Founded by Guy Debord, the Situationist International movement was a revolutionary avant-garde project intended to carry out counter-cultural activities as a kind of protection against the capitalist system. The main object of criticism of the Situationists was the late capitalist society with its inherent forms of social alienation, the phenomena of total commodification, and conformism (Debord 19). The Situationists did not separate politics and art, perceiving their project as a universal attitude to life. Through performances and texts, the Situationists sought to combat the “spectacle” and falsification of capitalist society.
Using the concept of “spectacle,” Debord explained some modern cultural and ideological phenomena: the specifics of industrial societies in developed countries, the problem of globalization, the dominance of visual culture, and much more. A “spectacle” was described as an economy that developed for its own sake (Debord 4). The Situationists argued that alienation, fundamental to bourgeois society, penetrated all areas of social and cultural life, and led to the fact that people became detached from their emotions, creative impulses, and desires.
In his book Society of the Spectacle, Debord also reflects on time, claiming that consumable “pseudo-cyclical time” consists of an infinite number of equal intervals. When this abstraction of “irreversible time,” dominates in society, humans have no space for development (Debord 22). The ruling class imposes a favorable perception of time on the entire society. However, among the endless cycles, there is one change, which is completely excluded by the spectacle. That is the revolution that fades away the social measure of time and benefits it “playful character,” which means that independent times exist simultaneously.
The Situationists wanted to produce this playful form of time and put an end to art as a kind of commodity, a specialized, alienated activity. They were seeking to make it a part of everyday life. Thus, their key technique of detournement involved turning appropriated images, texts, or events into subversive situations (Trier 65). This artistic technique was intended to reveal the ideological nature of art and transform it for political use. Detournement manifested itself in documentaries, advertisements, comics, and social films with the author’s text. All these forms of art were used to awaken people’s consciousness from the lethargic sleep of passive consumption of goods and images.
The Situationists marked the beginning of the artistic, cultural, and political revolution. By May 10, 1968, more than sixty powerful barricades had been erected in the center of Paris (Trier 297). A few days later, thousands of people appeared on the streets of French cities to show solidarity with students. The participants became the masters of the city since they could do and say everything they previously could discuss only among themselves. Thus, the most famous phrase appeared on the walls: “Sous les pavés, la plage!” (Paris, 1968). Paving stones in Paris were used by students both for building barricades and as shells against the police (Trier 311). As a result, the pavement was torn up in many places, and sand lay under the remains of stones. For the struggling youth, this sand turned into a beautiful metaphor for the wonderful future they dreamed of.
The Situationists invented the concept of the “spectacle”, which described the consumer society, paralyzed by the endless play unfolding before it. They understood the capitalist society as a play, that is, as a frozen historical moment, unable to actively participate in the construction of the real-life events. However, they transformed a radical artistic gesture into a political revolution and demonstrated the strength of their generation, which knew how to dream and think without stigmatization.
I critically analyzed the Situationist International Movement and its role in the revolution. However, I would like to improve the organization, word choice, and sentence fluency. I would like to make the essay more specialized, detail-oriented, and to the point. My writing is cohesive and has a logical flow of ideas. My goal for the next paper is to improve my ability to be concise, accurate, and add various elements and ideas.
Works Cited
Debord, Guy. Society of the Spectacle. Bread and Circuses Publishing, 2012.
Trier, James. Guy Debord, the Situationist International, and the Revolutionary Spirit. Brill, 2019.