22 Facts About Situationist International

1.

Situationist International was an international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and political theorists.

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2.

The intellectual foundations of the Situationist International were derived primarily from libertarian Marxism and the avant-garde art movements of the early 20th century, particularly Dada and Surrealism.

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3.

The Situationist International reached the apex of its creative output and influence in 1967 and 1968, with the former marking the publication of the two most significant texts of the situationist movement, The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord and The Revolution of Everyday Life by Raoul Vaneigem.

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4.

Situationist International theory sees the situation as a tool for the liberation of everyday life, a method of negating the pervasive alienation that accompanied the spectacle.

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5.

Situationist International movement had its origins as a left wing tendency within Lettrism, an artistic and literary movement led by the Romanian-born French poet and visual artist Isidore Isou, originating in 1940s Paris.

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6.

The meeting established the foundation for the development of the Situationist International, which was officially formed in July 1957 at a meeting in Cosio di Arroscia, Italy.

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7.

Later, the Situationist International drew ideas from other groups such as Socialisme ou Barbarie.

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8.

Detournement is a technique developed in the 1950s by the Letterist Situationist International, and consist in "turning expressions of the capitalist system against itself, " like turning slogans and logos against the advertisers or the political status quo.

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9.

The core arguments of the Situationist International were an attack on the capitalist degradation of the life of people and the fake models advertised by the mass media, to which the Situationist responded with alternative life experiences.

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10.

Situationist International emphasized its active character as "a mode of experimental behavior" that reached to Romanticism, the Baroque, and the age of chivalry, with its tradition of long adventures voyages.

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11.

Classic Situationist International texts include: On the Poverty of Student Life, Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord, and The Revolution of Everyday Life by Raoul Vaneigem.

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12.

The Situationist International Anthology edited and translated by Ken Knabb, collected numerous SI documents which had previously never been seen in English.

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13.

Concept of revolution created by the Situationist International was anti-capitalist, Marxist, Young Hegelian, and from the very beginning in the 50s, remarkably differently from the established Left, anti-Stalinist and against all repressive regimes.

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14.

Situationist International theorists advocated methods of operation that included democratic workers' councils and workers' self-management, interested in empowering the individual, in contrast to the perceived corrupt bureaucratic states of the Eastern bloc.

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15.

Core aspect of the revolutionary perspectives, and the political theory, of the Situationist International, has been neglected by some commentators, which either limited themselves to an apolitical reading of the situationist avant-garde art works, or dismissed the Situationist political theory.

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16.

Concept of revolution created by the Situationist International was anti-capitalist, Marxist, Young Hegelian, and from the very beginning in the 1950s, remarkably differently from the established Left, anti-Stalinist and against all repressive regimes.

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17.

Situationist International was at the root and at the core of the Situationist International project, fully sharing the revolutionary intentions with Debord.

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18.

Situationist International cites a letter written by Jacqueline de Jong, Jorgen Nash, and Ansgar Elde protesting the expulsion of the Spur group in 1962 which highlights the political repression in Paris at that time.

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19.

Situationist International ideas exerted a strong influence on the design language of the punk rock phenomenon of the 1970s.

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20.

Situationist International theory experienced a vogue in the late '90s hardcore punk scene, being referenced by Orchid, His Hero Is Gone, and CrimethInc.

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21.

In May 1968, the Situationist International-inspired Paris riots set off "a chain reaction of refusal" against consumer capitalism.

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22.

Concept of revolution created by the Situationist International is that of total contestation of modern capitalism.

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