Fieldtrip to Saint Augustine

Where

As part of our ongoing investigation into time, nature, space etc., we will visit Ponce de Leon Archeological Park in Saint Augustine and explore Saint Augustine in general, Saturday, February 21. We will meet at 9:30 AM in the parking lot outside of the admissions gate. Here is the address: 11 Magnolia Avenue, St. Augustine, FL 32084(904) 829-3168 and the URL:

We will spend the morning at the park and then in the afternoon after lunch get into small groups and do a derive (See link on website for more information about what constitutes a derive.) using the boundaries of the downtown as a limiting factor.

Why

I chose Saint Augustine because is the oldest continuously occupied settlement in the US. The city potentially functions as a palimpsest of which time/past are implicit in its definition. We begin at the archeological park because it is the site of The Fountain of Youth, another reference to a sort of utopian time and its history as a touristic site. Then we will use the methodology of the derive to locate and reflect upon time in the downtown area of Saint Augustine.

Preparation

Please look over the following web pages.

Kevin Lynch and Imageable Boston

Guy Debord’s Theory of the Derive

And then peruse the Kevin Lynch’s photo/data collection of locating time in Boston. The link to the pdf as well as the sites above are on our website.

This is not heavy-duty reading and should take you top an hour if not less. The idea here is get you familiar enough with a few ways of thinking about space and time experientially.

Bring funds for lunch and admission. The group rate is $9.50/person. We have to enter together because you give me the money and then I pay for all of us at once to get the group rate.

Bring water bottle, bag, comfortable footwear and any materials such as sketchbooks, cameras, phones, recording devices etc. that you will need to collect data for your projects.

Schedule

9:30-12:30Collect data and experience the park.

12:30–1:30Break for lunch.

1:30 – 4:30Derive in groups of the 3 and 4. I will give you a handout with more

specific guidance.

4:30 – 5:00Meet and wrap up.

Result

You will create a piece of art that is reflective of some aspect of your practice that uses “data” that you collect on our trip both in the park and the city at large. The idea here is that you find something (an idea, a visual, text) that resonates with your practice to create work considers the experience of time and place. The work should be integrated with what you are already doing. This exercise is about playing with a place, history (literal or metaphoric or subject to YOUR interpretation), not about a theme of historic Saint Augustine. Saint Augustine is the container. We will look at and discuss the work in class April 6.

Instruction for Derive

  1. Make sure you understand what it means to derive by reading the Guy Debord’s Theory of the Derive.
  2. Break into groups of 3-4.
  3. I will give each group a map of downtown St. Augustine.
  4. Start walking aimlessly thinking about/meditating upon time. In terms of directionality or decisions on how the group moves, you can take turns following one member of the group or the group as a whole as an organism or some permutation of any of these options.
  5. Record/document your group’s stopping point with images, sounds and text. Again with documentation, you may want to take turns or as a group gather representations. Figuring this out is part of the work that you do.
  6. You can take two short breaks, but duration is important. You want to keep moving over the three hours of time. You want aware of evidence of time rather than the time you are spending doing the activity. Try to get lost.
  7. Meet back at Ponce de Leon Archeology parking lot at 4:30.