Fig. 1. Image from the 15 December 1952 issue of LIFE magazine, later used for the front cover of the 1983 edition of Debord’s Society of the Spectacle.
Katherine Tynan
The ‘spectacle’ as defined by Guy Debord meant that all human relations were mediated by images from the mass media, driven towards controlling our activities and consciousness. (1967, p. 7). This conceptualisation was the driving force in the Situationist International’s (SI) critique of contemporary society—but how can we evaluate how successful was it? This essay focuses on the experimental practices that the SI employed during their active years between 1957-1972, and the extent to which these practices provided a successful challenge to the society of the spectacle. First I will assess their concept of psychogeographical exploration (dérive) as a critique of urban geography by looking at its origins, influences and practice of mapping. Then I will evaluate détournement’s ability to provide a critique of mass media as a product of industrial capitalist society. To conclude the analysis I will look at their ideas on the construction of situations and search for a unitary urbanism. The analysis assesses the methods they used with respect to their theoretical arguments and ultimately argues that these practices are not merely confined within the theoretical realm, but succeeded in providing a new form of critical practice.
The concept of the ‘spectacle’ was presented in Debord’s seminal text, comprising of 221 theses analysing and critiquing spectacular society. In the same year, The Revolution of Everyday Life by Raoul Vaneigem (1967) was also published and together, these would become known as the two key texts representative of the revolutionary and political ideas of the SI. Appearing five years before its dissolution, both these texts draw on their years of experimentation and debate, as well as the previous work of the Letterist International (LI), the International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus and the London Psychogeographical Association (LPA), who would merge to form the SI. The methods championed by the SI were neither new nor original ideas, but it is their theorisation through publication, particularly in their respective journals, which have enabled these practices to remain pertinent to discussing cities today.
Psychogeographical Exploration
The SI’s critique of the modern city was formed upon the concern that its inhabitants’ experience of the city was no longer ‘directly lived’ but mediated by the spectacle (Debord, 1967, p. 7). The development of a contemporary society dominated by capitalist production had resulted in free-thinking becoming stifled by opinions imposed by advertising campaigns and other mass media communications. Furthermore, the stage had been reached where the spectacle that had infiltrated all aspects of everyday life (Debord, 1967, p. 21). The notion of the spectacle was developed from the ideas discussed in Marx’s Das Kapital, regarding the commodification of society in the way in which people (the consumers) had become dominated and controlled by commodities (Plant, 1992, p. 11). Debord uses the term ‘spectacle’ to develop these ideas with respect to the negative elements of these advancements in technology which consumerised everyday life.
Fig. 2.The Naked City, 1957.
‘Psychogeography’ was defined by Debord as ‘the study of precise laws and the specific effects of the geographic milieu, consciously planned or not, acting directly on the affective comportment of individuals’ (Knabb, 1981, p. 5). It was the direct emotional effects of the city, within the context of Paris, which initiated the SI’s line of enquiry at the time of their formation. Ivan Chtcheglov’s ‘Formulary for a New Urbanism’, is perhaps the first text in which ‘dérive’ is first proposed as the practical means of carrying out a psychogeographical study of the city (Knabb, 1981, p.1-4). Moreover, Debord explains this as a ‘technique of rapid passage through varied ambiances’, and this method of drifting through the city without a pre- determined motive was an attempt to reveal its ‘true spirit’ (Knabb, 1981, p. 24). Led by the participants’ feelings of attraction or repulsion of different areas, this data was to be analysed against a study of the terrain of the city. Subsequently, this aimed to present a new reading of the city, shaped by unexpected encounters rather than dictated by routes of habit.
The theme of urban wandering was not original to the SI or the LI before them but has been a key theme in literature and art over the past century. Undoubtedly influence was drawn from the explorations undertaken by the Dadaists and Surrealists which the Letterists later criticised for concentrating too much on chance and the subconscious, rather than the social conditions of the city. Further still, influence can be drawn from the flâneur, a term popularised by Walter Benjamin through his analysis of Charles Baudelaire’s work, particularly ‘The Painter of Modern Life’ which became the emblem of modern man in the nineteenth century (Coverley, 2010, p. 50). Flânerie describes the practice of strolling without a purpose, the flâneur being a man of leisure who wandered the streets of Paris (Coverley, 2010, p. 62). For Benjamin, the flâneur became a symbol of the alienation of the city, whose demise would come with the succession of consumer capitalism (Coverley, 2010, p. 64). This predicts the later concern with consumerist influences on the city-goer, where the observer as an individual of original thought no longer exists. Furthermore, Debord recognised Thomas de Quincey as the precursor of the dérive, his 1821 Confessions of an English Opium-Eater had detailed his wanderings through the labyrinthine streets of London (Sadler, 1998, p. 75) which were referenced in (1959) Internationale Situationniste #3. It is these literary references that engage with the idea of the urban wanderer as both psychological analyst and city surveyor, that can be directly translated into the psychogeographic work of the SI.
Fig. 3. Fin de Copenhague, 1957.
The data collected from the dérives and other psychogeographic investigations were to be synthesised primarily in the form of mapping. Far from the traditional mapping to date, Debord’s ‘Psychogeographic guide to Paris’ and ‘The Naked City’ (Fig. 3), aimed to chart the psychological effects of his dérive explorations and urged others to implement similar means. ‘The Naked City ‘was created from the Plan of Paris, cut up into nineteen parts and rearranged into a new kind of map shaped by the social and cultural forces experienced (Pinder, 1996, p. 420). Arrows connect the cuttings, larger ones symbolising the paths of greater attraction, pulling the fragments together like a magnetic field. Paul Henry Chombart de Lauwe’s work provided inspiration for the SI’s psychogeographic maps, in his view of the city divided into quarters which were distinguished by boundaries perceived by its inhabitants (McDonough, 2009, p. 77). Moreover, his study of a student’s route to university over the course of a year, drew attention to the concentrated area within which an individual experiences the city and so further influencing the SI’s appeal for people to become urban explorers. Graphically, their representations sought to both publish the emotional findings of their explorations as well as emphasise the limitations of using a map to understand the city. Furthermore, this was an attempt to challenge the way in which maps present a ‘god’s eye’ view of a place; highlighting them as images created by people and arguing that often elements are emphasised or suppressed to impose political opinion (Pinder, 1996, p.409). The SI wanted people to explore the city on their own terms, uninfluenced by these forms of communication and based on their own feelings and emotions.
The method of dérive aimed to investigate the existing conditions of the city on the premise of informing hypotheses for a new architecture. This provided a basis upon which to establish their concrete interventions within the urban environment, through discovering the overlooked aspects of the city, and so directly addressing the social issues that need to be improved. When evaluating the extent of the SI’s success in challenging the society of the spectacle, there are some limitations due to the lack of material produced. Their seemingly contradictory use of mapping to record their investigations as well as argue the map as a political tool, further reinforces their concern with people’s view of the city being imposed upon them rather than resulting from experience. Ultimately, the success of the SI’s practice of dérive lies in its establishment of a critical methodology by exploring their theoretical position through direct experience of the city.
Détournement
Within the inaugural publication of Internationale Situationniste, a list of definitions give a clear summary of the SI’s theoretical framework at its foundation. Here,‘détournement’ is defined as ‘The integration of present or past artistic productions into a superior construction of a milieu,’ therefore proposing a creative practice which uses or appropriates existing material, in order to create something new (Knabb, 1981, p. 45). Furthermore, in ‘Methods of Détournement’, Debord and Gil J.Wolman suggests the more appropriate materials which could be ‘détourned’, stating that whilst everything has the possibility of being used for this aim, the détournement of novels is potentially more difficult whereas the medium of film could be used to great effect (Knabb, 1981, p. 8-14). This is due to their critique of cinema as a product of industrial capitalist society, therefore arguing that this form of détournement is made possible due to its very existence (Hayes, 2017, p. 102). This seemingly contradictory notion is played upon by the SI, to form a critique by using existing materials in order to draw direct attention to that which they are challenging. For example, the SI deemed it necessary to both abolish and realise art in order to surpass it (Hayes, 2017, p. 213); destroying its current meaning and imbuing it with a new, improved version. This experimental use of existing materials raised questions due to the new context in which the material was being viewed. In turn, this was similar to the dérive in its use of existing parts of the city that had been neglected or overlooked, in an attempt to connect these fragments and challenge the way in which we view our urban environment.
Fig. 4.The Disquieting Duckling, 1959.
Lautréamont (pseudonym of Isidore Ducasse) was recognised as the predecessor to détournement and was a major influence on the SI, with his open use of plagiarism, ‘Plagiarism is necessary. It is implied in the idea of progress.’ Debord plagiarised this phrase in his 207th thesis, stating that progress depends on plagiarism (Debord,1967). Debord and Jorn collaborated on two books together, compiled of found imagery and text from magazines and newspapers, collaged together and then splattered with ink from a great height. The news stand which the papers were stolen from, was seen as a symbol of propaganda that projects the spectacle upon the world, which people then perceive to be reality (Nolle, 2002). ‘Fin de Copenhague’ (Fig. 4) attempts to give a true reading of Copenhagen, a kind of psychogeographical map with all the fragments presented rather than a single, controlled and selective view. The second book, Mémoires published two years later, used the same technique but was based on Debord’s early psychogeographic studies and other works seen as significant in the founding of the SI; a kind of scrapbook diary that recorded the earlier years. This alternative account of history provided a disorientating and fragmented reading, an attempt to record the works of the SI in a way that avoids its memorialisation as another avant-garde group (Stracey, 2014, p. 21). This preoccupied Debord, who recognised the importance in capturing the SI’s theories within published works without wanting them to be later remembered as purely theoreticians rather than practitioners (Hayes, 2017, p. 105). In addition, Jorn embarked on his on experimentation in détournement through the medium of painting, buying traditional pieces and painting abstract imagery over them in order to give them new meaning.
Fig. 5. Retour a la Normal, 1968.
Named ‘modifications’ (Fig. 4), these seemingly vandalised artworks sought to create unexpected and accidental results (Ford, 2005, p. 66) in order to challenge the viewer to questions what they are observing. Debord also continued to explore détournement within film, as a means to criticise the way in which the medium itself was being used to the benefit of consumerism and therefore enhancing the presence of the spectacle. Détournement was utilised within his films, mostly through the use of clips from existing films and some text from other authors although most the script was written himself. Another method he used was the juxtaposition of narrative to the imagery on screen, a visual disconnect in order to challenge the meaning or the purpose of the film (Ford, 2005, p. 79). These methods challenged the viewer to react, rather than passively observe these artworks and films, critiquing the way in which mass media presents products to its consumers.
The SI emphatically rejected détournement as a purely theoretical approach and emphasised the concrete realisation of their hypotheses as vital to their programme (Hayes, p.105). Similarly, this bears relation to their rejection of the term ‘situationism’, as a ‘meaningless term’ which wrongly implies that the SI’s agenda only focused on the existing conditions. The May 1968 Paris protests showed the extent to which the SI’s ideas and theories had successfully disseminated the wider public and helped to mobilise students who wished to challenge the establishment. Here, détournement was used to great effect to use capitalist slogans and advertising imagery upon their posters and signs as a statement of subversion (Ford, 2005, p. 125). Moreover, détournement was successful in challenging the society of the spectacle through its direct use of materials which they deemed products of the capitalist forces which they were criticising. In terms of communicating the SI’s critique, détournement was more successful than dérive due to the larger production of material, which had a wider appeal to the public audience through the medium of both art and film. Like dérive, détournement also set up a methodology to explore the existing elements of the city that had been neglected, not as a historical record but in order to highlight its problems.
The Construction of Situations
A critique of urbanism was first set out by the LI as an aim for ‘unitary urbanism’, which would become the major concern of the SI. Wolman defined unitary urbanism as ‘the synthesis … incorporating arts and technology—in accordance with new values of life’ (Knabb, 1981, p.15), this integration of art and technology into everyday life was seen as the means with which society would continually experiment and adapt to provide for the needs of its inhabitants. Moreover, this provided a critique of the urban environment through re-addressing and re-using existing elements without dismissing them completely and starting anew. The practice of experimenting and exploring these existing elements through the dérive and détournement was an attempt to unify the existing fabric of the city: the ‘unitary’ approach opposed the fragmentary nature of urbanism which they believed to typify that dominance of capitalism (Hayes, 2017, p. 125).
Fig. 6. Poster, n.d.
Experimentation became concrete practice through the constructing of situations, defined as ‘a moment of life concretely and deliberately constructed by the collective organization of a unitary ambiance and a game of events’ (Knabb, 1981, p.45). The construction of situations were to be the main form of practice for the SI, indeed they defined a Situationist as ‘one who engages in the construction of situations’ (Knabb, 1981, p.45). The experimental explorations of dérive and détournement sought to inform their practical interventions and thus giving a basis to their constructed situations with the ultimate goal of achieving unitary urbanism.
Conclusion
The methods employed by the SI were not original ideas, however the publication of their work has ensured that we are able to review and critique their theories today.The value of the experimental practices of the SI lie in their established process of continual critique, through theory as well as exploration in order to support their hypotheses. Both the methods of dérive and détournement attempted to ultimately challenge the way it which people perceive the city and make them critical observers of their own environment. They realised that it was not only a constant critique in a negative sense: updating ideas to make the discussion relevant as a process of self-critique was also important.The SI’s unitary urbanism was not a conception of the totality, or intended to become one.This must be taken into account when measuring their success, which should not look to conclude whether they fulfilled their aims but rather review their methods as critical practices to insight change. Unitary urbanism was an instrument and it is this process of self-critique that the SI theorised and emphasised that makes their experimental practices successful in challenging the status quo of contemporary society.
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List of Figures
1. Eyerman, 1952. Full frame of movie audience wearing special 3D glasses to view film Bwana Devil which was shot with new “natural vision” 3 dimensional technology. [photograph] Available at: https://aphelis.net/ cover-debord-society-spectacle/ [Accessed 13 April 2018].
2. Debord, G., 1957.The Naked City. [image online] Available at: https://paulwalshphotographyblog. wordpress.com/2013/07/08/the-naked-city/ [Accessed 11 April 2018].
3. Debord, G., and Jorn,A., 1957. Fin de Copenhague. [image online] Available at: https://situationnisteblog. wordpress.com/2015/11/24/fin-de-copenhague-1957/ [Accessed 10 April 2018].
4. Jorn,A., 1959.The Disquieting Duckling. [painting] Available at: http://www.smk.dk/en/visit-the-museum/ exhibitions/asger-jorn-restless-rebel/immerse-yourself-in-jorn/1957-1961/ [Accessed 20 April 2018].
5. Anon., 1968. Retour a la Normal. [image online] Available at: https://www.theparisreview.org/ blog/2011/10/06/posters-from-paris-1968/ [Accessed 13 April 2018].
6. Anon., n.d. My thoughts have been replaced by moving images. [image online] Available at: http://www. notbored.org/yet.html [Accessed 13 April 2018].
New Minds Eye 