Patterns of Life: A Very Short History of Schematic Bodies

Grégoire Chamayou (author)

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Title	Patterns of Life
Subtitle	A Very Short History of Schematic Bodies
Contributor	Grégoire Chamayou (author)
DOI	https://doi.org/10.21983/P3.0098.1.14
Landing page	https://punctumbooks.com/titles/the-funambulist-papers-vol-2/
License	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
Copyright	Chamayou, Grégoire
Publisher	punctum books
Published on	2015-04-09
Long abstract	In his 1956’s Theory of the Dérive, Guy Debord described a Paris map drawn up by an urban sociologist depicting “all the movements made in the space of one year by a student living in the 16th Ar-rondissement”. “Her itinerary,” he remarked, “forms a small triangle with no significant deviations, the three apexes of which are the School of Political Sciences, her residence and that of her piano teacher. The cartographic objectivation of a life form was taken as a starting point for a poetical and political critique of daily life. This was a cri-tique of its narrowness, of its routines, of the reduction of the lifeworld these routine articulate. Debord concluded: “Such data — examples of a modern poetry capable of provoking sharp emotional reactions (in this particular case, outrage at the fact that anyone’s life can be so pathetically limited) [...] will undoubtedly prove useful in developing dérives (drifts)."
Page range	pp. 98–116
Print length	19 pages
Language	English (Original)

In his 1956’s Theory of the Dérive, Guy Debord described a Paris map drawn up by an urban sociologist depicting “all the movements made in the space of one year by a student living in the 16th Ar-rondissement”. “Her itinerary,” he remarked, “forms a small triangle with no significant deviations, the three apexes of which are the School of Political Sciences, her residence and that of her piano teacher. The cartographic objectivation of a life form was taken as a starting point for a poetical and political critique of daily life. This was a cri-tique of its narrowness, of its routines, of the reduction of the lifeworld these routine articulate. Debord concluded: “Such data — examples of a modern poetry capable of provoking sharp emotional reactions (in this particular case, outrage at the fact that anyone’s life can be so pathetically limited) [...] will undoubtedly prove useful in developing dérives (drifts)."