Situationism

Tentative Andy

Tentative Andy

I'm in the Meal Deal
Where would be a good place to start reading up on this? Society of the Spectacle? Or is there a better work in terms of an introduction?

If people want, this can also be a thread for debating the pros/cons of it as a political philosophy, but obv I can't contribute anything to that yet. ;)
 
vimothy

vimothy

yurp
Bureau of Public Secrets anthology; Revolution of Everyday Life.; SoS, probably in that order. Greil Marcus and Sadie Plant's books are both worth reading as well.
 
Tentative Andy

Tentative Andy

I'm in the Meal Deal
Cool, that's the sort of advice I'm looking for. Been meaning to read stuff by Greil Marcus for a while actually.
See this is why I like it here, people just know so much stuff. :D
 
vimothy

vimothy

yurp
Well, I don't know about that. But anyway, Lipstick Traces might be the best -- the gentlest -- introduction, although see perhaps this note by Ken Knabb.
 
john eden

john eden

male pale and stale
I still think the best introductions are the little "Spectacular Times" booklets put out by Larry Law.

Vaneigem is more readable than Debord. The "on the poverty of student life" pamphlet is also good.

Oh yes, and this: http://uncarved.org/turb/articles/formulary.html

Knabb's SI Anthology is brick-like but essential - I think it's really important to look at texts from people who are NOT Debord.

There is a lot of it all and I haven't read Plant's book or any of the recent biographies.

I would also recommend Stewart Home's "Assault on Culture" for a broad (and sectarian) overview of movements like Fluxus, the Lettrists, and other stuff.
 
Z

zhao

there are no accidents
this is the most complete collection of texts in one place, no? but i would probably skip the bits on art criticism...

the_situationist_international_anthology.jpg


TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface / ix
PRE-S.I. TEXTS
Formulary for a New Urbanism (Chtcheglov, 1953) / 1
Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography (Debord, 1955) / 5
Methods of Detournement (Debord & Wolman, 1956) / 8
The Alba Platform (Lettrist International, 1956) / 14
Notes on the Formation of an Imaginist Bauhaus (Jorn, 1957) / 16
Report of the Construction of Situations and on the International Situationist Tendency's Conditions of Organization and Action (Debord, 1957)* / 17

SOUNDTRACKS OF TWO FILMS BY GUY DEBORD
On the Passage of a Few Persons Through a Rather Brief Period of Time (1959) / 29
Critique of Seperation (1961) / 34

FRENCH S.I. JOURNALS
#1 (1958)

The Sound and the Fury / 41
Preliminary Problems in Constructing a Situation / 43
Definitions / 45
The Situationists and Automation (Jorn)* / 46
No Useless Leniency (Bernstein)* / 47
Action in Belgium Against the International Assembly of Art Critics / 48

#2 (1958)

Theory of the Derive (Debord) / 50

#3 (1959)

Detournement as Negation and Prelude / 55
Situationist Theses on Traffic (Debord) / 56

#4 (1960)

Gangland and Philosophy (Kotanyi)* / 59

#5 (1960)

The Adventure* / 60
The Fourth SI Conference in London* / 61

#6 (1961)

Instructions for Taking Up Arms / 63
Elementary Program of the Bureau of Unitary Urbanism (Kotanyi & Vaneigem) / 65
Perspectives for Conscious Alterations in Everyday Life (Debord) / 68

#7 (1962)

Geopolitics of Hibernation / 76
The Bad Days Will End / 82
The Fifth SI Conference in Goteborg* / 88
Basic Banalities (I) (Vaneigem) / 89

#8 (1963)

Ideologies, Classes and the Domination of Nature* / 101
The Avant-Garde of Presence* / 109
The Countersituationist Campaign in Various Countries* / 111
All the King's Men / 114
Basic Banalities (II) (Vaneigem) / 118
Situationist International Anti-Public Relations Service / 134

#9 (1964)

Now, the SI / 135
Questionnaire / 138
Response to a Questionnaire from the Center for Socio-Experimental Art / 143

#10 (1966)

Address to Revolutionaries of Algeria and of All Countries / 148
The Decline and Fall of the Spectacle-Commodity Economy / 153
The Class Struggles in Algeria / 160
Some Theoretical Questions To Be Treated Without Academic Debate or Speculation (Vaneigem) / 168
Captive Words: Preface to a Situationist Dictionary (Khayati) / 170
The Role of Godard / 175
The Ideology of Dialogue / 177
Interview with an Imbecile / 179
The Algeria of Daniel Guerin, Libertarian / 181
Domenach Against Alienation* / 183

#11 (1967)

The Explosion Point of Ideology in China / 185
Two Local Wars / 194
Our Goals and Methods in the Strasbourg Scandal / 204
The Situationists and the New Forms of Action Against Politics and Art (Vienet) / 213
To Have as Goal Practical Truth (Vaneigem) / 216
Contributions Toward Rectifying Public Opinion Concerning Revolution in the Underdeveloped Countries (Khayati) / 219
Minimum Definition of Revolutionary Organizations / 223
Six Postscripts to the Previous Issue* /224

#12

The Beginning of an Era / 225
Reform and Counterreform in Bureaucratic Power / 256
How Not To Understand Situationist Books* / 265
Preliminaries on the Councils and Councilist Organization (Riesel) / 270
Notice to the Civilized Concerning Generalized Self-Management (Vaneigem) / 283
The Conquest of Space in the Time of Power (Rothe) / 290
The Latest Exclusions* / 293
Maitron the Historian* / 295
The Elite and the Backward* / 296
Cinema and Revolution / 297
The Organization Question for the SI (Debord) / 298

MISCELLANEOUS S.I. PUBLICATIONS
Preliminaries Toward Defining a Unitary Revolutionary Program (Canjuers & Debord, 1960) / 305
For a Revolutionary Judgment of Art (Debord, 1961) / 310
Theses on the Paris Commune (Debord, Kotanyi & Vaneigem, 1962) / 314
The Situationists and the New Forms of Action in Politics and Art (Debord, 1963)* / 317
On the Poverty of Student Life (1966) / 319
Untitled programatic statements (1965 & 1969) / 337

MAY 1968 DOCUMENTS
Communique (Sorbonne Occupation Committee) / 343
Watch Out for Manipulators! Watch Out for Bureaucrats! (SOC) / 343
Slogans To Be Spread Now by Every Means (SOC) / 344
Telegrams (SOC) / 345
Report on the Occupation of the Sorbonne (CMDO) / 346
For the Power of the Workers Councils (CMDO) / 349
Address to All Workers (CMDO) / 350

INTERNAL S.I. TEXTS
Provisional Statutes of the SI (1969) / 355
Provisional Theses for the Discussion of the New Theoretico-Practical Orientations in the SI (Salvadori, 1970)* / 357
Remarks on the SI Today (Debord, 1970)* / 361
Declaration (Debord, Riesel & Vienet, 1970) / 366
Untitled text (Debord, 1971)* / 368
 
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D

dubble-u-c

Dorkus Maximus
I found this critique of the SI interesting:
source:
http://deoxy.org/rst.htm

...."The Situationist International (1958-1971) was an organization of theoretically oriented, ultra-left, European (especially French) marxists. Many believe, as did the original author(s) of this essay, that the situationists "made an immense contribution to revolutionary theory." That evaluation is, however, overly generous. Virtually all of the key insights attributed to situationist writers can be found in the works of earlier anarchists, social democrats, and philosphers such as Alexander Berkman, Emma Goldman, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, Wilhelm Reich and Friedrich Nietzsche (though the insights in question were scattered and often were not developed with the rigor found in the better situationist texts). The primary reason that this is not widely recognized is that most of the early situationists and their followers came from marxist backgrounds and were simply not familiar with the vast body of non-marxist progressive writings produced in prior decades; and the younger situationist followers often have had very little in the way of political experience and are as unfamiliar with early progressive literature as were their marxist predecessors.

A secondary reason for the overestimation of the importance of the situationists is that situationism is a French ideology utilizing an arcane marxist-derived jargon ('poverty of...,' 'society of the spectacle,' 'reification,' 'dialectical,' etc., etc.); as well, virtually all situationist texts are written in a very difficult to follow, jargon-ridden, muddy style--which makes them inaccessible to most people. Thus, situationism has a great deal of snob appeal for those with intellectual pretensions. Once you've mastered the jargon and read (or claim to have read) the key (one is tempted to say "sacred") texts, you certainly at least appear to be an intellectual. Thus it's not surprising that "situationist" poseurs, 1atched as they are to their "situationist" roles and "intellectual" pretensions, often have little regard for truth and regard decent human behavior as "bourgeois"; it follows, then, that in political controversies they often resort to deliberate distortions, fabrications, and ad hominem attacks upon those who have the temerity to criticize their ideas. (Some, incredibly, have even used the slogan, 'the personal is political,' as an excuse for scurrilous personal attacks.) The destructive-and ultimately self~defeating~effects of these vicious tactics are so obvious as to need no further comment.

But perhaps the most critical~weakness of situationism is that it offers no coherent method for "getting from here to there," that is, from "the society of the spectacle" to the free society.

Having said this, it should be added that the great virtue of the situationist writers was that they presented their insights in a more or less coherent manner and expounded upon them at length. (The qualifer "more or less" is used due to the very low quality, stylistically, of almost all situationist texts.) At its best, situationist theory offered a critique of "spectacular" society, that is, society in which people are reduced to the level of passive observers and consumers rather than active participants. It made an extensive critique of how both ideology and commodification turn people into passive, alienated observers of their own lives. Thus, situationist theory is a body of critical thought which can be incorporated into one's own self-theory--but nothing more. Anything more--the unquestioning acceptance of situationist theories and the identification of oneself with those theories--is the ideological misappropriation known as situationism. Situationism can be quite the complete survival ideology, a defense against the wear and tear of daily life. And included in the ideology is the spectacular role of being a "situationist," that is, a radical jade and ardent esoteric. " ....
 
Agent

Agent

dgaf ngaf cgaf
I've been meaning to check out McKenzie Wark's new book "50 Years of Recuperation of the SI". Has anyone read this? It came out this year. Wark is one of my favorites

I was introduced to SI via a biography published by Feral House. Can't remember the author but i think the title is "Guy Debord: Revolutionary." Definitely worth checking out for political/social contexts.
 
john eden

john eden

male pale and stale
The critique is pretty good (there cannot be enough of them...)

A few points - the language thing is undoubtedly an issue - the blame for which lies with the english translators rather than the S.I. Some of the translators can obviously be criticised for being over-intellectual and fascinated with the exotic french dudes.

But the language of the SI texts is something I personally find very evocative - and of course some of the slogans (esp. Paris 68 grafitti) have really caught on ("our ideas are already in everyone's heads")

The issue with SI ideas not being original is a non-starter for me - I don't care about originality, I like hearing the 638th version of "sleng teng" if it is done well enough and is produced at the right time. The same is true of political interventions. There is probably an issue with the SI not acknowledging its influences tho - Debord was knocking around with Socialism ou Barbarie for a few years and seems to have taken some stuff from them also.

The sectarianism is fair enough and this is well documented in the SI itself - Ralph Rumney being expelled for handing in a derive report late - because his child had just been born. I seem to recall that a lot of this is documented in Luther Blissett's "Guy Debord is Really Dead" which is probably online.

Stewart Home's "Situationism: A Reader" includes a lot of critical texts also.

I would also be interested in any comments or reviews of the "50 years of recuperation" book as this is the first I have heard of it...
 
P

PeteUM

It's all grist
Yeah that Assault On Culture book Mr Eden mentions isn't too challenging and is still available at Stewart Home's website both as an online version and a hard copy to purchase.
 
D

dubble-u-c

Dorkus Maximus
john eden said:
<i>The critique is pretty good (there cannot be enough of them...)

A few points - the language thing is undoubtedly an issue - the blame for which lies with the english translators rather than the S.I. Some of the translators can obviously be criticised for being over-intellectual and fascinated with the exotic french dudes.

But the language of the SI texts is something I personally find very evocative - and of course some of the slogans (esp. Paris 68 grafitti) have really caught on ("our ideas are already in everyone's heads")
</i>
Click to expand...

I agree.
I love the graffiti and slogans from Paris's 68. It would be interesting to research whether or not a similarly evocative and creative approach to slogans and graffiti was used in Greece recently.

When I started reading the essay which contains the critique I thought i was reading a situationist derived text. The essay goes on to critique syndicalism as well but posits that both schools of thought are closest to the theory advocated by essay which is a "revolutionary self-theory" .
 
mos dan

mos dan

fact music
john eden said:
I still think the best introductions are the little "Spectacular Times" booklets put out by Larry Law.

Vaneigem is more readable than Debord. The "on the poverty of student life" pamphlet is also good.
Click to expand...

i finally bought society of the spectacle recently and it does seem a bit heavy going - maybe i'll give those booklets a go if i can find them :)

just found out the other day my mate was taught by stewart home for her m.a., as it goes.
 
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