Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship - autonomous ...
Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship - autonomous ...
Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship - autonomous ...
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artificial hells<br />
prompting a media sc<strong>and</strong>al. 33 Spies for Peace also overloaded forty telephone<br />
lines belonging to British security centres through <strong>the</strong> continuous<br />
dialling <strong>of</strong> numbers that had been discovered during <strong>the</strong> raid. Debord<br />
enthusiastically describes <strong>the</strong>se examples, <strong>and</strong> follows <strong>the</strong>m with a discussion<br />
<strong>of</strong> ‘cultural activity that one could call Situationist’, implying that he<br />
did not view <strong>the</strong> examples given above in those terms. For Debord, a critical<br />
cultural practice would not create new forms, but ra<strong>the</strong>r use ‘<strong>the</strong> existing<br />
means <strong>of</strong> cultural expression’ through <strong>the</strong> Situationist technique <strong>of</strong><br />
détournement, <strong>the</strong> subversive appropriation <strong>of</strong> existing images to undermine<br />
<strong>the</strong>ir existing meaning.<br />
Michèle Bernstein exemplifi ed this strategy <strong>of</strong> détournement when she<br />
assembled a book out <strong>of</strong> two pre- existing popular fi ctions, Tous les chevaux<br />
du roi (1960) <strong>and</strong> La Nuit (1961), to form a parody <strong>of</strong> Laclos’s Les Liaisons<br />
dangereuses. Like o<strong>the</strong>r forms <strong>of</strong> Situationist détournement, Bernstein’s text<br />
combines contemporary pop cultural clichés <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> SI’s language <strong>of</strong> capitalist<br />
critique (‘“What is it that you really do? I don’t underst<strong>and</strong>”, says<br />
Carole . . . “Reifi cation”, says Gilles.’). 34 Détournement was regarded as <strong>the</strong><br />
more successful <strong>the</strong> less it approached a rational reply. A series <strong>of</strong> erotic<br />
postcards, for example, were détourned by <strong>the</strong> addition <strong>of</strong> h<strong>and</strong>written<br />
captions, so that nude pin- ups addressed <strong>the</strong> viewer in speech bubbles:<br />
‘The emancipation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> workers will be <strong>the</strong>ir own work!’, or ‘There’s<br />
nothing better than sleeping with an Asturian miner. Now <strong>the</strong>re you have<br />
real men!’ 35 For <strong>the</strong> SI, a good détournement reversed <strong>the</strong> ideological function<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> effl uvia <strong>of</strong> spectacle culture, but without adopting <strong>the</strong> form <strong>of</strong> a<br />
simple inversion <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> original, since this would keep <strong>the</strong> latter’s identity<br />
securely in its place (Debord gives <strong>the</strong> example <strong>of</strong> a black mass: it inverts<br />
<strong>the</strong> Catholic service but sustains its metaphysical structure). This <strong>the</strong>ory <strong>of</strong><br />
détournement clearly builds upon Dada photomontage <strong>and</strong> Surrealist<br />
assemblage that sought to unravel meaning, be this through gender subversion<br />
(Duchamp’s moustachioed Mona Lisa, L.H.O.O.Q., 1919) or biting<br />
political critique (John Heartfi eld’s numerous anti- Hitler photomontages<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> early 1930s). A good détournement seems to harness both types <strong>of</strong><br />
strategy, combining subversive irrationality <strong>and</strong> caustic political topicality.<br />
Debord was adamant that critique <strong>of</strong> any kind should not take <strong>the</strong> form<br />
<strong>of</strong> rational argument: he was hostile to structuralist interpretations <strong>of</strong><br />
culture, <strong>and</strong> to all critical languages that assert <strong>the</strong>ir mastery over preceding<br />
methodologies. At <strong>the</strong> same time, Debord’s own writing frequently fell<br />
into this trap: The Society <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Spectacle (1967) alternates brilliant <strong>and</strong><br />
incisive aphorisms with turgid, embittered orthodoxies. The SI’s o<strong>the</strong>r<br />
alternatives to visual art, <strong>the</strong> dérive <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> constructed situation, also<br />
avoided rational critique <strong>and</strong> emphasised <strong>the</strong> importance <strong>of</strong> playfulness <strong>and</strong><br />
games. Because <strong>the</strong>se experiential activities are rarely documented, <strong>the</strong>y<br />
are diffi cult to analyse, but numerous maps <strong>and</strong> sketches produced by <strong>the</strong><br />
group provide an important visual analogue. Debord’s Psychogeographical<br />
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