85701 Research Based Design WEEK 6 THE SITUATIONIST INTERNATIONAL

I haven't tackled the topic of the Situationists until now, but after having a second lecture with Sam Spurr, I think it is time to discuss them. When the topic was first introduced I thought the Situationist International was a bit stupid, and I couldn't see the ramifications of their ideas at all. I think I needed these weeks to really understand the Situationalist movement and to soak up their attitude and effect on today's world, and come to an appreciation of their goals and how their thinking has affected architecture and the city.


A bit of background on the S.I.:

Led by theoretical thinker Guy Debord, the situationist international was an amalgamation of other groups and thinkers, a hybrid, multifaceted machine consisting of a wide variety of people, cultures and disciplines. The movement was fueled by a blend of Marxist and Avant Garde ideas from the early twentieth century, whose participants felt life had become banal under capitalistic conditions, dictating desires that were not their own.

The four key groups that formed the basis of the situationist international were: the London Psychogeographic Society, headed by Ralph Rumry, the Imaginist Bauhaus group, the Letterist International – experiments with language and culture, and Cobra, a group of abstract painters.

The situationist international was a creative movement, but refused to be branded as such – instead wanting to transcend and move past art. They wanted to eradicate art as it was then known, instead created a new, more modern kind of art that would be an interactive part of life rather than a reflection or expression of it. To me, it seems quite ironic that one of the most famous products of the movement was a piece of art – the painting ‘Depassement de l’art’, proclaiming the death of art.

The situationists were concerned with expressing their desires and the desires of the city, embracing play and rejecting work, creating ‘situations’ in which one could engage with the city as flux – an ever changing event.

Embracing this idea of ‘all things as play’, the situationists created a sort of game to explore the city – the ‘derive’, drift. In some ways very much like ‘flanerie’, the derive involved actively engaging in random travel through the city, letting the environment dictate your passage, letting oneself be carried toward ‘units of ambience’, where colours, sounds and chance meetings determined movement. 

Rethinking the city spaces: a Situationist International 'derive' map (Photocartographies, 2009)

My 'derive' map, showing our passage across the city from UTS to Foley St

While seemingly engaging in the same activity as the flanuer, a derive is actually quite different. The concept of the derive strikes me as an activity in disorientation, making abstract connections between random points, exploring the flux of time and space and re-amalgamating the best of the city. Underlying the physical experience are psychogeographical ideas – how spaces can determine psychological and emotional states, impacting the mind and senses. On the other hand, the flanuer seeks merely to experience the city, absorbing the surroundings in a particular area and taking in the overlooked aspects of the city, rather than disorientating, abstracting and rearranging the city into a utopian metropolis.

It is an interesting way of viewing our interactions with our environment and world - seeing it not as a static place that is, but a changing place that can become anything we make of it. The idea is rather whimsical, even if problematic in practice.







REFERENCES

Information from Lecture given by Shane Hazeman, week 2.

Information from Lecture given by Sam Spurr, week 6.

2005, Simon, F., The Situationist International: A User's Guide, Black Dog, London

2009, Photocartographies, Photocartographies, Los Angeles, viewed on 15/8/2010, http://www.tatteredfragments.info/category/all/events/