observing the unobservable

I tried to do a derive today. I rode the 13 to the end of the line and was all excited to discover a whole new Paris, a periphery culture.

It really wasn’t terribly interesting.

I passed a garage, a gas station, a nice-smelling Indian restaurant. There were people having a barbecue in the park (Happy Memorial Day) and what looked like a pool or gym sort of place. It actually looked a lot like Saginaw.

I haven’t had too much success with derives, honestly. I do try. I don’t know, maybe it was easier before there was so much globalization and industrialization. I would love to derive around at the end of the 19th century, when the city was new. To see how Haussmann’s changes changed the way people interact with space.

Maybe part of the problem is that we don’t really interact with space in a traditional manner anymore. Space gets you from place to place. Everyone, especially in Paris, seems always to be in a rush to get someplace else. Even when you’re not in a rush, there’s not the same interaction with people or space. We don’t stop and chat with strangers on the streets, but text on our phones. We mask the scent of a city with perfume, the sound of a town with an iPod. Modern day spectacles are not outside in physical reality but on Youtube. People don’t gather to discuss the news but read and comment online. Our world is becoming increasingly virtual, and I think it has left the real world looking rather pallor.

At any rate I’ve always thought people to be more interesting than places, so on the way back I thought I’d take a subtle personage derive and observe people on the metro. The trouble is people tend to put masks on as soon as they step onto a train. They (and I, too) plug in, zone out, do something to pass the time in a less-than-conscious state.

Maybe I’ve just had bad luck. But maybe there are fewer and fewer occasions where people come alive and let themselves shine through. Or a combination of the two. Next time I won’t take the 13.