Christian Croft and Kate Hartman collaborative project known as The Energy Harvesting Dérive takes a popular children’s brand of shoes, known as Heelys, which feature a single wheel in the heel to allow the wearer to walk or glide down the street balancing on their heels, and adds a new twist. Croft and Hartman modified the show to produce it’s own energy through the rotation of the wheel, but instead of charging batteries, the wheel powers a microcomputer attached to a display which tells the wearer a direction to turn. According to their site: “these directions drive the wearer to follow a random zig-zaggy path that mimics in physical space the mathematical simulation of the random or drunkard’s walk.”
By setting the wearer off on a random path, the wearer begins to experience a dérive, made popular by situationists, which is simply an aimless walk and a way to explore urban spaces. By taking something that we thoughtlessly do everyday and forcing us to rethink about how we use it, as a way to explore rather than a way to get from Point A to Point B, the wearer will soon have a deeper understanding of the area around them (while having fun and not having to worry about carrying batteries for the device).
– Terrence Scoville