Guy Debord And The Situationist International

Critical texts, translations, documents, and photographs on the work of the Situationist International. This volume is a revised and expanded version of a special issue of the journal October (Winter 1997) that was devoted to the work of the Situationist International (SI). The first section of the issue contained previously unpublished critical texts, and the second section contained translations of primary texts that had previously been unavailable in English. The emphasis was on the SI's profound engagement with the art and cultural politics of their time (1957-1972), with a strong argument for their primarily political and activist stance by two former members of the group, T. J. Clark and Donald Nicholson-Smith. Guy Debord and the Situationist International supplements both sections. It reprints important, hard to find essays by Giorgio Agamben, Libero Andreotti, Jonathan Crary, Thomas Y. Levin, Greil Marcus, and Tom McDonough and doubles the number of translations of primary texts, which now encompass a broader and more representative range of the SI's writings on culture and language. In a field still dominated by hagiography, the critical texts were selected for their willingness to confront critically the history and legacy of the SI. They examine the group within the broader framework of the historical and neo-avant-gardes and, beyond that, the postwar world in general. The translations trace the SI's reflections on the legacy of the avant-garde in art and architecture, particularly on the linguistic and spatial significance of montage aesthetics. Many of the translated works are by Guy Debord (1932-1994), the impresario of the SI, especially known for his book The Society of the Spectacle.

Guy Debord, the Situationist International, and the Revolutionary Spirit presents a history of the two avant-garde groups that French filmmaker and subversive strategist Guy Debord founded and led: the Lettrist International (1952-1957) and the Situationist International (1957-1972).

The Das Kapital of the 20th century,Society of the Spectacle is an essential text, and the main theoretical work of the Situationists. Few works of political and cultural theory have been as enduringly provocative. From its publication amid the social upheavals of the 1960's, in particular the May 1968 uprisings in France, up to the present day, with global capitalism seemingly staggering around in it’s Zombie end-phase, the volatile theses of this book have decisively transformed debates on the shape of modernity, capitalism, and everyday life in the late 20th century. This ‘Red and Black’ translation from 1977 is Introduced by Notting Hill armchair insurrectionary Tom Vague with a galloping time line and pop-situ verve, and given a more analytical over view by young upstart thinker Sam Cooper.

Spectacle is usually considered a superficial form of politics, which tries to distract and deceive a passive audience. It is difficult to see how this type of politics could be reconciled with the democratic requirement of active and informed agency. Rethinking the Spectacle re-examines the tension between spectacle and political agency using the ideas and practices of Guy Debord and the Situationist International as a point of departure. Drawing on radical democratic theory and examining case studies such as the 2011 Occupy movement, Devin Penner concludes that spectacle can and should be used to mobilize the public for egalitarian purposes.

After Guy Debord’s seminal Society of the Spectacle, this new compendium brings together eight other important situationist works. Ivan Chtcheglov opens proceedings via his Formulary for a New Urbanism (1953), with it’s quasi-mythical demand that resonated down through generations: “The hacienda must be built”, followed by two brief but illuminating pieces from Asger Jorn, who’s sandpaper book cover later turned up under the same Factory Records roof as Manchesters’ own Hacienda, on the Durrtti Column’s "Return of the Durrutti Column" ( the title itself lifted from Andre Bertrand's détourned pro-situ comic strip). Debord’s The Decline and Fall of the Spectacle-Commodity Economy-was an immediate, razor sharp response to the LA/Watts Riots of 1965, it’s analysis of the relationship between the rioter and the meaningless, unaffordable commodities they loot or destroy resonating heavily today. Tunisian situationist Mustapha Khayati contributes Address to Revolutionaries of Algeria and of All Countries and the game changing “On the Poverty of Student Life”, the match that arguably lit the fires of May 68’. Raoul Vaneigem's The Revolution of Everyday Life finishes things off in defiant fashion : “. You’re f*%@g Around With Us? — Not For Long!”

The Society of the Spectacle is a work of philosophy by Guy Debord. In it the author expands on the concept of the Spectacle, coupled with presentations of Marxist critical theory.

The Situationist International (SI), led by the revolutionary Guy Debord, were active throughout the 1950s and 60s. They published the journal Internationale Situationniste that included many incendiary texts on politics and art, and were a galvanizing force in the revolutions of May 1968. The importance of their work has been felt particularly in their revolutionary analysis of cities. The SI were responsible for utopian imaginings of the city, where its alienating effects from its routine use as a site of consumption and work were banished and it was instead to be turned into a place of play. Tom McDonough collects all the SI's key work in this area for an essential one-stop collection. Including such essential works as 'The Theory of the Derive', 'Formulary for a New Urbanism', and many previously untranslated texts, the book will also be strikingly illustrated by the images that were core to the Situationist project.