Rereading Corner’s essay I felt much more connected to the mapping operations he presents through our study of Venice and its surrounding lagoon.
I was again fascinated by what Corner describes as ‘drift’ and am temped to conduct a derive in Venice to acquaint my self with the city when we arrive. The question is, how does one conduct a derive in the most touristed city in the world? Has every nook and cranny already been discovered by the masses? How would a derive of a city made of canals differ from the derive Debord conducted in Paris? In other words, how does one drift through a city where there are so many barriers?
In addition, Corner’s essay sparked my curiosity about mapping Venice through layering. Although layering may not be the most effective method of representation for our site model, it seems as though it has a lot of potential in capturing the layered character of the region. From the layers of history to layers of sediment creating ‘the fish’, it seems only appropriate to approach the mapping of Venice in a similar way.
Mostly what I took from these essays is the open-ended nature of our task. That we are not to trace, and in mapping Venice we may not find a secret nook undiscovered by tourists, but perhaps a deeper understanding of a city and its design.