The Drifting Document

PAUL+A

Featuring Teresa Dillon

Performed for the first time at LOCWS INTERNATIONAL (Swansea, Wales, Sept. 2002) this work is loosely based on the ‘Situationist’ theory of the ‘derive’, or drift, and consists of two elements, a 24hr ‘drift’ around the city, followed by a museum installation of the artefacts and records generated.

Drifting is the practice of the arbitrary navigation of a city in the pursuit of anarchy, play and poetry. The aim; to reclaim the city for subjective experience and pure pleasure. Dressed by top fashion designer, Hugo Boss; Paul+a become lost and intoxicated by the city, slowly rubbing away the veneer of civilisation in order to expose the ‘poetry of the everyday’. The ‘situations’ encountered/manufactured were “documented” by Paul on a hand held 5 X 4 field camera on Polaroid type 55 film and by Teresa on a Nikon digital coolpix, with movie clip. The result of this interventionist strategy is a subjective snapshot of the city over a 24hr period providing a contemporary enigmatic document of the city of Swansea generated from a series of performative escapades.

Essentially a poetic game, the idea is to rediscover the experience of being lost and intoxicated by the ‘city’. The derive is the practice of disorder, and disorientation of the subject in the city, based on arbitrary taxi rides, instinctual or snap decisions, and the pull of certain areas or places. As Guy Debord has said the purpose is to negate the purposeful structure of the modern city, and create poetry out of existing conditions.

Staying as faithful as possible to the spirit of the ‘Situationist International’, our aims are particularly concerned with the concept of ‘psycho-geography’, ie: the imaginative mapping of the city based on subjective experience rather than the commercial rationale of town planners. It is envisaged that an enigmatic and existential document will be produced from these performative encounters, although it is impossible to predict the precise nature of the images. The properties of the photographic document are by necessity subverted by these radical strategies and the notions of objectivity, truth, and rationale are unhinged from the photographic project. Crucially though the concepts of witness and testimony remain, albeit now aligned to a more contemporary subjectivity.

This ‘drift’ was over a 24 hr period from 6pm, 23rd Aug. 2002 and was carried out by Paul Jeff and Teresa Dillon.

PAUL+A.

Drifting Timeline

August 23rd 2002, Session 1, 
18.00 – 24.00

Swansea Institute, Townhill
, Uplands Tavern, 
Bar Reef, 
Kingsway
, Wind St
, No Sign bar
, La Cantina, 
Queens Hotel
, Pizza Express

August 24th 2002, Session 2, 
24.00 – 6.00

Monkey Bar, 
Castle St, 
Wind St
, Kingsway
, Top Banana, 
Mozart’s

August 24th 2002, Session 3, 
6.00 – 12.00

Sizzlers, 
Beach, 
Costa Coffee, 
Oxford St

August 24th 2002, Session 4, 
12.00 – 18.00

Plantasia
, High St
, Taxi Ride
, Eleo’s
, Carnival
, Kingsway
, Bar Reef
, Swansea Institute, Townhill

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