Divergent Paths, originally uploaded by iirraa.

In a book by Nick Crane 'Two degrees west' (Viking 1999) - in which he tells of a walk due south across England - he writes: "Claire was photographing desire paths... the imprints of 'foot anarchists', individuals who had trodden their own routes into the landscape, regardless of the intentions of government, planners and engineers. A desire path could be a short cut through waste ground, across the corner of a civic garden or down an embankment. They were expressions of free will, 'paths with a passion', an alternative to the strictures of railings, fences and walls that turned individuals into powerless apathetic automatons. On desire paths you could break out, explore,'feel your way across the landscape'."

Architectures of Control brought this to my attention as an example of user behavior diverging from a designer's attention.

• Desire Paths Pool

previously on wtg:

• beck, al, interactivity and the spirit of fluxus
• the magic of an animated mouse
• yeo valley organic's clever packaging
• the visual art of william s burroughs
  

Filed in: design