste (1957–1972). According to Guy Debord’s 1956 essay Theory of the Dérive, published in Situationist literature, dérive refers to a bodily technique of moving rapidly through urban routes in unconventional ways. It engages in a psychogeography of reconfigured awareness through pleasurable acts of movement. The duration of a dérive can range from several hours to several days, beginning at a random location and proceeding without interruption until one’s perceptual consciousness is renewed at a different observational “position.” Through this process, the city’s original spatial conception is transformed—fragmented by the sequence of drifts into heterogeneous zones and directions that remain continuously open to deconstruction.

Dutch artist Wilfried Hou Je Bek, influenced by the Situationist theory of dérive, identifies himself as a psycho-geographer. He incorporates the concept of software algorithms, imagining the city as the hardware of a “psychogeographical computer,” and advocates for what he terms Generative Psychogeography: an urban exploratory practice where the body acts as the software program and the city as its executable infrastructure. Hou Je Bek proposes that psychogeographical effects can be artificially generated—not as linear processes, but as spontaneous events defined by contingency and inclusivity.

Whether through randomness, chance, divergence, exchange, or the derailment and rerouting of algorithms and programming logic, these approaches seek to harness the generative potential of “random instructions” to open up heterogeneous paths for walkers within the urban network.

The “Sound Dérive Mapping Workshop” begins with the random recording of urban sounds. Using Processing software, participants’ vocal and auditory data are visualized, converting audio into real-time graphics—data points of sound that are layered onto drifting trajectories mapped across the city. In this process, participants record local vocalities while listening and walking through unfamiliar streets. Sound visualization—a technique often used to create dynamic images synchronized with audio playback—includes real-time visuals like oscilloscope simulations or, in artistic contexts, complex renderings of sound, spectrum, and visual input. It serves as a medium through which sonic compositions are tightly integrated with visual expression.

Sound visualization can be understood as a form of audiovisual resonance, a visual encounter with the granular spectrum of sound itself. Through these sonic spectral nodes embedded in the urban fabric, a generative decoding pathway is enacted—sound becomes the executable script for psychogeographic navigation through the city.Sound Dérive Mapping Workshop