Cykel-dérive med Anna Asplind!
Last Saturday, Anna Asplind led a group of eight cyclists on a dérive headed south from Färgfabriken. To start the exercise, we stopped on a grassy hill under a bridge, near by Färgfabriken. As a way to enter into the mind-set of the dérive, we sat quietly to listen to the urban sounds. This exercise helped us to throw off our professional and everyday preconceptions of urban space.
From there we started drifting south, letting our pedals take us where they would. Anna asked us to observe how the space asked us to travel through it, and how we could experience it in new ways. Where does the space lead us? How does one transform space by moving through it differently?
The leader of the group was a fluid concept; every now and again a different person would take the lead, choosing unusual paths and taking us on unexpected routes of our unplanned journey. Deciding whether to turn left or right, or go straight ahead; the direction didn’t really matter as much as the experience of moving through it.
It’s amazing what you notice when you don’t rush straight to your destination, when you go beyond your everyday experiences and habits of moving through the suburbs. We ended the day with a fika in a square in Huddinge, chatting about our observations, experiences, and ideas of the cityscape.
Anna is leading another cykel dérive this Saturday October 10th, starting from Haninge Culture House at 1 pm.