Object Lessons: A Litter Picking Dérive
Object Lessons: A Litter Picking Dérive
by Rae Turpin
Urban environments are ecologies of immense complexity. Litter is one such component; encounters with discarded waste are a largely ubiquitous experience for humans and nonhumans alike. Some end up in waterways, and end up clogging stomachs and other vital organs. Some end up ensnaring and trapping those simply out foraging for food. Others pass into new ownership, repurposed. For instance, the corvids who have been found building nests from anti-bird spikes, mosses who move into the flesh of abandoned footballs, or fox cubs playing with lost toys. This is to say that these objects are artefacts with unique lessons to offer, specifically about the turbulous, entangled states of coexistence between humans and nonhumans. How can we begin to explore these questions from a grounded, place-based approach?
Emerging from traditions of psychogeography, the dérive is a practice of drifting with(in) place. It encourages us to move in response to the psycho-emotional affects of our surroundings, often unearthing overlooked spaces, perspectives and connections as we go. This recipe is a dérive drawing orientation from litter in the urban environment. Specifically, it invites us to peel away a human-centric perspective on urban spaces, and connect with the experiences of other species who cohabit these places and engage with the artefacts you encounter.
This recipe can be practiced individually, or in community. However, if engaging as a group I would recommend following your own derivés, and then regathering afterwards. This will give you the capacity to fully engage in reflection, as well as caring for your environment by allowing for more litter collecting to occur.
Ingredients:
Litter picker and/or sturdy gloves
Strong rubbish bags, ideally reusable if possible
Comfortable and protective shoes and clothing
A notebook and pen, or a phone
You might also want to consider wearing a high vis, particularly if located close to roads and/or with children.
Steps:
Arrive at a loose starting point. Bear in mind that the nature of a derivé will lead you into unanticipated directions.
Set off. Allow your movements with(in) place to be led in orientation towards a particular item of litter that you may see. This will follow one after another. Allow it to take you on a new and unfamiliar route where possible.
Engage with your litter. As you bag up the litter you encounter, consider its life. Specifically, consider its relation to nonhumans and its entanglements in the urban ecologies. Some questions to begin with: Who may otherwise encounter this object? What harms, disruptions or even generative uses could this present to them?
Engage with places in the margins. As you follow litter, allow yourself to be led off the well-trodden paths and into liminal urban spaces that you would not otherwise encounter. Be sensitive to the nonhuman life and habitats that you may encounter here and reflect on the various bodies that may frequent these spaces. Who are they? What are their lives like?
Engage with others. Allow your senses to be diverted to anything else you may encounter, be it a new unknown blossom emerging from over a steel fence.
Document. You may want to take photographs or make notes in some form as you go. Doing so will not only provide prompts for further reflection and collective sharing later, but also provide you with an extended moment of becoming-with the objects and imaginaries you find yourself entangled amongst.
Alternative practice:
Practice your dérive in kinship with a particular ally, invite a member of another species in as a co-traveller or Coimimeadh (Scots Gaelic). Think and feel with a fox, pigeon, cat, crow, rat, hedgehog, seagull, squirrel, robin… Take a moment before you begin to reflect on their bodies - their shape, size, capacities for sense, movement and perception. As you conduct your dérive, allow this imagining-with to bring alternative insights and perspectives to these encounters.
N.B. In the instance you encounter any litter beyond your capacity to clear (for instance, flytipping, or any hazardous materials) be mindful not to overstretch yourself. Consider documenting it and reporting to your local council or authority.
© Rae Turpin. Find out more about Rae’s work at www.raejturpin.com