WHAT IS SITUATIONISM? A READER Stewart Home, editor What Is Situation ism ? A Reader Stewart Home, editor AK PRESS © Individual contributors. ISBN 1-873176-13-9 Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this title is available from the Library of Congress. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library. Printed in Great Britain by BPC Wheatons. This collection first published in 1996 by: AK Press AK Press P.O. Box 12766 P.O. Box 40682 Edinburgh, Scotland San Francisco, CA EH89YE 94140-0682 Typesetting and design donated by Freddie Baer. Contents Selected Bibliography iv Introduction 1 Stewart Home Essays from Leaving the 20th Century 3 edited and translated by Christopher Gray Critique of the Situationist International 24 Jean Barrot The End of Music 63 Dave and Stuart Wise Basic Banalities 103 Stewart Home The Situationist International: Its Penetration into British Culture 107 George Robertson The Situationist International and its Historification: Ralph Rumney in conversation with Stewart Home 134 Aesthetics and Resistance: Totality Reconsidered 140 Stewart Home The Realization and Suppression of Situationism 143 Bob Black The Situationist International: A Case of Spectacular Neglect 153 Sadie Plant Orgone Addicts: Wilhelm Reich versus the Situationists 173 Jim Martin The Situationist Legacy 192 Alastair Bonnett Index 202 Selected Bibliography Atkins, Guy- Asger!om: The Crucial Years 1954-64 (Lund Humphries 1977). Berman, Russell, David Pan and Paul Piccone - "'The Society of the Spectacle 20 Years Later: A Discussion" (included in Telos 86, New York, Winter 1990-91). Birtwistle Graham - Living Art: Asger Jorn's Comprehensive Theory of Art between Helhesten and Cobra (1946-1949). (Reflex, Utrecht 1986). Editorial Board - Lund Art Press Vol.2, No.3: Bauhaus Situationist issue (University of Lund, Sweden 1992). Hahne, Ron, Ben Morea and c. - Black Mask & Up Against the Wall Motherfucker:The Incomplete Works of Ron Hahne, Ben Morea and the Black Mask Group (Unpopular Books and Sabotage Editions, London 1993). Jom, Asger - Open Creation and Its Enemies with Originality and Magnitude (London Psychogeographical Association, Calanais, Scotland 1993). Jom, Asger - "Pataphysics: A Religion in the Making" (included in Smile 11, London 1989). Kravitz, Peter (editor) - Edinburgh Review 70: Trocchi Number (Edinburgh 1985). London Psychogeographical Association (East London Section) - Newsletter 1-8 (London 1992-94). Trocchi, Alexander - Invisible Insurrection of a Million Minds: A Trocchi Reader (Polygon, Edinbrugh 1991). Trocchi, Alexander - Sappho of Lesbos: An Amorous Odyssey (Star, London 1986). Webb, James - The Occult Establishment (Open Court, La Salle, Illinois 1976). For a detailed biblography of material by and about the situationists in English see Simon Ford' s The Realization and Suppression of the Situationist International: An Annotated Biblography 1972-1992 (AK Press, Edinburgh and San Francisco, 1995). iv WhatIs Situationism: A Reader Introduction Stewart Home The situationists have now taken their place in cultural history alongside the futurists, dadaists, and surrealists. In many ways the process which led to the SI being elevated to the status of a cultural icon is as interesting as the history of this - or any other - avant­ garde group. While there have been a number of monographs on the situationists published in recent years, this is the first anthology of shorter critical pieces about the S1. The collection is in no way definitive - which would require both a far larger book and a selection process less biased towards anglo-american perspectives. With only one exception, Jean Barrot's Critique of the Situationist International, everything in this anthology was written in English and even this exception was first published as a translation. The texts run chronologically according to date of publication. Everyone who writes has an axe to grind, since this is particularly true of those who write about the situationists, I feel completely justified in making a few comments about the words that follow and passing judgment on the individuals who wrote them. Guy Debord isn't the only corpse to make a career out of situationism. All those who've composed texts on the subject are guilty of this crime. However, without the groundwork laid down by Christopher Gray - who was a member of the SI and King Mob - most of us would still be writing about surrealism. Moving on to a more interesting subject, Dave and Stuart Wise were both active in King Mob. Their text also played a major role in transforming situationism from a fringe product without commercial value into a saleable commodity Introduction 1 within the key British and American markets. Back issues of King Mob -particularly the two numbers dedicated to the Motherfuckers - give a valuable insight into how these entrepreneurs developed their promotional skills. Jean Barrot is the political theorist most likely to inherit the 51's mantle as guru to those anglo-american ultra-left obscurantists who look to France for intellectual leadership - although he faces stiff opposition from Jacques Camatte. The pieces by George Robertson, Bob Black, Sadie Plant and myself represent the attempts of innumer­ able cultural hacks to create an orthodox interpretation of situat ionism. Both Sadie Plant and 1 have written books on the 51 - these being The Most Radical Gesture and The Assault on Culture. Having read my Stimer carefully, I'm forced to conclude that mine is the better of the two works. While Plant's tome is a very good introduction to situationist theory, 1 adopt a far more subjective approach. The task of historification having been successfully completed, Jimmie Martin and Alastair Bonnett are both looking for fresh takes on the 51 - the former by using a compare and contrast method with Wilhelm Reich, the latter by applying the conceptual tools of cultural geography to situa tionisttheory. 1 think the Reich analogy is particularly satisfying, since the ideas of 'spectacle' and 'emotional plague' function in an identical fashion, providing the true believer with a universal cat­ egory that is to be attackeo enolel';l';ly, relentlessly and -most impor­ tantly - everywhere! And so, to the future. I am, of course, looking forward to yet more books about the 51. I'm also hoping to see an ever greater abundance of situationist translations - all of which ought to be published as very slim and expensive editions. Now that it's run through the sixties underground/avant-garde, the culture industry is diving headlong into the seventies and eighties - which means we'll soon be seeing much serious discussion of neoism, plagiarism and the art strike. The tradition marches on ... London January 1993 2 What Is Situationism: A Reader Essays from Leaving the 20th Century Christopher Gray From Leaving the 20th Century edited by Christopher Gray (Free Fall, London 1974) 'Everyone will live in his own cathedral': The Situationists 1958-1964 YOUNG Guys, YOUNG GIRLS Talent wanted for getting out of this and playing No special qualifications Whether you're beautiful or you're bright History could be on your side WITII THE SITUATIONISTS No telephone. Write or tum up: 32 rue de la Montagne-Genevieve, Paris 5e. Internationale Situationiste 1, 1958 Summer of 1958: number one of a new, unusually glossy avant-garde magazine, Internationale Situationiste, began to appear around the Latin Quarter of Paris. Its contents were quite as terrifying as its name. Surrealism, the cinema, automation, town-planning, politics, games theory, the Beat Generation and the freedom of the press were all, in rapid succession, dismissed as being beneath contempt. West­ ern culture and civilisation in their entirety were, so it seemed, totally bankrupt. Yet there was something in which these 'situationists' believed - only its nature was far from clear. What were 'the transcendence of art', 'the construction of situations', 'drifting', 'psychogeography', 'unitary urbanism' and 'revolutionary play'? Why choose pinups of girls in raincoats, on beaches, or supine on the Essays from Leavingthe 20th Century 3 backs of horses to illustrate these concepts? Why the maps of Utopian countryside, the photos and detailed diagrams of modern cities? Why the line drawing of an apparatus for generating Gaussian distribution? ...And how could you feel such disgust with every­ thing ... ? Intellectual terrorism has never been anything particularly sur­ prising on the Left Bank. What was unusual was that Internationale Situationiste seemed to have financial and organisational backing on a par with its megalomania. It wasn't just a 'magazine'. The articles presented a coherent and interwoven attack on the whole of contem­ porary social life and culture. Half were written collectively and left unsigned. Editors and contributors were French, Dutch, Belgian, German, Scandinavian, Italian and Arab; all apparently belonging to the same international organisation. Physically the magazine was well co-ordinated. The layout was eminently sober, the paper the highest gloss, and the covers glowing gold metal-board. These, which must have been ludicrously expensive, were apparently to stop the thing getting wet in the rain. And it was dead cheap. And there was no copyright. Basically the first number revolved around an attack on art. The situationists' central thesis was that art, in all its traditional forms, was completely played out.