Situationist International - Part 1 of 3

On the Passage of a few People through a Rather Brief Moment in Time: The Situationist International 1956-1972

A video documentary combining exhibition footage of the Situationist International exhibitions with film footage of the 1968 Paris student uprising, and graffiti and slogans based on the ideas of Guy Debord (one of the foremost spokesmen of the Situationist International movement). Also includes commentary by leading art critics Greil Marcus, Thomas Levine, and artists Malcolm Mac Laren and Jamie Reid. Branka Bogdanov, Director and producer. NTSC-VHS 22 min. 1989

• Category

  News & Politics

[plutoohno]

this is an awful program. i dont feel like it gathers insight into the what makes debord such a vibrant theorist. instead it only looks at its cultural (recuperated) impact. i honestly think that if one is to truly get at the root of debord it is important to consider him as an orthodox marxist theorist analyzing a new stage of capitalist accumulation and theorizing a new form of praxis in order to counter it. the art stuff matters little.

[cramokramer]

the serious thing about the situationists seems to be that they really "did" what they were talking about in theory. just try to imagine to live on the streets for only three days, you gonna have some experince. they didn`t divorce theory and practice whatever the results might be. some of them ended up in prison or psychiatry, i think one of them got lost exploring the metro etc.

[zerotheunsignified]

It's certainly all that's survived.

[princeminski47]

Zzzzzzzzzzzz. The art stuff is all that matters.

[UndefinedMadrid]

It's inescapable 

[Ethan Davidson]

How much deeper are we in the spectacle now than we were than?

How much deeper, how much deeper?

[Davidius Doremouseius]

I've just spent an hour trying to fill in this stupid form so I'm 'raging against the machine'. GRRRRRR!

[almanacofsleep]

Sorry I just realised there was a typo in my post a couple of posts ago, it should read "It goes without saying that the working class is the class that abolishes all class", I read your response as the working class will never abolish the class system, my apologies.

However your dismissal of the SI because you think they are middle class is stupid on a number of levels. Its reductionism based on your own prejudice

[OrpheusIsThe1]

No, YOU prove my point about not being able to understand what you read. Nowhere do I say I reject revolution. Learn to read and stop trying to be the pseudo intellectual. How can you even think of debate when you can't even understand the language you are attempting to debate in. Try looking at the bigger picture instead of through blinkered eyes. It is all inter-related.

[almanacofsleep]

How does any thing you said relate to your critique of the SI? All you seem capable of is emotive claims of the middle class background of its members, which fall apart when you take into account the working class backgrounds of members Ralph Rumney and Alexander Trocchi. You also belie your own reactionary position by a rejecting revolution, the means by which we shall end the alienation and division caused by Capital, for reformism which only serves to prolong the hardships of the class system

[OrpheusIsThe1]

It is a self moralistic way of life whereby you have to justify to one's self every action be it what society would call good or bad actions Such actions also have consequences which have to be taken into account and accepted as part of the action So if I feel 100% justified in murdering someone I have to take the consequences of that murder without complaining as it is all part of the action. Poverty has nothing to do with anarchy but it has to do with revolution Anarchy is Life Life is Anarchy

[OrpheusIsThe1]

You are deliberately missing the point. I was actually deriding the idea of the authenticity of poverty. You should try and learn to understand what you read before entering into debate. What I am saying is that the situationists were just like the 60s hippies from rich middle class families who they could all fall back on when things got too old for them.Just because I say you know nothing and should speak to people  is to enlighten you to your ignorance, I am not saying its a badge of honour.