Situationist

History and overview

The most prominent member of the group, Guy Debord, has tended to polarise opinion. Some describe him as having provided the theoretical clarity within the group; others say that he exercised dictatorial control over its development and membership. Other members included the Scottish writer Alexander Trocchi, the English artist Ralph Rumney (sole member of the London psycho-geographical society, Rumney suffered expulsion relatively soon after the formation of the Situationist International), the Scandinavian vandal-cum-artist Asger Jorn,,the veteran of the Hungarian Uprising Attila Kotanyi , the French writer Michele Bernstein, and Raoul Vaneigem. Debord and Bernstein later married. One way or another, the currents which the SI took as predecessors saw their purpose as involving a radical redefinition of the role of art in the twentieth century. The Situationists themselves took a dialecticall viewpoint, seeing their task as superseding art, abolishing the notion of art as a separate, specialized activity and transforming it so it became part of fabric of everyday life. From the Situationist viewpoint, art is revolutionary it is nothing. In this way, the Situationists saw their efforts as completing the work of both Dada and Surrealism while abolishing both. Still, the Situationists answered the question "What is revolutionary?" differently at different times.

The SI experienced splits and expulsions from its beginning. The one prominent split in the group resulted in the Paris section retaining the name Situationist International while the Scandinavian section, or the Second Situationist International organised under the name of Gruppe SPUR. While the entire history of the Situationists was marked by their impetus to revolutionize life, the split between the French and the Scandinavian sections marked a transition from the Situationist view of revolution possibly taking an "artistic" form to it taking an unambiguously "political" form.

Those who followed the "artistic" view of the SI might view the evolution of SI as producing a more boring or dogmatic organization. Those following the political view would see the May 1968 uprisings as a logical outcome of the SI's syncretic approach: while savaging present day society, they sought a kind of utopia in the fusion of the positive tendencies of capitalist development. The "realization and suppression of Art" is only one of many supercessions which the SI sought over the years. For Situationist International of 1968, the world triumph of workers councils would bring about all these supercessions.

An important event leading up to May 1968 was the so called Strasbourg scandal. A group of students managed to use public funds to publish the pamphlet On the Poverty of Student Life: considered in its economic, political, psychological, sexual, and particularly intellectual aspects, and a modest proposal for its remedy. The pamphlet circulated in thousands of copies and helped to make the situationists well known throughout the nonstalinist left. [need paragraph on SI involvement in May 68, including occupation of the Sorbonne by the Situs & Enrages ...]

Situationist Antinational  (1974)

Is this Metaville? - by Jens Jorgen Thorsen
Beyond The Crisis Of Abstraction And The Abstract Break With That Crisis: The SI - by Jon Horlick
All Culture is Collective - Notes on Collective Creativity - by J.V. Martin
Draft Manifesto of Antinational Situationist - (Number 1, 1974) - by Jens Jørgen Thorsen
Members and History
Scandanavian Situationism
Divided We Stand: An Outline of Scandanavian Situationism - by Howard Slater

Situationst Times - six issues edited and published by Jacqueline de Jong , 1962 and December 1964 in Hengelo (The Netherlands), Copenhagen and Paris, in editions of between 1,000-2,000. Contributors include: Theo Wolvecamp , de Jong, Armando, Vanderkamm, the Art group Spur, de Boer, Edle Hansen , Singer, Gordon Fazarkely , M. Bucaille, G. Hay, Asger Jorn, P. Schat, Noel Arnaud , Pierre Alechinsky, Boris Vian, and many others.

No. 3 is the "International British Edition";

No. 4 deals with labyrinths;

No. 5 deals with the ring

No. 6 (International Parisian Edition) contains 33 lithographs (Alechinsky, Klasen, Jorn, Wilfredo Lam, Roberto Matta, Topor, Saura.)

Situationist Antinational - magazine formed in 1974, two years after the disbanding of the Situationist International.
However, only one issue of a magazine of the same name was published. It includes a contribution by the American Situationist Jon Horelick , and a draft manifesto, recommended by its members:

Jørgen Nash

Jeppesen Victor Martin

Patrick O'Brien

Tom Krojer

Ambrosius Fjord

Andres King

Yoshio Nakajima

Liza Menue

Heimrad Prem

Mette Aarre

Heinz Frietag

Liz Zwick

Novi Margni

Helmut Sturm

Festivalism

Festivalism
What is Festivalism? - by David M. Boje
Spectacle Capitalsim - by David M. Boje

Insurrectional Antitheocratic International

Organizational Theory

Critical Theory

Appendix

The AntiNaturals

The AntiNaturals Home
Draft Manifesto of Antinational Situationist - by Jens Jorgen Thorsen (1974)
Manifesto
Fifteen Credibility Street (magazine)
Swill Radio
All Hail the Anti-Naturals (interview)

“We are motivated to seek new forms of truth, beauty and pleasure.... It is not enough to decry the existence of the Spectacle. We intend to use both art and theory as a battering ram against Capitalism and its false opposition, tribalism, in all of its mystical forms. We believe it is possible to move beyond the inexcusable savagery of everyday life.... We reject all attempts to fix our experience solely in its biological dimension. Whenever individuals believe that some aspect of their experience is natural, whether good or bad, they disavow responsibility for it.... The source of our intuitions about our nature is none other than the machinations of the perfumed dictators of the System of Commodities. Once the dream of authenticity is planted in the psyche, it is very difficult to weed out.... The underground is smothered in waves of bad art which effectively silence its revolutionary voice. This is just the sort of brilliant recuperation scheme we have come to expect from the Spectacle. The correct interpretation of the idea of total aestheticization is that all actions can be carried out in an aesthetic manner.... The Spectacle diverts the aesthetic impulse into the empty act of consumption. The only arena in which individuals are allowed to feel liberated is the shopping mall.... There is no Eden to return to, but there are thousands of brief moments of freedom to be gained.”

King Kong International

The Question of the State

Fluxus

Hackers

A Hacker Manifesto v4.0 (online) - by McKenzie Wark
A Hacker Manifesto v4.0 (HTML) - by McKenzie Wark
A Hacker Manifesto - by McKenzie Wark (Harvard University Press, 2004)
Globalization From Below: Migration, Sovereignty, Communication - by McKenzie Wark
On the Tactic of Tactics - by McKenzie Wark
Dispositions - by McKenzie Wark. Armed with only a notebook and a handheld global positioning device, Wark tracks the secret passage of free time and free thought through the spaces of an everyday life.
Global Media Events (American West in the Twentieth Century) - by McKenzie Wark

Adbusters

Introduction			vii
THE NATURAL ORDER AND OTHER TEXTS
The Natural Order			1
[Part 1]			9
Expeditions to New Worlds			47
Appendix			114
Value and Economy			117
Critique of political economy			121
The exploitation of the unique			147
Topical additions			213
Luck and Chance			219
Notes			355