Situationist International (SI)
The Situationist International (SI) was a group of artists, writers, and social critics who were active in Europe from 1957 to 1972. The SI was a radical movement that sought to disrupt and reimagine the systems that govern everyday life. The SI's goal was to eliminate capitalism by revolutionizing everyday life.
The IS developed a critique of capitalism based on a mixture of Marxism and surrealism. Leading figure of the movement Guy Debord identified consumer society as the Society of the Spectacle in his influential 1967 book of that title. In the field of culture situationists wanted to break down the division between artists and consumers and make cultural production a part of everyday life. It combined two existing groupings, the Lettrist International and the International Union for a Pictorial Bauhaus. As well as writer and filmmaker Guy Debord, the group also prominently included the former CoBrA painter Asger Jorn, and the former CoBrA artist Constant. British artist Ralph Rumney was a co-founder of the movement. The SI combined experimental poetry, avant-garde art, and radical social criticism to explore new techniques of engagement in cultural protest and revolutionary praxis.
The SI's tactics included:
- Carefully calculated scandals
- The playful tactic of détournement
- The Dérive, a research method that involved wandering through an urban environment to conscientiously engage in new experiences
The SI was prominent in Europe from its formation in 1957 to its dissolution in 1972. Situationist ideas played an important role in the revolutionary Paris events of 1968. Some members of the American section of the SI include: Robert Chasse, Bruce Elwell, Jan Horelick, Tony Verlaan.
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