Situationist International

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Michele Bernstein, Guy Debord, Asger Jorn, and Walter Olmo
.

The Situationist International (SI) was an

libertarian Marxism and the avant-garde art movements of the early 20th century, particularly Dada and Surrealism.[1] Overall, situationist theory represented an attempt to synthesize this diverse field of theoretical disciplines into a modern and comprehensive critique of mid-20th century advanced capitalism.[1]

Essential to situationist theory was the concept of the spectacle, a unified critique of advanced capitalism of which a primary concern was the progressively increasing tendency towards the expression and mediation of social relations through images.[2] The situationists believed that the shift from individual expression through directly lived experiences, or the first-hand fulfillment of authentic desires, to individual expression by proxy through the exchange or consumption of commodities, or passive second-hand alienation, inflicted significant and far-reaching damage to the quality of human life for both individuals and society.[1] Another important concept of situationist theory was the primary means of counteracting the spectacle; the construction of situations, moments of life deliberately constructed for the purpose of reawakening and pursuing authentic desires, experiencing the feeling of life and adventure, and the liberation of everyday life.[1][3]

The situationists recognized that capitalism had changed since Karl Marx's formative writings, but maintained that his analysis of the capitalist mode of production remained fundamentally correct; they rearticulated and expanded upon several classical Marxist concepts, such as his theory of alienation.[1] In their expanded interpretation of Marxist theory, the situationists asserted that the misery of social alienation and commodity fetishism were no longer limited to the fundamental components of capitalist society, but had now in advanced capitalism spread themselves to every aspect of life and culture.[1] They rejected the idea that advanced capitalism's apparent successes—such as technological advancement, increased productive capacity, and a raised general quality of life when compared to previous systems, such as feudalism—could ever outweigh the social dysfunction and degradation of everyday life that it simultaneously inflicted.[1]

When the Situationist International was first formed, it had a predominantly artistic focus; emphasis was placed on concepts like

May 1968 insurrections in France; quotes, phrases, and slogans from situationist texts and publications were ubiquitous on posters and graffiti throughout France during the uprisings.[1]

Etymology and usage

The term "situationist" refers to the construction of situations, one of the early central concepts of the Situationist International; the term also refers to any individuals engaged in the construction of situations, or, more narrowly, to members of the Situationist International.[3] Situationist theory sees the situation as a tool for the liberation of everyday life, a method of negating the pervasive alienation that accompanied the spectacle. The founding manifesto of the Situationist International, Report on the Construction of Situations (1957), defined the construction of situations as "the concrete construction of momentary ambiances of life and their transformation into a superior passional quality."[4] Internationale Situationniste No. 1 (June 1958) defined the constructed situation as "a moment of life concretely and deliberately constructed by the collective organization of a unitary ambiance and a game of events".[3] The situationists argued that advanced capitalism manufactured false desires; literally in the sense of ubiquitous advertising and the glorification of accumulated capital, and more broadly in the abstraction and reification of the more ephemeral experiences of authentic life into commodities. The experimental direction of situationist activity consisted of setting up temporary environments favorable to the fulfillment of true and authentic human desires in response.[5]

The Situationist International strongly resisted use of the term "situationism", which Debord called a "meaningless term", adding "[t]here is no such thing as situationism, which would mean a doctrine for interpreting existing conditions".[3] The situationists maintained a philosophical opposition to all ideologies, conceiving of them as abstract superstructures ultimately serving only to justify the economic base of a given society; accordingly, they rejected "situationism" as an absurd and self-contradictory concept.[6] In The Society of the Spectacle, Debord asserted that ideology was "the abstract will to universality and the illusion thereof" which was "legitimated in modern society by universal abstraction and by the effective dictatorship of illusion".[7]

History

Origins (1945–1955)

The situationist movement had its origins as a left wing tendency within

hypergraphics, as well as new creative techniques in filmmaking. Future situationist Guy Debord, who was at that time a significant figure in the Lettrist movement, helped develop these new film techniques, using them in his Lettrist film Howlings for Sade (1952) as well as later in his situationist film Society of the Spectacle
(1972).

By 1950, a much younger and more left-wing part of the Lettrist movement began to emerge. This group kept very active in perpetrating public outrages such as the

Notre Dame de Paris, in front of ten thousand people and broadcast on national TV, their member and former Dominican Michel Mourre posed as a monk, "stood in front of the altar and read a pamphlet proclaiming that God was dead".[10][11] André Breton prominently came out in support of the action in a letter that spawned a large debate in the newspaper Combat.[12][13]

In 1952, this left wing of the Lettrist movement, which included Debord, broke off from Isou's group and formed the Letterist International, a new Paris-based collective of avant-garde artists and political theorists. The schism finally erupted when the future members of the radical Lettrists disrupted a Charlie Chaplin press conference for Limelight at the Hôtel Ritz Paris. They distributed a polemic entitled "No More Flat Feet!", which concluded: "The footlights have melted the make-up of the supposedly brilliant mime. All we can see now is a lugubrious and mercenary old man. Go home Mister Chaplin."[14] Isou was upset with this, his own attitude being that Chaplin deserved respect as one of the great creators of the cinematic art. The breakaway group felt that his work was no longer relevant, while having appreciated it "in its own time," and asserted their belief "that the most urgent expression of freedom is the destruction of idols, especially when they claim to represent freedom," in this case, filmmaker Charlie Chaplin.[15]

During this period of the Letterist International, many of the important concepts and ideas that would later be integral in situationist theory were developed. Individuals in the group collaboratively constructed the new field of psychogeography, which they defined as "the study of the specific effects of the geographical environment (whether consciously organized or not) on the emotions and behavior of individuals."[3][16] Debord further expanded this concept of psychogeography with his theory of the dérive, an unplanned tour through an urban landscape directed entirely by the feelings evoked in the individual by their surroundings, serving as the primary means for mapping and investigating the psychogeography of these different areas.[17] During this period the Letterist International also developed the situationist tactic of détournement, which by reworking or re-contextualizing an existing work of art or literature sought to radically shift its meaning to one with revolutionary significance.

Formation (1956–1957)

In 1956, Guy Debord, a member of the

COBRA), and the London Psychogeographical Association (though, Anselm Jappe has argued that the group pivoted around Jorn and Debord for the first four years).[20] Later, the Situationist International drew ideas from other groups such as Socialisme ou Barbarie.[21]

The most prominent member of the group,

Michele Bernstein
. Debord and Bernstein later married.

In June 1957, Debord wrote the

Artistic period (1958–1962)

Danish painter, sculptor, ceramic artist, and author Asger Jorn, founding member of the Situationist International.

During the first few years of the SI's founding,

Pinot Gallizio.[22]

Asger Jorn, who invented

COBRA) was that of a catalyst and team leader. Guy Debord on his own lacked the personal warmth and persuasiveness to draw people of different nationalities and talents into an active working partnership. As a prototype Marxist
intellectual Debord needed an ally who could patch up the petty egoisms and squabbles of the members. When Jorn's leadership was withdrawn in 1961, many simmering quarrels among different sections of the SI flared up, leading to multiple exclusions.

Internationale situationniste

The first major split was the exclusion of Gruppe SPUR, the German section, from the SI on 10 February 1962.

revolutionary proletariat;[24] the accusation that their activities were based on a "systematic misunderstanding of situationist theses";[23] the understanding that at least one Gruppe SPUR member, sculptor Lothar Fischer, and possibly the rest of the group, were not actually understanding and/or agreeing with the situationist ideas, but were just using the SI to achieve success in the art market;[23][25] and the betrayal, in the Spur #7 issue, of a common agreement on the Gruppe SPUR and SI publications.[26][27]

The exclusion was a recognition that Gruppe SPUR's "principles, methods and goals" were significantly in contrast with those of the SI.[28][29] This split however was not a declaration of hostilities, as in other cases of SI exclusions. A few months after the exclusion, in the context of judicial prosecution against the group by the German state, Debord expressed his esteem to Gruppe SPUR, calling it the only significant artist group in (Germany) since World War II, and regarding it at the level of the avant-gardes in other countries.[30]

The next significant split was in 1962, wherein the "Nashists," the Scandinavian section of the SI led by

2nd Situationist International.[31]

Political period (1963–1968)

By this point the Situationist International consisted almost exclusively of the Franco-Belgian section, led by

theory of the spectacle and Marxist critical analysis, spending much less time on the more artistic and tangible concepts like unitary urbanism, détournement, and situgraphy.[32]

During this period the SI began having more and more influence on local university students in France. Taking advantage of the apathy of their colleagues, five "Pro-situs", situationist-influenced students, infiltrated the

Andre Bertrand's détourned comic strip.[34] They then invited the situationists to contribute a critique of the University of Strasbourg, and On the Poverty of Student Life, written by Tunisian situationist Mustapha/Omar Khayati was the result.[34] The students promptly proceeded to print 10,000 copies of the pamphlet using university funds and distributed them during a ceremony marking the beginning of the academic year. This provoked an immediate outcry in the local, national and international media.[34]

May events (1968)

The Situationists played a preponderant role in the May 1968 uprisings,[35] and to some extent their political perspective and ideas fueled such crisis,[35][36][37] providing a central theoretic foundation.[38][39][40][41][42][43] While SI's member count had been steadily falling for the preceding several years, the ones that remained were able to fill revolutionary roles for which they had patiently anticipated and prepared. The active ideologists ("enragés" and Situationists) behind the revolutionary events in Strasbourg, Nanterre and Paris, numbered only about one or two dozen persons.[44]

This has now been widely acknowledged as a fact by studies of the period,[45][46][47][48][49][50] what is still wide open to interpretation is the "how and why" that happened.[35] Charles de Gaulle, in the aftermath televised speech of 7 June, acknowledged that "This explosion was provoked by groups in revolt against modern consumer and technical society, whether it be the communism of the East or the capitalism of the West."[51]

They also made up the majority in the Occupation Committee of the Sorbonne.[35] An important event leading up to May 1968 was the scandal in Strasbourg in December 1966.[52] The Union Nationale des Étudiants de France declared itself in favor of the SI's theses, and managed to use public funds to publish Mustapha Khayati's pamphlet On the Poverty of Student Life.[53] Thousands of copies of the pamphlet were printed and circulated and helped to make the Situationists well known throughout the nonstalinist left.

Quotations from two key situationist books, Debord's The Society of the Spectacle (1967) and Khayati's On the Poverty of Student Life (1966), were written on the walls of Paris and several provincial cities.[52] This was documented in the collection of photographs published in 1968 by Walter Lewino, L'imagination au pouvoir.[54]

Though the SI were a very small group, they were expert self-propagandists, and their slogans appeared daubed on walls throughout Paris at the time of the revolt. SI member René Viénet's 1968 book Enragés and Situationists in the Occupations Movement, France, May '68 gives an account of the involvement of the SI with the student group of Enragés and the occupation of the Sorbonne.

The occupations of 1968 started at the

workers' councils,[54] but, disillusioned with the students, left the university to set up The Council for the Maintenance of the Occupations
(CMDO) which distributed the SI's demands on a much wider scale. After the end of the movement, the CMDO disbanded.

Aftermath (1968–1972)

By 1972, Gianfranco Sanguinetti and Guy Debord were the only two remaining members of the SI. Working with Debord, in August 1975, Sanguinetti wrote a pamphlet titled Rapporto veridico sulle ultime opportunità di salvare il capitalismo in Italia (The Real Report on the Last Chance to Save Capitalism in Italy),[55] which (inspired by Bruno Bauer) purported to be the cynical writing of "Censor", a powerful industrialist. The pamphlet argued that the ruling class of Italy supported the Piazza Fontana bombing and other covert, false flag mass slaughter for the higher goal of defending the capitalist status quo from communist influence. The pamphlet was mailed to 520 of Italy's most powerful individuals. It was received as genuine and powerful politicians, industrialists and journalists praised its content. After reprinting the tract as a small book, Sanguinetti revealed himself to be the true author. In the outcry that ensued[56] and under pressure from Italian authorities Sanguinetti left Italy in February 1976, and was denied entry to France.[57]

After publishing in the last issue of the magazine, an analysis of the May 1968 revolts and the strategies that will need to be adopted in future revolutions,[54] the SI was dissolved in 1972.[58]

Main concepts

The spectacle and its society

The Spectacle is a central notion in situationist theory, developed by Guy Debord in his 1967 book, The Society of the Spectacle. In its limited sense, spectacle means the mass media, which are "its most glaring superficial manifestation."[59] Debord said that the society of the spectacle came to existence in the late 1920s.[60][61]

The critique of the spectacle is a development and application of Karl Marx's concept of

fetishism of commodities, reification and alienation,[62] and the way it was reprised by György Lukács in 1923. In the society of the spectacle, the commodities rule the workers and the consumers
instead of being ruled by them. The consumers are passive subjects that contemplate the reified spectacle.

As early as 1958, in the

public discourse. Such ideas get first trivialized and sterilized, and then they are safely incorporated back within mainstream society, where they can be exploited to add new flavors to old dominant ideas.[63] This technique of the spectacle is sometimes called recuperation, and its counter-technique is the détournement.[64]

Détournement

A détournement is a technique developed in the 1950s by the

punk movement in the late 1970s[67] and inspired the culture jamming movement in the late 1980s.[65]

Anti-capitalism

The Situationist International, in the 15 years from its formation in 1957 and its dissolution in 1972, is characterized by a

surrealist perspective on aesthetics and politics,[68] without separation between the two: art and politics are faced together and in revolutionary terms.[69] The SI analyzed the modern world from the point of view of everyday life.[70] The core arguments of the Situationist International were an attack on the capitalist degradation of the life of people[4][71][72] and the fake models advertised by the mass media,[4] to which the Situationist responded with alternative life experiences.[4] The alternative life experiences explored by the Situationists were the construction of situations, unitary urbanism, psychogeography, and the union of play, freedom and critical thinking.[22]

A major stance of the SI was to count on the force of a

revolutionary proletariat. This stance was reaffirmed very clearly in a discussion on "To what extent is the SI a political movement?", during the Fourth SI Conference in London.[24]
The SI remarked that this is a core Situationist principle, and that those that don't understand it and agree with it, are not Situationist.

Art and politics

The SI rejected all art that separated itself from politics, the concept of 20th-century art that is separated from topical political events.[4][28] The SI believed that the notion of artistic expression being separated from politics and current events is one proliferated by reactionary considerations to render artwork that expresses comprehensive critiques of society impotent.[4] They recognized there was a precise mechanism followed by reactionaries to defuse the role of subversive artists and intellectuals, that is, to reframe them as separated from the most topical events, and divert from them the taste for the new that may dangerously appeal the masses; after such separation, such artworks are sterilized, banalized, degraded, and can be safely integrated into the official culture and the public discourse, where they can add new flavors to old dominant ideas and play the role of a gear wheel in the mechanism of the society of the spectacle.[4]

According to this theory, artists and intellectuals that accept such compromises are rewarded by the art dealers and praised by the dominant culture.[28] The SI received many offers to sponsor "creations" that would just have a "situationist" label but a diluted political content, that would have brought things back to order and the SI back into the old fold of artistic praxis. The majority of SI continued to refuse such offers and any involvement on the conventional avant-garde artistic plane.[28] This principle was affirmed since the founding of the SI in 1957, but the qualitative step of resolving all the contradictions of having situationists that make concessions to the cultural market, was made with the exclusion of Gruppe SPUR in 1962.[28]

The SI noted how reactionary forces forbid subversive ideas from artists and intellectuals to reach the

public discourse, and how they attack the artworks that express comprehensive critique of society, by saying that art should not involve itself into politics.[4]

The construction of situations

The first edition of Internationale Situationniste defines the constructed situation as "a moment of life concretely and deliberately constructed by the collective organization of a unitary ambiance and a game of events."

As the SI embraced dialectical Marxism, the situation came to refer less to a specific avant-garde practice than to the dialectical unification of art and life more generally. Beyond this theoretical definition, the situation as a practical manifestation thus slipped between a series of proposals. The SI thus were first led to distinguish the situation from the mere artistic practice of the happening, and later identified it in historical events such as the Paris Commune in which it exhibited itself as the revolutionary moment. The SI's interest in the Paris Commune was expressed in 1962 in their fourteen "Theses on the Paris Commune".

Psychogeography

The first edition of Internationale Situationniste defined psychogeography as "the study of the specific effects of the geographical environment (whether consciously organized or not) on the emotions and behavior of individuals."[3] The term was first recognized in 1955 by Guy Debord while still with the Letterist International:

The word psychogeography, suggested by an illiterate Kabyle as a general term for the phenomena a few of us were investigating around the summer of 1953, is not too inappropriate. It does not contradict the materialist perspective of the conditioning of life and thought by objective nature. Geography, for example, deals with the determinant action of general natural forces, such as soil composition or climatic conditions, on the economic structures of a society, and thus on the corresponding conception that such a society can have of the world. Psychogeography could set for itself the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, whether consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals. The charmingly vague adjective psychogeographical can be applied to the findings arrived at by this type of investigation, to their influence on human feelings, and more generally to any situation or conduct that seems to reflect the same spirit of discovery.[16]

Dérive

By definition, psychogeography combines subjective and objective knowledge and studies. Debord struggled to stipulate the finer points of this theoretical paradox, ultimately producing "Theory of the Dérive" in 1958, a document which essentially serves as an instruction manual for the psychogeographic procedure, executed through the act of dérive ("drift").

In a dérive one or more persons during a certain period drop their usual motives for movement and action, their relations, their work and leisure activities, and let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there... But the dérive includes both this letting go and its necessary contradiction: the domination of psychogeographical variations by the knowledge and calculation of their possibilities.

— Ken Knabb[73]

SI engaged in a play-form that was also practiced by its predecessor organization, the

Surrealists walked toward the countryside outside of Blois.[75] Debord was cautious however to differentiate between the derive and such precedents. He emphasized its active character as "a mode of experimental behavior" that reached to Romanticism, the Baroque, and the age of chivalry, with its tradition of long adventures voyages. Such urban roaming was characteristic of Left Bank bohemianism in Paris.[76]

In the SI's 6th issue, Raoul Vaneigem writes in a manifesto of unitary urbanism, "All space is occupied by the enemy. We are living under a permanent curfew. Not just the cops—the geometry".[77] Dérive, as a previously conceptualized tactic in the French military, was "a calculated action determined by the absence of a greater locus", and "a maneuver within the enemy's field of vision".[78] To the SI, whose interest was inhabiting space, the dérive brought appeal in this sense of taking the "fight" to the streets and truly indulging in a determined operation. The dérive was a course of preparation, reconnaissance, a means of shaping situationist psychology among urban explorers for the eventuality of the situationist city.

Political theory

Major works

Twelve issues of the main French edition of journal Internationale Situationniste were published, each issue edited by a different individual or group, including:

Classic Situationist texts include:

by Raoul Vaneigem.

The first English-language collection of SI writings, although poorly and freely translated, was Leaving The 20th century edited by Christopher Gray. The Situationist International Anthology edited and translated by Ken Knabb, collected numerous SI documents which had previously never been seen in English.[80]

Relationship with Marxism

Rooted firmly in the

China and the Soviet Union
in the same breath as capitalism.

Debord's work

Marxist critical theory. The Society of the Spectacle is widely recognized as the main and most influential Situationist essay.[81]

The concept of revolution created by the Situationist International was

Young Hegelian,[35] and from the very beginning in the 50s, remarkably differently from the established Left, anti-Stalinist and against all repressive regimes.[85]

Debord starts his 1967 work with a revisited version of the first sentence with which Marx began his critique of classical political economy, Das Kapital.[86][87] In a later essay, Debord will argue that his work was the most important social critique since Marx's work. Drawing from Marx, which argued that under a capitalist society the wealth is degraded to an immense accumulation of commodities, Debord argues that in advanced capitalism, life is reduced to an immense accumulation of spectacles, a triumph of mere appearance where "all that once was directly lived has become mere representation".[88][89] The spectacle, which according to Debord is the core feature of the advanced capitalist societies,[90] has its "most glaring superficial manifestation" in the advertising-mass media-marketing complex.[91]

Elaborating on Marx's argument that under capitalism our lives and our environment are continually depleted, Debord adds that the Spectacle is the system by which capitalism tries to hide such depletion. Debord added that, further than the impoverishment in the quality of life,[22][71] our psychic functions are altered, we get a degradation of mind and also a degradation of knowledge.[92] In the spectacular society, knowledge is not used anymore to question, analyze, or resolve contradictions, but to assuage reality.

Situationist theorists advocated methods of operation that included

libertarian Marxist movements, themselves more broadly termed as left communism
.

The last issue (1969) of the Situationist International journal, featured an editorial analyzing the events of

detournement reference of Nachalo
(The Beginning), a Russian Marxist monthly magazine.

According to

Former situationists

Relationship with anarchism

The Situationist International was differentiated from both anarchists and

spontaneism and the "mystics of nonorganization," labeling them as a form of "sub-anarchism":[101]

The only people who will be excluded from this debate are... those who in the name of some sub-anarchist spontaneism proclaim their opposition to any form of organization, and who only reproduce the defects and confusion of the old movement—mystics of nonorganization, workers discouraged by having been mixed up with Trotskyist sects too long, students imprisoned in their impoverishment who are incapable of escaping from bolshevik organizational schemas. The situationists are obviously partisans of organization—the existence of the situationist organization testifies to that. Those who announce their agreement with our theses while crediting the SI with a vague spontaneism simply don't know how to read.

According to situationist Ken Knabb, Debord pointed out the flaws and merits of both Marxism and anarchism.[102] He argued that "the split between Marxism and anarchism crippled both sides. The anarchists rightly criticized the authoritarian and narrowly economistic tendencies in Marxism, but they generally did so in an undialectical, moralistic, ahistorical manner... and leaving Marx and a few of the more radical Marxists with a virtual monopoly on coherent dialectical analysis—until the situationists finally brought the libertarian and dialectical aspects back together again."

Relationship with the established left

The SI poses a challenge to the model of political action of a portion of the left,

Althusserianism, Maoism, Autonomism, Freudo-Marxism and others.[45]

The response to this challenge has been an attempt to silence and misinterpret, to "turn the SI safely into an art movement, and thereby to minimize its role in the political and social movements of the sixties".[37][103]

The core aspect of the revolutionary perspectives, and the political theory, of the Situationist International, has been neglected by some commentators,[104] which either limited themselves to an apolitical reading of the situationist avant-garde art works, or dismissed the Situationist political theory. Examples of this are Simon Sadler's The Situationist City,[104] and the accounts on the SI published by the New Left Review.[35]

The concept of revolution created by the Situationist International was

Workers councils.[54]

There was no separation between the artistic and the political perspectives.[69] For instance, Asger Jorn never believed in a conception of the Situationist ideas as exclusively artistic and separated from political involvement. He was at the root and at the core of the Situationist International project, fully sharing the revolutionary intentions with Debord.[105][106]

Reception

Criticism

Critics of the Situationists frequently assert that their ideas are not in fact complex and difficult to understand, but are at best simple ideas expressed in deliberately difficult language, and at worst actually nonsensical. For example, anarchist

Listen Anarchist! that "obscure situationist jargon" is a major problem in the anarchist movement.[107] Andrea Gibbons argues that the Parisian situationists failed to take on board practically or theoretically the experience of their African members, such as is shown by Abdelhafid Khattib's experience of police harassment while conducting psychogeographic research on Les Halles in 1958. She remarks how little the suppression of Algerians in Paris had impacted their activity and thinking – Bernstein and Debord co-signed the Declaration on the Right to Insubordination in the Algerian War in 1961, which led to them being questioned by the police. She cites a letter written by Jacqueline de Jong, Jorgen Nash, and Ansgar Elde protesting the expulsion of the Spur group in 1962 which highlights the political repression in Paris at that time. Gibbons also criticises the lack of mention of the Algerian situationists in either Debord's or Vaneigem's memoirs.[108]

Influence

evoL PsychogeogrAphix 2003

Debord's analysis of the spectacle has been influential among people working on television, particularly in France and Italy;[109][110] in Italy, TV programs produced by situationist intellectuals, like Antonio Ricci's Striscia la notizia, or Carlo Freccero's programming schedule for Italia 1 in the early 1990s.[109]

In the 1960s and 1970s, anarchists, communists, and other leftists offered various interpretations of Situationist concepts in combination with a variety of other perspectives. Examples of these groups include: in Amsterdam, the

The Weathermen, and the Rebel Worker group also explicitly employed their ideas.[112]

Anarchist theorists such as

Green Anarchy. During the early 1980s, English anarchist Larry Law produced the Spectacular Times pocket-books series, which aimed to make Situationist ideas more easily assimilated into the anarchist movement. Later anarchist theorists such as the CrimethInc. collective also claim Situationist influence.[112]

Situationist urban theory, defined initially by the members of the

Communist perspective. Around this time, Unpopular Books and the LPA released some key texts including new translations of Asger Jorn
's work.

Around this time also, groups such as Reclaim the Streets and Adbusters have, respectively, seen themselves as "creating situations" or practicing detournement on advertisements.

Punk and culture

In cultural terms, the SI's influence has arguably been greater, if more diffuse. In the late 1960s, MC5, the Fugs and Hawkwind were radical Situationist bands.

Situationist ideas exerted a strong influence on the design language of the

One can also trace situationist ideas within the development of other avant-garde threads such as Unilalianism[117][118] and Neoism, as well as artists such as Mark Divo.

Some hacker related e-zines, which, like

spectacle
of contemporary society.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ .
  2. ^ Debord, Guy (1967). Society of the Spectacle.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Debord, Guy (June 1958). "Definitions". Internationale Situationniste. No. 1. Translated by Knabb, Ken. Paris. Archived from the original on 17 October 2006. Retrieved 19 July 2007.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Guy Debord (1957) Report on the Construction of Situations and on the International Situationist Tendency's Conditions of Organization and Action Archived 14 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine. (Paris, June 1957). Translated by Ken Knabb.
  5. ^ Guy Debord (1958) Preliminary Problems in Constructing a Situation Archived 8 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Internationale Situationniste No. 1 (Paris, June 1958). Translated by Ken Knabb.
  6. ^ Raoul Vaneigem (1967) Traité du savoir-vivre à l’usage des jeunes générations Archived 24 February 2011 at the Wayback Machine. (Paris, June 1967). Chapter 1: The Insignificant Signified.
  7. ^ Guy Debord (1967) Society of the Spectacle. (Paris, June 1967). Chapter IX: Ideology in Material Form. Archived 20 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ a b Report on the Construction of Situations (1957)
  9. ^ a b "Internationale Situationniste No. 1 (June 1958)". Cddc.vt.edu. Archived from the original on 13 June 2010. Retrieved 11 October 2013.
  10. ^ Horn (2007), p. 8
  11. ^ Greil Marcus (1989) Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the 20th Century, preview Archived 13 April 2017 at the Wayback Machine at Google books, pp. 279–86
  12. ^ Boucharenc, Myriam (2005) L'universel reportage Archived 13 April 2017 at the Wayback Machine, pp. 94–6
  13. ^ Breton, André (1950) Lettre a Louis Pauwels" sur le «"scandale" de Notre Dame» Archived 28 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, in Combat, 12 April 1950, OC III, pp. 1024–5
  14. ^ Serge Berna, Jean-Louis Brau, Guy Debord & Gil J. Wolman (1952) No More Flat Feet! Archived 29 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine. Internationale Lettriste No. 1 (Paris, November 1952). Translated by Ken Knabb. Emphasis in original.
  15. ^ (1952) Position of the Lettrist International Archived 20 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Internationale Lettriste No. 1 (Paris, November 1952). Translated by Ken Knabb.
  16. ^ a b Guy Debord (1955) Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography Archived 20 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Les Lèvres Nues No. 6 (Paris, September 1955). Translated by Ken Knabb.
  17. ^ Guy Debord (1956) Theory of the Dérive Archived 20 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Les Lèvres Nues No. 9 (Paris, November 1956). Reprinted in Internationale Situationniste No. 2 (Paris, December 1958). Translated by Ken Knabb.
  18. ^ Horn (2007), pp. 5–7, 42
  19. .
  20. ^ Anselm Jappe, 1999, p. 65 quotation: "For the first four years of the SI's existence, the pivot of the group was the collaboration between Debord and Asger Jorn, who complemented each other well precisely because they were so different".
  21. ^ Hayes, Anthony (2017). "Appendix three: Whose spectacle?". How the Situationist International became what it was (Thesis). Archived from the original on 2 May 2022. Retrieved 3 May 2022.
  22. ^
    ...

    Nel Rapporto di Debord si legge inoltre una durissima critica allo sfruttamento capitalistico delle masse anche nel tempo libero attraverso l'industria del divertimento che abbrutisce la gente con sottoprodotti dell'ideologia mistificata della borghesia.

  23. ^ a b c (1963) The Exclusion of the Spurists Archived 20 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Internationale Situationniste No. 8 (Paris, January 1963). Translated by Ken Knabb.
  24. ^ a b The Fourth SI Conference in London Archived 5 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine,[1] Archived 23 September 2009 at the Wayback Machine Internationale Situationniste No. 5 (December 1960)
  25. ^ Nothing to talk about Archived 5 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine key, Halil Altindere and Sezgin Boynik (editors)
  26. ^ The Fifth SI Conference in Göteborg Archived 29 October 2010 at the Wayback Machine,[2] Archived 23 September 2009 at the Wayback Machine Internationale Situationniste No. 7 (April 1962)
  27. ^ Letter Archived 13 June 2010 at the Wayback Machine from Guy Debord and Uwe Lausen to the journal Vernissage, 15 March 1962
  28. ^ a b c d e (1963) The Counter-Situationist Campaign in Various Countries Archived 21 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine. Internationale Situationniste No. 8 (Paris, January 1963). Translated by Ken Knabb.
  29. Rodolphe Gasche
    (member of the Gruppe SPUR), 18 June 1962
  30. ^ Letter Archived 28 February 2021 at the Wayback Machine from Guy Debord To the Spur group, 28 April 1962
  31. .
  32. ^ Luther Blissett (2002) Guy Debord Is Really Dead Archived 13 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  33. .
  34. ^ .
  35. ^
    Stalinist
    and lightly post-Stalinist center along the way.

  36. ^ Lasn, Kalle (2000) Culture Jam. New York: Quill. Quotation:

    In May 1968, the Situationist-inspired Paris riots set off "a chain reaction of refusal" against consumer capitalism.

  37. ^ a b c d Bandini 1988, Preface to second edition

    L'I.S. diventa il detonatore, il reiferimento spesso taciuto per ragioni settarie, la fabbrica di metafore entrate nel linguaggio comune che ne ignora molto spesso l'esatto senso: e su tutte valga la metafora debordiana della nostra societa' come "societa' dello spettacolo.

  38. ^ Rivarol, 16 March 1984, quotation:

    the Situationist International, the political and revolutionary movement that was at the origin of the events of May 1968

  39. ^ Présent, 10 March 1984, quotation:

    ...the enragé Guy Debord, the leader of the situationists, the most nihilistic, the most destructive of the anarcho-surrealist movements, probably the principal promoter of subversion of 1968.

  40. ^ Babronski, Lamy, Brigouleix, France-Soir, 9 and 10 March 1984, quotation:

    the situationists, a movement of libertarian tendency that was one of the detonators of the May '68 events.

  41. ^ Guy Debord (August 2003). "Words and Bullets – The Condemned of the Lebovici Affair". NOT BORED!. Archived from the original on 25 July 2008. Retrieved 23 June 2008.. On May '68, it quotes Babronski et al. (1984)
  42. ^ The monthly magazine 20 Ans, June 1968 issue, quotation:

    The Situationist International is the vanguard of the student movement.

  43. ^ Rivarol, 3 May 1968, quotation:

    it has largely been forgotten that, as early as February, the riots at Nantes showed the real face of these 'situationists,' fifteen hundred students under red and black flags, the Hall of Justice occupied...

  44. ^ Atkins 1977
  45. ^ a b c d Anselm Jappe, 1999, p. 81.
  46. ^ Richard Gombin(1971).
  47. ^ Marie Luise Syring (1998) (editor) Um 1968: konkrete Utopien in Kunst und Gesellschaft, quotation:

    By far the greatest influence that the theory of art and aesthetics exercised upon the protest movement of students and left-wing intellectuals was in all likelihood that of the Situationists, something which practically nobody recalls today.

  48. ^ Demonet, Michel et al. (1975) Des Tracts en mai 68. Paris: Champ Libre, 1978.
  49. ^ Pascal Dumontier (1990) Les Situationnistes et mai 68: Théorie et la practique de la révolution (1966–1972). Paris: Gérard Lebovici.
  50. ^ Christine Fauré (1998) Mai 68: Jour et Nuit
  51. ^ De Gaulle, Televised speech of 7 June 1968. Quoted in René Viénet (1968) Enragés et situationnistes dans le mouvement des occupations (Paris: Gallimard)
  52. ^ a b René Viénet (1968) Enragés and Situationists in the Occupations Movement Archived 27 March 2008 at the Wayback Machine (Translated by Loren Goldner and Paul Sieveking, New York: Autonomedia, 1992), sec.1
  53. ^ Mustapha Khayati (November 1966)
  54. ^ a b c d The Beginning of an Era (part1 Archived 23 September 2009 at the Wayback Machine, part 2 Archived 23 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine) Situationist International No. 12, 1969
  55. ^ u2r2h (13 August 2010). "Complete (translated) texts". Tangibleinfo.blogspot.com. Archived from the original on 13 October 2013. Retrieved 11 October 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  56. ^ "Gianfranco Sanguinetti". Notbored.org. Archived from the original on 26 August 2013. Retrieved 11 October 2013.
  57. ^ "Preuves de l'inexistence de Censor". debordiana.chez.com. Archived from the original on 22 October 2020. Retrieved 27 February 2021.
  58. ^ Karen Elliot (1 June 2001). "Situationism in a nutshell". Barbelith Webzine. Archived from the original on 9 May 2008. Retrieved 23 June 2008.
  59. ^ Debord (1967) thesis 24
  60. ^ Brush (2005) pp. 377–8
  61. ^ Debord (1988) Comments on the Society of the Spectacle, II
  62. ^ Guy Debord (1967) Society of the Spectacle. (Paris, June 1967). Chapter I: Separation Perfected. Archived 20 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  63. ^ Debord (1957) pp. 2, 10
  64. ^ Robert Chasse, Bruce Elwell, Jonathon Horelick, Tony Verlaan. (1969) Faces of Recuperation Archived 20 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine. In the American section of the Situationist International, issue No. 1 (New York, June 1969).
  65. ^ a b Holt (2010) p. 252
  66. ^ Martin Kaste Exploring Occupy Wall Street's 'Adbuster' Origins Archived 15 December 2018 at the Wayback Machine, NPR, 20 October 2011
  67. ^ Marrone, Gianfranco (2005) Sensi alterati: droghe, musica, immagini Archived 13 April 2017 at the Wayback Machine, p. 45, quote:

    [...] gioco al coplotto, alla manipolazione dei media, alla beffa, alla "grande truffa," o al detournement—inventato dai situazionisti e ripreso dai punk—che appunto del situazionismo sono talvolta concreti continuatori. Pensiamo in questo senso al fin troppo noto caso, esagerato dai media, ma paradigmatico, del manager dei Sex Pistols, Malcom McClaren, a partire dal quale, nell'estate del 1977, si scateno', con grande scandalo, il lancio del gruppo dei Pistols in pieno Giubileo della regina, e l'interesse della stampa per la nascente scena punk. Tuttavia, anche in questo caso non-si tratta, come invece è stato spesso sostenuto, di freddo "gioco a tavolino", di cinismo, di furbo lancio di un prodotto da parte di chi aveva studiato i media e lavorava sulla guerriglia semiologica (cfr. Fabbri P. 2002, p. 40), di una tattica che sarebbe poi stata facilmente sfruttata e fatta propria da quel momento in avanti dall'industria culturale mainstream.

  68. ...
    l'Internazionale Situazionista si scioglie in quanto organizzazione. Durante questi anni, il movimento, caratterizzato da un'ideologia dell'estetico e del politico di matrice marxista e surrealista, produce una quantita' consistente di scritti teorici, opuscoli, libri, film e lavori artistici nel campo della pittura e della progettazione di interventi nella dimensione urbana. Di grande rilievo è il ruolo degli artisti, tra cui in particolare Asger Jorn, Constant e Pinot Gallizio;

  69. ^
    ...
    Fondamentale è la 'ricerca psicogeografica': studio delle leggi esatte e degli effetti precisi che l'ambiente geografico, coscientemente disposto o no, attua direttamente sul comportamento affettivo degli individui.

  70. ^ Richard Gombin (1971), chap. 3, quotation:

    the IS was to attempt an analysis of the modern world from the point of view of everyday life. ... The critique of everyday life is not intended to be purely an analysis; it is supposed to lead on to a revolutionary praxis. ... On SI analysis of consumerism: This process causes an accelerating degradation of everyday life.

  71. ^ a b Debord G.E. (1967) : thesis 6, 8, 10, 17, 19, 30, 37, 60, 68, 114, 134
  72. ^ Bandini 1988, Preface to second edition, quotation:

    [...] reagire all'avvilita condizione dell'uomo nel sistema capitalista.

  73. ^ Knabb, Ken, ed. (1995). Situationist International Anthology. Berkeley: Bureau of Public Secrets. p. 50.
  74. .
  75. .
  76. ^ Andreotti, Libero. "Play-Tactics of the "Internationale Situationniste""https://www.jstor.org/stable/779148Play-tactics of the Internationale Situationniste*(n.d.): 36–58. Jstor. The MIT Press, 2000. Web. 2015.
  77. ^ Gray, Christopher, ed. (1998). Leaving the 20th Century: the Incomplete Work of the Situationist International. London: Rebel P. p. 26.
  78. ^ McDonough, Tom, ed. (2004). Guy Debord and the Situationist International: Texts and Documents. Boston: October Press. p. 259.
  79. ^ Issues available at "situationist international archive". situationist international archive. Archived from the original on 3 May 2022. Retrieved 3 May 2022.
  80. ^ "Situationist International Anthology". www.bopsecrets.org. Archived from the original on 15 August 2006. Retrieved 12 August 2006.
  81. ^ Giorgio Agamben (1990), "Glosse in margine ai Commentari sulla societa dello spettacolo" in Debord 1990, pp. 233–250:

    On book Society of Spectacle: "l'analisi più lucida e severa delle miserie e della servitù di una società—quella dello spettacolo, in cui noi viviamo—che ha esteso oggi il suo dominio su tutto il pianeta

  82. ^ a b Richard Gombin (1971), chap. 3, quotation:

    The concept of revolution created by the Situationist International is that of total contestation of modern capitalism.

  83. ^ a b Guy Debord (1961) Perspectives for Conscious Changes in Everyday Life Archived 21 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine. This work was originally presented by tape recording 17 May 1961 at a conference of the Group for Research on Everyday Life convened in Paris by Henri Lefebvre. Its first print appearance was in Internationale Situationniste No. 6 (Paris, August 1961).
  84. ^ a b Editorial Notes Archived 4 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine, Internationale Situationniste No. 8, 1963.
  85. ^ a b Bandini 1988, Preface to second edition

    Non a caso l'I.S. sorge ed e' coeva alla denuncia dello Stalinismo.

  86. ^ Das Kapital, entry sentence, p. 125: "The wealth of societies in which the capitalist mode of production prevails appears as an 'immense collection of commodities'"
  87. ^ "The whole life of those societies in which modern conditions of production prevail presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles." Debord G.E. (1967), thesis 1st.
  88. ^ Debord G.E. (1967) : thesis 17, 42
  89. ^ Giorgio Agamben, 1989
  90. ^ Debord G.E. (1967) : thesis 6, 34
  91. ^ Debord G.E. (1967) : thesis 24
  92. ^ Debord G.E. (1967) : thesis 25, 192
  93. ^ Guy Debord letter Archived 26 November 2010 at the Wayback Machine to Italian section of the SI in Milan and to Mario Perniola in Rome, 12 March 1969
  94. ^ Guy Debord letter Archived 26 November 2010 at the Wayback Machine to Paolo Salvadori 9 December [19]69
  95. ^ Guy Debord letter Archived 26 November 2010 at the Wayback Machine To all the sections of the SI, [17 March 1970]
  96. ^ Guy Debord letter Archived 26 November 2010 at the Wayback Machine To Rene Vienet, Wednesday 30 July [19]69
  97. ^ Situationist International (9 December 1966). "The Beginning of an Era". Bopsecrets.org. Archived from the original on 13 December 2013. Retrieved 11 October 2013.
  98. ^ Greil Marcus The long walk of the Situationist International in McDonough (2004), Guy Debord and the Situationist International
  99. ^ "A Short Guide to the Anglo-American Situationist Image". Archived from the original on 30 October 2019. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  100. ^ Debord (1967) The Society of the Spectacle, chap. 4 The Proletariat as Subject and as Representation, theses 92-4
  101. ^ Riesel, René Preliminaries on Councils and Councilist Organization Archived 31 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine, International Situationniste No. 12 (September 1969)
  102. ^ Ken Knabb (28 October 1980). "The Joy of Revolution (chap. 2)". Bopsecrets.org. Archived from the original on 29 June 2013. Retrieved 11 October 2013.
  103. ^ a b Clark and Nicholson-Smith (Spring 1997), response to Peter Wollen (March–April 1989). Quotation:

    So far as Wollen is concerned, the anger was provoked by his essay on the history of the SI, and specifically his three-sentence treatment of the organization in its last decade. We think he should look again at these sentences (which conclude some thirty pages of discussion of the SI's place in modern art), and ask himself whether they are not lofty, contemptuous, and dismissive. That's how they read to us. They seem to epitomize—and, in view of their publication history, to enshrine—a certain effort to turn the SI safely into an art movement, and thereby to minimize its role in the political and social movements of the sixties. Like Wollen, presumably, we think that those up-heavals are of much more than historical interest, and every day they are traduced and trivialized by the culture industry. Much is at stake, therefore. We wanted to denounce a loose conspirancy of silence and misrepresentation which has been the response of a portion of the Left to the challenge that the SI poses to their model of political action.

  104. ^ a b Ken Knabb (2006) SI Anthology, Bibliography – Books about the SI – In English, p. 498
  105. ^ Mario Lippolis (2000) Notizie su Asger Jorn, situazionista iperpolitico in Jorn 2000
  106. ^ Mario Lippolis (2000) Un dialogo tra vandali civilizzatori nello sfacelo dell'impero della merce in Jorn 2000
  107. ^ Chaz Bufe. "Listen Anarchist!". See Sharp Press. Archived from the original on 23 November 2012. Retrieved 23 June 2008.
  108. ^ Gibbons, Andrea (30 November 2015). "Salvaging Situationism: Race and Space | Salvage". salvage.zone. Salvage. Archived from the original on 10 May 2018. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
  109. ^
    ISBN 978-0-9514417-3-2 English edition of Guy Debord è morto davvero Archived 25 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  110. ^ Derrida (2002) Q&A session at Film Forum pp. 116–7 quote:

    I think you probably know that his work [Debord's] is read now more than when he was alive. At least that's the case in France. I don't know if he's read in the States, but in France he's read as presenting a precise critique and political analysis of the media, of the becoming-spectacle, the exploitation of the 'show' in politics and in the media, and television. What's interesting is that in France people, especially the writers or the intellectuals who are often asked to appear on TV—sometimes almost every day—they [reflexively] mention Guy Debord as their master, and I hate this! So I never quote Debord when I'm on TV, and I'm almost never on TV—so I guess that's how, in my way, I'm true to Debord.

  111. from the original on 24 January 2018. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  112. ^ a b Lang, Daniel (May 2007). ""Give Us the Dumpsters -Or- Give Us Life": Res Derilictae and the Trash of Free Trade". Cultural Recycling. 3 (1). Archived from the original on 28 September 2008. Retrieved 3 October 2008.
  113. ^ "Le Retour de la Colonne Durutti". Cerysmatic Factory. Archived from the original on 25 July 2008. Retrieved 23 October 2007.
  114. ^ Nehring, Neil (December 2006). "The Situationist International in American Hardcore Punk, 1982–2002". Popular Music & Society.
  115. ^ Russian anti Putin punk band
  116. ^ Vander Molen, Jodi, Jello Biafra Interview Archived 25 June 2006 at the Wayback Machine The Progressive Retrieved 21 March 2022
  117. ^ "The Secret Stairs: YNAPMOK – Deconstructing the Badaud". Issuu. 20 November 2018. Archived from the original on 24 April 2019. Retrieved 24 December 2018.
  118. ^ "YNAPMOK: An Installation". The Unilalia Group. Archived from the original on 24 December 2018. Retrieved 24 December 2018.

References


Further reading

External links