The Situationist International (SI) and the Contemporary Capitalist Cityscape

Examining the Nature of Spectacle, the Construction of Situations, and the Relevance of the SI in the age of Postmodernity and Hyper-Capitalist Globalization

Facilitator:

• Christopher Smith
  christopher@anarchistu.org
  416.537.8208

“The growing dissatisfaction that grips all of humanity will reach a point where we will all be driven to carry out projects for which we possess the means, and that will contribute to the realization of a richer and more rewarding life…” (Constant, A Different City for a Different Life, 1959, 101, in Guy Debord and the Situationist International)

Course Summary

The Situationist International was a radical,revolutionary theoretical/philosophical/political/artistic social movement that originated in Europe in the late 1950’s as an amalgam of several previously independent avant-garde groups concerned with conducting an “incisive and coherent critique of modern society” through “new methods of agitation” (Knabb1981 ix). This course will seek to critically address and re-frame the relevance of the Situationist International within the context of contemporary debates surrounding urbanism, urban studies, Urban Social Movements (USMs), consumer capitalism, the notion of ‘everyday life,’ and the dramatic transformation of urban space (both social and physical/material, public and private) by the international forces of hyper-capitalist political-economic globalization. Beginning with an exploration of pre-SI documents and organizations, the 10-week course will consistently attempt to situate the theoretical concepts and political actions associated with the SI in both historical and contemporary frameworks, concluding with an analysis of recent Urban Social Movements that have been influenced, in whole or in part, by the SI’s spirit of ‘revolutionary urbanism’.

Course Requirements: To be discussed and finalized at the first course meeting.(Suggested: by the end of the 10 weeks it is hoped that each of the course participants, either individually or in small groups, will have theorized, designed, planned and implemented their own SI-inspired, neo-Situationist ‘situation’ on the streets of Toronto.)

Course Texts: Consisting of two or three full primary text books and a comprehensive selection of photocopied excerpts and essays, to be discussed and finalized at the first class meeting.

Tentative Course Texts:

Debord, Guy. Society of the Sepctacle. Detroit: Black and Red, 1983.

Debord, Guy. Society of the Sepctacle. Donald Nicholson-Smith Trans. New York: Zone Books, 1995.

Debord, Guy. Comments on the Society of the Sepctacle. Malcom Imrie Trans. London: Verso, 1988.

Debord, Guy. Considerations on the Assasination of Gerard Lebovici. Robert Greene Trans. Los Angeles, TamTam Books, 2001.

Home, Stewart. Ed. What is Situationism? A Reader. Edinburgh: AK Press, 1996.

Knabb, Ken. Ed. Trans. Situationist International Anthology. Berkley: Bureau of Public Secrets, 1981.

Knabb, Ken. Ed. Trans. Guy Debord: Complete Cinematic Works (Scripts, Stills, Documents). Oakland: AK Press, 2003.

McDonough, Tom. Ed. Guy Debord and the Situationist International: Texts and Documents. Cambridge: The MIT Press [An OCTOBER Book], 2002.

Plant, Sadie. The Most Radical Gesture: the Situationist International in a Postmodern Age. London: Routledge,

Situationist International. The Veritable Split in the International: Theses on the Situationist International and Its Time. London: Chronos Publications, 1972.

Vaneigem, Raoul. Revolution of Everyday Life.

de Zegher, Catherine and Mark Wigley. Eds. The Activist Drawing: Retracting Situationist Architectures from Constant’s New Babylon to Beyond. Cambridge: the MIT Press [The Drawing Center]. 2001.

Beneath the Paving Stones.

The Situationist City

Course VisioningMeetingSchedule:

Week 1: Introductory Remarks: What is Situationism? What is its Relevance in the Contemporary Cityscape?

• Excerpts: Home, Stewart. Ed. "What is Situationism? A Reader". Plant, Sadie. "The Most Radical Gesture".

Week 2: Historical Origins of the Situationist International Movement (From what did the SI emerge? Of what was it a product?)

• Excerpts: “Pre-SI Texts” IN Situationist International Anthology (p. 1-28)

Week 3: Examining the Nature of Spectacle and the Construction of Situations

• Excerpts: Debord, Guy. "Society of the Sepctacle". Debord, Guy. “Report on the Construction of Situations…” (1957) and “The Situationists and the New Forms of Action in Politics and Art” Crary, Jonathan. “Spectacle, Attention, Counter-Memory” IN Guy Debord and the Situationist International SI. “Preliminary Problems in Constructing a Situation” IN Situationist International Anthology (p.43)

Week 4: Exploring the Notions of Derive and Detournement

• Excerpts: “Theory of the Derive” (Debord) “Detournement as Negation and Prelude” IN Situationist International Anthology (p. 50-56)

Week 5: The SI and May ’68- The Role and Importance of the Situationist International in the Student/Worker Uprisings in both the French (Parisian) and Global Contexts

• Excerpts: “May 68 Documents” IN Situationist International Anthology (p. 343-354)

"Paris May, 1968" IN Beneath the Paving Stones

Week 6: Blueprints Toward a Contemporary Semblance of the Situationist City: ‘Revolutionary Urbanism’ and Constant’s Architecture (New Babylon)

• Excerpts: Constant. “A Different City for a Different Life” Vaneigem. “Comments on Urbanism” SI. “Editorial Notes: Critique of Urbanism” Andreotti, Libero. “Architecture and Play” McDonough, Tom. “Situationist Space” IN Guy Debord and the Situationist International “The Situationist City” “The Activist Drawing” Wigley, Mark. "Constant's New Babylon: the Hyper-Architecture of Desire"

Week 7: The Situationist International and ‘Everyday Life’

• Excerpts: Vaneigem, Raoul. “Revolution of Everyday Life” Debord, Guy. “Perspectives for Conscious Alterations of Everyday Life” IN Situationist International Anthology (p.68-75)

Week 8: Towards a Philosophy of the City: Examining the Work of Henri Lefebvre

• Excerpts: Lefebvre, Henri. Writings on Cities. Lefebvre, Henri. The Production of Space.

Week 9: Contemporary Urban Social Movements (USMs) and the Neo-SI (Reclaim the Streets [RTS] and the New York City Surveillance Camera Players)

• Excerpts: “Reclaim the Streets” (http://rts.gn.apc.org/) (www.reclaimthestreets.net) (http://reclaimthestreetsnyc.tao.ca/info.html) “New York City Surveillance Camera Players” (www.notbored.org/the-scp.html)

Week 10: Closing remarks, Presentation/Enactment of Neo-SI ‘Situations’