Iain Sinclair, in his Lights Out for the Territory （1997） declared that ＂walking is the best way to explore and exploit the city＂. But what exactly is that we are looking for in our contemporary cities？ And how c...Iain Sinclair, in his Lights Out for the Territory （1997） declared that ＂walking is the best way to explore and exploit the city＂. But what exactly is that we are looking for in our contemporary cities？ And how can walking contribute in tracing （explore） and therefore mapping （exploit） all those elements or situations that we seek for？ Urban space is constantly mutating. Our experience of space as a practiced place changes gradually as the ＂sterile＂ private spaces and misleading billboards, the neo-urban surrounding urban environment evolves around us. Amidst walker drifts through the city in search for the peculiar, the original, the intriguing, and the fringe. An urban journey/drifting starts and ends without any predefined plan in mind, while remaining alert and receptive to all incentives given by the practiced urban locus （audio, visual, olfactory, and psychological incentives）. Originating from the post-Romantic English writers and the mid-nineteenth century Parisian flaneur, urban drifting has been practiced in multiple ways with different outcomes, but yet highly contributory in the depiction and specific mapping of our urban environment. This paper attempts to investigate the roots of urban drifting, its evolution, and its potential utility as a spatial practice in visual arts, architecture, and mapping.展开更多
文摘Iain Sinclair, in his Lights Out for the Territory （1997） declared that ＂walking is the best way to explore and exploit the city＂. But what exactly is that we are looking for in our contemporary cities？ And how can walking contribute in tracing （explore） and therefore mapping （exploit） all those elements or situations that we seek for？ Urban space is constantly mutating. Our experience of space as a practiced place changes gradually as the ＂sterile＂ private spaces and misleading billboards, the neo-urban surrounding urban environment evolves around us. Amidst walker drifts through the city in search for the peculiar, the original, the intriguing, and the fringe. An urban journey/drifting starts and ends without any predefined plan in mind, while remaining alert and receptive to all incentives given by the practiced urban locus （audio, visual, olfactory, and psychological incentives）. Originating from the post-Romantic English writers and the mid-nineteenth century Parisian flaneur, urban drifting has been practiced in multiple ways with different outcomes, but yet highly contributory in the depiction and specific mapping of our urban environment. This paper attempts to investigate the roots of urban drifting, its evolution, and its potential utility as a spatial practice in visual arts, architecture, and mapping.
