With «Following The Crisis» !Mediengruppe Bitnik, by way of psychogeographical Dérives, re-appropriates the urban environment of the financial centers of Zurich and London. By randomly following bankers and bank customers they explore the financial districts. From this field research they then derive the „Instructions for a Dérive“.

«Following the Crisis» presents exemplary extracts of a growing archive of personal journeys through the city documented via telephone calls. The Dérive works as a symbolic act against the powerlessness in the crisis – a form of appropriation of the inaccessible and closed financial spaces of London and Zurich. The results are subjective wanderings in search of traces of the crisis using the means of observation.

Instructions For a Dérive

FOLLOWING THE CRISIS -- Instruction for a Dérive
............................................................

Silent observer. Follows. Pursues. Goes by.

1.
Go to Liverpool Street Station in London.

2.
Look around for the next bank or bank office
building. Follow the next person to leave the building
inconspicuously.

3.
Let this person guide you through The City by following
him/her until he/she reaches a private building into
which you cannot enter. Wait to see whether the person
emerges from the building within a short time and continue
following him/her.

4.
Document your mutual journey live using your
mobile telephone by calling 08458 699 187 (answering
machine). Describe every change in direction, the routes,
stops and activities of your leading person in short
messages.

5.
If your chosen guide enters a private building shortly
after you start your mutual journey: start again at
step 2 of the instructions.

Download Instructions (PDF):