Situationist International Anthology by Ken Knabb

The following discussion goes some way towards correcting this neglect with an indication of the relevance of Situationist ideas to contemporary political and philosophical debate and a consideration of the historical and intellectual contexts in which the Situationists worked. The movement is still presented as an artistic or cultural school akin to Surrealism, and the philosophical and political problems with which it engaged are largely ignored. There remains a reluctance to consider the full spectrum of Situationist ideas today. 1Bringing together the Marxist and avant-garde traditions in a critique of the totality of everyday life, the movement developed a project of extraordinary scope and ambition which transcended traditional demarcations between disciplines and at the same time developed an overt commitment to social revolution. The Situationist International was established in 1957 and published twelve issues of a journal, Internationale Situationniste, until 1969. Even during the movement’s most active period, when many of its ideas and practices were realised in the events in France 1968, it received little serious appraisal to some extent this was because of its insistence that it should be incapable of definition in terms other than its own, but it was also due to the unique quality and nature of its research and the uncomfortable implications of its theses for the cultural and academic establishment. The recent exhibitions of Situationist art and paraphernalia in London, Paris, and Boston, have given the Situationist International (SI) an unprecedented academic and cultural profile.

Situationist International Anthology by Ken Knabb