Situationist

The Unending Laugh — Not  Coming to a You Near the Theater!

Situationist International (-1972)

The Situationist International (SI), an international political and artistic movement, originated in the Italian village of Cosio d'Arroscia on 28 July 1957 with the fusion of several extremely small artistic tendencies: the Lettrist International, the International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus, and the London Psychogeographical Association. This fusion traced further influences from COBRA, Dada, Surrealism, and Fluxus, as well as inspirations from the Workers Councils of the Hungarian Uprising.

The journal Internationale Situationniste defined situationist as "having to do with the theory or practical activity of constructing situations". The same journal defined situationism as "a meaningless term improperly derived from the above. There is no such thing as situationism, which would mean a doctrine of interpretation of existing facts. The notion of situationism is obviously devised by antisituationists."

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 Psychogeographical 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 dialectical 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 or 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 ...]

taken from http://www.economicexpert.com/a/Situationist.html

Membership of the National Sections of the Situationist International

Membership modifications: dismissed, inclusion, exclusion, resignation, suspended

Unclassified Members, Unofficial Members and Non-member Associates
No Section
Algerian Section
American Section
Belgian Section
Dutch Section
English Section
French Section
German Section
Italian Section
Scandanavian Section

Writings by Members and Ex-members

Raoul Vaneigem
Attila Kotanyi
Constant Niewenhuys
Asger Jorn (1914-1973)
Guy Debord (1930-1994)
Karel Appel
Mustapha Khayati
Rene Reisel
Alexander Trocchi
Rene Vienet
Robert Chasse (from the U.S. Section)
Bruce Elwell (from the U.S. Section)
Jon Horelick (from the U.S. Section)
English Section
U.S. Section
Miscellaneous

About the Situationists

PsychoGeography

On Terrorism

Second Situationist International

First Extranational (founded by Len Bracken)

Post-S.I. "Situationist"-influenced Groups

Spontaneous Combustion (U.K.)
B.M. Blob (U.K.)
Wicked Messenger (U.K.)
Caribbean Situationist (Jamaica)
King Mob (U.K.)
Point Blank! (Berkeley, CA  U.S.A.)
Critiques of Point Blank
Perspectives (Berkeley, CA  U.S.A.)
Antimatter (San Jose, CA  U.S.A.)
Bureau of Public Secrets and associates  (Berkeley, CA  U.S.A.)
Collective Inventions (San Jose, CA  U.S.A.)
Contradiction (Berkeley, CA  U.S.A.)
1044 (1970)
Upshot (Los Angeles, CA  U.S.A.; John and Paula Zerzan)
Council for the Eruption of the Marvellous — C.E.M. (1970)
Council for the Uninterruption of the Marvellous — C.U.M.
Re-invention of Daily Life (Palo Alto, CA  U.S.A.)
Guillotine (Berkeley, CA  U.S.A.)
Negation (Berkeley, CA  U.S.A.)
Diversion (U.S.A.)
Lust for Life (Portland, OR USA and Pleasant Hill, CA USA)
Create Situations (New York, N.Y.  U.S.A.)
Catalysis (Berkeley, CA  U.S.A.)
Capitalist Crisis Studies (Berkeley, CA  U.S.A.)
Len Bracken (U.K.)
Stewart Home (U.K.)
For Ourselves: Council for Generalized Self-Management (Berkeley, CA  U.S.A.)
Larry Law
Gene Ray
NotBored
Retort (Iain Boal, T. J. Clark, Joseph Matthews and Michael Watts)
Miscellaneous

Situationist Antinational (1974)

Situationst Times
Situationist Antinational

Festivalism

Insurrectional Antitheocratic International

Organizational Theory
Critical Theory
Appendix

The AntiNaturals

King Kong International

Fluxus

Hackers

Adbusters

Miscellaneous (a pre-categorized holding area)