In psychogeography, a dérive is an unplanned journey through a landscape, usually urban, on which the subtle aesthetic contours of the surrounding architecture and geography unconsciously direct the travelers, with the ultimate goal of encountering an entirely new and authentic experience. According to Situationist theorist Guy Debord, in performing a dérive, the individual in question must first set aside all work and leisure activities and all their other usual motives for movement and action, and let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there. The term is translated into English as drift.

Both living and creating in Los Angeles and sharing a background at La Sorbonne, Jimmy and Adi embrace the dérive of the Situationist International as a vehicle to explore the environmental effect of Los Angeles, a city whose economy essentially runs on creativity, despite its guise of plasticity and glamour.

The video drifts among the various neighborhoods of Los Angeles; from the current emptied living room of the Charles and Ray Eames home and studio, Cast Study House #8, in the Pacific Palisades to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House under construction in Griffith Park, the coast of Malibu, and the sidewalks of Echo Park. The video journeys through the collage of disparate architecture, foliage, activity and history. Through the use of Chroma key green paint, worlds collapse, juxtapositions intensify and resonate, and new interpretations materialize.

Using May 68 student protest photos as references in making the photographs, the duo replaced all aspects of the original images: the city of Paris is reduced to colored backdrops, the original students transform into artists/collaborators whom the two often work with, and the clothing with patterned fabrics. These interventions in the photographs further remove the historical grounding and symbolism, flattening the image space, and highlighting the emotion, intelligence and fervor of the current creative youth of Los Angeles.

Adi Goodrich is a production designer and art director. Jimmy Marble is a director and writer. Both currently live, work and consistently collaborate in Los Angeles, California.