50 Years of Recuperat i on

of the S ituat i onist International

McKenzie Wa r k

A c o p u b l i cation of t h e Buell Center I F O R u M Project

and Princeton Architectural Press

This book is c o p u b l ishe d by

For The Tem p l e Hoyne B u e l l Center

T h e Temple Hoyne Buell Center

for the Stu dy of A merican Architecture
1172 A m sterdam Avenue
Colu m bia U n iversity
New York, New York 10027

Series editor: Joan Ockman

Executive editor: Sara Goldsmith
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P u b l i cation Data
Wark, McKenzie, 1961Fifty years of recu peration of t h e Situation ist
International / McKenzie Wark.
p. cm. - ( F O R u M project)
I S B N 978-1-56898-789-7 ( hardcover : alk. paper)
1. I nternationale situati o n n i ste-History. 2.
Arts, Moder n-20th century. 3. Avant-garde
(Aesthetics)-Hi story-20th century. I.
Tem ple Hoyne Buell Center forthe Study of
American Arch itecture. I I . Title. I I I . Title: 50
years of recu p eration.
NX456.5.158W37 2008
700.9'045-dc22
2008005447

For Princeton Arch itectural Press

Production editor: Linda Lee
Special thanks to Nettie Aljian, Sara Bader,
Dorothy Ball, N i cola Bednarek, Janet B e h n i n g ,
Becca Casbon, P e n n y ( Y u e n Pik) C h u ,
Russell Fernandez, Pete Fitzpatrick,
Wendy Ful ler, Jan Haux, Clare Jaco b s o n ,
A i l e e n Kw u n , N a n c y Ekl u n d Later, Laurie
Manfra, Katharine Myers, Lauren Nelson
Packard, J e n n ifer T h o m p son, Arnoud
Verhae g h e, Paul Wagner, Joseph Weston,
and Deb Wood of Princeton Arch itectural
Press-Kevin C. L i p pert, pUblisher

McKenzie Wark wishes to thank Eyebeam

(New York) for th e honorary fellows h i p d u r i n g
w h i c h t h i s text w a s produced. A project of
the Creative Capital/Warhol Foundation Arts
Writers Grant Program.

50 Years of Recuperation of the Situationist

I nternational i s the t h i rd volume i n a series of
books related to the FORuM Project, ded icated
to exploring the relat i o n s h i p of arch itectural
form to p o l itics and urban life. FORuM is a
program of The Temple Hoyne Buell Center
forthe Study of American Arch itecture at
C o l u m b i a U niversity.
Project conceptualization:
Joan Ockman and Pier Vittorio A u reli
Project coordi nation:
Sara Goldsmith and Diana Martinez

Co ntents

4
S pectac les of D i s i nteg rat ion
6
Myths of Exempt i o n
8
Rec u perat ion Perfected
12
Exper i mental Behav i o r
15
The Derive Genera l i zed
21
U n itary Urba n i s m
27
Situat i o n i st A rch itect ure
33
Permanent P l ay
40
The Detournement of Detournement
45
Notes
48
Cred its
49
Il l ustrat i ons

S pectac les of D i s i nteg ration

1,2

W h o cou l d have g uessed that when the flood came i t wo u l d

come i n s l ow motion, over fo rty decades rather than forty
n i g hts? As the p o l a r i ce s heets u n ravel a n d p l un ge i nto the
waters, those who have so m i s managed the fate of a l l t h i ngs
c l i ng to the i r pri vate arks. The a n i m a ls, one by one, wi l l be
saved , if at a l l , as gene seq uences.
For those who wanted to see the p review for t h i s blockbu ster
com i n g attraction, there was the short story of the p res i dent
and the trop ical storm. When the sto r m breached the levees
and sank a fabled southern c i ty, the p res i dent deig ned to v i s i t
a n d s how h i s concern, a s p rotocol req u i res. Only he d id not
set foot there. Rather, upon leav i n g h is vacation h o me, he had
h i s personal jet deto u r over the sodden earth en route back
to h i s other house. This was in order to p rod uce the req u i s ite
photog raph i c opp o rtu n ity, of the p resi dent peering out the
wi ndow with a look of compassi onate conservatism, wh i le below
p r i vate arm ies of goons with g u n s secu red val uable property,
a n d the homeless were left to make a spectac le of the i r own
m i se ry, fans without tickets i n the stad i u m of the endgame.
One could g o on, but what's the use? W here to start;
where to end? These are ti mes when one s h o u l d d i s pense
conte m pt o n l y with the g reatest economy, beca use of the
g reat n u mber of th i ng s that deserve it.1 A n d yet who even
offers to d i s pense i t? The news papers are devo l v i ng, bit by b i t,
i nto s h o p p i n g g u ides. The "qual ity" magaz i nes a re j ust coded
i nvestment ad v i ce. One turns with hope to the b l ogosphere,
o n l y to fi n d that it mostly j ust m i m ics the very med i a to w h i c h
it c l a i m s t o be an alternative. A lternative tu r n s o u t j ust to
mean cheaper.
T h i s scenario wou l d seem l i ke the best i ma g i nable for a
writer. What writer d oes not secretl y want such a c o r r u pt and
venal wor l d as material? In a b l u nted age, the scribe with one
good butter kn ife d i pped in s p it has the cutting edge. And yet
such wr iters hard l y seem to have ap peared among us. Hence
the req u i rement of a p rel i m i nary i nq u i ry into the causes of
the dec l i ne of the q u a l ity of merci less p rose.
4

At least th ree wo r l d s of percepti on, affect ion, and concept ion

mu st be in good working o rde-r for c r i t i c a l thought to touch
the total ity of th ings. These are the wo r l d s of j o u rna l i s m , art,
and the academy. C r itical thought takes its d i stance f rom these
th ree wo r l d s as much as f ro m the b i g wo r l d beyond them,
but for that l a rger d i stance to p rove usef u l , c r itical thought
has to mark itself off fro m the c loser targets of j o u rna l i s m, art,
and the academy. I n b rief, these three wo r l d s have f a i led to
afford the cond itions for the i r own neg ation.
What are we to think of American j o u rna l i sm? That it wou l d
be a good i dea. It ceased t o ex i st when the r u l ing powers
d i scovered it m o re efficient, and m o re affordable to r u le w ithout
it. This p roved easier than anyone i ma g i ned. It was j ust a m atter
of tu rning the r i g i d r u les of product i on of A merican j o u rnal i st i c
p rose against themse lves. N o story can b e consi dered c o m plete
unti l its reporte r has heard from both s i des. S o by the s i m p le
exped ient of manufact u ring a " s i de" convenient to the i r
interests, and p utt ing eno u g h money beh i nd it, the r u l i ng powers
have ensu red that they wi II have the i r interests "covered "
at least fifty percent of the ti me. A l l one needs is a think tank
so named because it is where th inkers a re paid not to.
At the extreme o ppos ite end of the c u ltural scale f ro m
the c h e a p truth of the p ress are the bespoke contri vances of
the art world. Rather than news you can use, art specia l i zes
in a venerable uselessness. This uselessness bestows on
art a certa in autono my f rom the g r i m deal ings in shopwo rn
s l ogans and infoporn that characterize a l l other doma ins of
the s pectacle. Or so it once seemed . If j o u rnal ism fi nd s itself
"
recr u ited to the retai l ing of interested f a b les, art finds itself
recr u ited into the p rototy p i ng of fasc inating cons u m a b les.
As the econo my comes more and m o re to c i rc u l ate i m ages of
th ings rather than the th ings themsel ves, art is deta i led with
the task of at l ast mak ing interesting i mages of what these
nonexi stent t h i ngs are not.
Meanwhi le, in the academy, the talent for h i storical c r i t i c i s m
h a s f a l len into d i suse. T h e s c h o o l s no l onger to lerate it. C ritical
theory has become hypocr itical theo ry. If there was a wrong tu rn,
it bears the name Lou i s Althusser. He leg i t i m ated a carve-u p of
5

the rea l m of appearances that conformed a l l too neatly to the

ex isting d i s c i plinary a rrangement. Henceforth , the econ o m i c,
the pol iti cal, and the ideo l og i cal (or c u ltural) were to be
treated as "relatively autonomous" domai ns, each with its
own s pec i a l i zed cadre of scholars.
And thus the critical fo rce of h i storical thoug ht was
separated i nto various spec i alizations and absorbed back i nto
b u s i ness as usual with i n the s pectacle. H av i n g renounced the
criti c i s m of the wor l d , the wo r l d - i n the form of journ a l i s m , art,
and the academy-can safely i g nore it. The marg i n s outs i de
the s pectacular wor l d that o n ce harbored a g l i m mer of negati o n
have been all b u t forec l osed. What rema i n s i s profes s i on a l i zed
anesthes ia, mour n i n g c o m m u n ities, d i sco urse c l u bs, legacy
fetish i sts. S o me a ges betray a deep respect for the i r criti c a l
th i n kers. To Soc rates, they offered hem l oc k; t o Jes us, the cross.
These days i t's Zo loft, a c o l u m n-or ten u re.
The restoration of criti cal thought i s a b i g project, then.
Before we can take three steps forward we have to take two
steps back. Back to the scene of the c r i me, or at least to one
of them. To Par i s i n the 1950s, when the fateful turn toward
the i n stituti o n a l i zation of critical thought was j ust about to be
made. Back to the last best attempt to found a critical thought
i n and agai nst i ts i nstitutional forms of j o urna l i sm, art, and
the academy.

Myths of Exemption
3-10

The Si tuati o n i st International was founded by th ree women

and s i x men in J u l y 1957 in the l ittle L i g u r i an town of Cosio
d ' A rroscia. All that rem a i n s of th i s fab led event are a series
of sti r r i n g docu ments and some p h otographs, cas u a l but
made with an arti st's eye, by fou n d i n g member Ra l p h Rum ney.
He would not rem a i n a member for long . The Situat i o n i st
I nternational d i ssolved i tself i n 1972. In i ts fifteen years of
ex i stence, o n l y 72 people were ever mem bers of it.
Its roots-so the myth goes-l ie i n the Pa r i s of the ear l y '50s,
and a l ittle group that called i tself the Internationale Lettr i ste.
6

A few adventu rers found each other i n that l ost quarter of Par i s ,
t h e best-made laby r i nth f o r reta i n i ng wanderer? There they
fou nd, i n their pereg r i nations, the portents of the dec l i ne and
fa l l of t h i s wor ld. A m ong t h i s provis i o n a l mi cro-soc iety were
those you could define o n l y by what they weren't. Deserters,
lost c h i ldre n, and the g ir l s who had run away from home and the
reformatory. P rofess i o n a l s a l l -of no profes sion. What starts
badly can, tha n kfu l ly, never i mprove.
The modern poets led them there. They were the happy
few who felt it was necessary to carry out poetry's prog ram i n
rea l ity. There cou ld be n o more poetry or a rt. They had to find
somet h i n g better. Here revo lt decl a red itself i ndependent of
any part i c u l ar cause. They engaged i n a systematic question i n g
of a l l the di vers i o n s a n d labors o f society, a total c ritique o f its
idea of happ i ness, expressed in acts. They were at war with the
whole wo rld, but l i g htheartedl y. Their task was a prod i g ious
i nactiv ity. The only causes they s u pported they had to define
for themselves.
The hard part was to convey through these apparent l y
del i rious propos a l s a suffic ient degree o f seri o u s seduction.
To acco m p l i s h th i s they resorted to an adroit use of currently
popu lar mea n s of c o m m u n icati on. The i r p l an was to flood the
market with a mass of des i res whose rea l i zation i s not beyond
o u r present means but o n l y beyond the capacity of the old
soc ial org a n i zation.
Their l ittle grou p was o n the marg i n s of the eco nomy,
tendi ng toward a role of p u re consumpti o n , and above a l l the
free c o n s u m ption of ti me. A few encou nters were l i ke s ig n a l s
emanat i n g from a more i nte nse l ife, a l ife n ot yet fou nd.
The atmosphere of a few p l aces gave them i nti mations of the
future powers of an arc h itecture it wo u l d be necessary to
c reate as the a m b ience for less mediocre g a mes.
W hen f reedom is practi ced i n a c l osed c irc le, it fades i nto
a dream and becomes a mere representati o n of itself. Others
would l ater promote various theories and co m m it asso rted
artistic deeds. B ut when one has the o pportu n i ty to take part i n
s u c h an adventure a s this, a n d has avo ided a l l the specta c u l a r
crashes that c a n befa l l one, then o n e is n o t i n an easy position.
7

They circled the nig ht, consumed by fire. They had to discover
how to live the days after such a fi n e beginning and with such a
discovery: that obedience is dead.

Recu peratio n Perfected

Although the Situationist Intern ational achieved a certain
mythic resonance in ava nt-g arde circles, a n d was later id entified
with the even ts of May '68 in Paris, it did not become part of
what o n e mig ht call official inter national cultural exc hange
until t h e e n d of the '80s, when the Pom pido u Center m o unted a
retrospective that toured London and Bosto n . This was also the
year Greil Marc us p u blish ed Lipstic k Traces, which placed the
Situationists less in art history than in the history of oppositional
p o pular culture, which for Marcu s passed throu g h Dada a n d the
Situationists and on to punk.2
Since 1987 there has been, if not a flood, then at least a steady
rain of pu blications. 3 The effect of these has been to fix the
value of the Situationists i n inter national cultural exchange by
recuperating them to o n e or another of the following kind s of
cultural value. After 1989 it became obviou s that the Situationists
were part of the context for post- p u n k m u sic, as the sleeve n otes
for the reissues rarely fail to m ention . 4 (Although give n that
p u n ks have turned out to be as boring as hippies, it mig ht be
time to investigate the c uriou s collusion between Situationist
practices and c ertain phenomena in the rave scen e.) Meanwhile
various attempts have been made to write them into art history.5
The writings of t h e Situatio nists' one consistent presen ce, G u y
De bord , now have recognized literary value.6 His film works are
now available in a boxed s ee T h e architectural legacy of the
Situationists is now also extensively d oc u m e nted.s Th ere is a
consistent attem pt to make the Situationists prec ursors to o n e
o r other species o f contemporary leftism.9 Last, they play s o m e
c urious roles in contemporary p hiloso phy.lO
My own interest is slig htly different. Rather than see the
Situationists thro u g h the pris m of one or another s pecialized
branch of knowledge, I prefer to see them through the pris m of
8

those g roups who atte m pted to conti n u e t h eir l egacy and to

overco m e it. I ' m i nte rested in those who, like me, read Debord's
Soci ety of the Spectacl e a t a n impressio n a b l e age, a n d decided
thereafter to do someth i n g with it, even if we were not s u re
what. These g ro u ps, active in the '80s and '90s, are not the
same as the " pro-Situ" g ro u ps that cou l d be found in the '70s,
who te nded to m i m i c Situationist s l og a n s and p ractices and
were prone i n partic u l a r to exorb itant cataracts of dogma and
b o i sterous bouts of m utual rec ri minatio n .11 Interesting l y, while
the S ituationists presented their p roject as beyond both art
a n d politics, the p ro-Situ g roups retu r n , n ot to convent i o n a l art
practices, but to equal l y conventional polit i cs. The g roups that
i nte rest me at l east attempt to re i m a g i n e the Situatio n i st p roject
beyond both art a n d pol iti cs, f ree to th i n k strategic a l l y about
interven i ng in and agai nst oth e r sph eres.12
So for me the i nterest i n g t h i ngs are not so much the
works of scholarsh i p about the Situation i sts as the attempts
to pl u n d e r the treasu res of t h i s mate r i a l for conte m porary
p u r poses. The S ituatio n i sts c reated the theory and p r act ice
of detournement, of sam p l i ng past c u ltu ral p rod ucts and
i nteg rat i n g them i nto new creations, a n d hence the reverentia l
q u otation of S ituati o n i st texts or art is a l ways necessa r i l y
o utside of t h e s p i rit of t h e thi ng. Hence m y attraction to works
by the Bernadette Corpo r ation, DJ Rab bi, D J S pooky, C ritical
11
A rt E n s e m b l e, the Associatio n for the A dvancement of I l l e g a l
Knowledge, t h e L uthe r B l i ssett P roj ect, t h e Neo i st A l l i ance,
and the Radica l S oftware G ro u p. These d ifferent outfits,
12
i n th e i r various ways, treat the S ituati o n i st I nter natio n a l as
common prope rty. They a p p ro p r i ate f ro m it as they see fit,
in prec i s e l y the m a n n e r of the "l ite rary c o m m u n i s m " that
the Situat i o n i sts themse l ve s advocated.13 My i nterest i n the
S ituat i o n i sts i s in part a prolegomenon to a n acco u nt of such
g roups. My own activities have a lways been c l oser to t h i s
a p p roac h , a n d h ave a lways h a d a d iffic u lt b u t f r u i tf u l re lation
to S ituatio n i st mate r i a l .14
Of cou rse, these approaches are no l e s s acts of recupe ration
than any othe r. Recuperation began fro m the very m o ment
the Situati o n i st I nternational was fou nded. It's what lends an
9

arrest i n g p o i g nancy to R u m n ey's photographs. On De bord's

account at least, the org a n i zation was d i sso lved p rec i s e l y
because its recu peration was by 1972 a lready comp l ete. B y t h e n
t h e S ituat i o n i st International h a d become c u stodian not o f its
own past activ ity but merely of its i mage. It had become m ere l y
a col l ective c e l e brity, p a r t o f t h e spectac u l ar con s u m ption of
"rad i c a l c h i c." Too many e l e me nts of its work were n ot mere l y
coopted b u t coopted against it. H a v i n g i nvaded t h e spectac le,
the s pectac l e i nvaded it i n retu rn. It was no longer a secret
enemy of spectacu lar soci ety, but a known one. Its theory
became i d e o l o gy, mere conte m p l ation. "C onte m p lation of the
S ituat i o n i st I nternational is mere l y a s u p p l e m e ntary a l ienation
,
of a l i enated soci ety., 15
To rea l ly write, you have to read; to read, you have to l i ve.
The recuperator i s u n a b l e to l i ve. "Ti me scares h i m because it
i s made up of q u a l itati ve l eaps, i rrevers i b l e cho ices and once
in a l ifet i m e opportun ities. The [recuperator] d i s g u i se s t i m e
to h i msel f as a m e re un iform s pace th ro u g h w h i c h he wi l l p i c k
h i s way, g o i n g f r o m o n e m istake t o another, o n e fa i l i ng t o the
,,
next, grow i n g constantly r i c h er. 16 The very l east we can do now
is to recu p erate in an i nteresting way. A first step m i g ht be to
recog n i ze that the S ituati o n i sts' various practices cannot be
cut up with i n the i nte l l ectual d i v i s io n of l a b o r and sti l l m a ke any
sense. Recuperation must be a l l o r noth i n g .
construction of situations

u n itary
urbanism
(per im ental behavior
derive

psychogeogr3phy
architecture

permanent play

______

detournement of

prefabricated
aesthetic elements

10

As out l i ned i n the d i ag ram prese nted o n the 1957 poster

13
"New Theater of Operations for C u lture," the Situat i o n i st
I nternational's concepts and practices form a u n ity. 17 Starting
on the l eft, we can take the bas i c attitude to be experimental
behavior. Of w h i c h o n l y o n e expression i s the derive, or u rban
d r ift. Thi s poses the q uestion of what othe r k i n ds of expe r i m ental
behavior one m i g ht i nvent. S u ch expe r i m e nts lead to the practice
of permanent play. T h i s p l ayf u l n ess, where it concerns the raw
mate r i a l of exist i n g c ultu re, l eads to the p ractice of detournement;
where it concerns bu i lt e nv i ro n ments, to psychogeography,
o r the s u bjective a m b i ence of part i c u l a r s paces and ti mes.
Both are reap p ro p r i ation of an al ienated wor l d , s u bject i n g it to
action i n the present.
14
Taken togethe r, detournement and psychogeog raphy i m p l y
a unitary urbanism, of whi ch o n l y a component o r s u p po rt i s a
Situat i o n i st arch itectu re. Un itary u rb a n i s m appears m o re as the
co m b i ned p rod uct of what detournement can a l ready achieve i n
more ephemeral med ia, a n d what psychog e o g raphy i m pl i es it
cou l d d o with w h o l e environme nts. Which b r i ngs u s to the top of
the d i agram, its hi ghest a m b ition, the construction of situations.
The one th i ng the S ituat i o n i st I nternat i o n a l never ac h i eved was
the construction of situati o n s, a lthough it is poss i b l e some of
the a lternative factions of ex-m embers it s pawned may have
come cl ose.
To explore some of these i nter l o c k i n g concepts, I t u r n now
to some i nter locking biograp h i es that pass th rough the offi c i a l
Situat i o n i st International and someti mes beyo nd it. With i n
any stru ctu re, even a largely i m ag i nary o n e l i ke t h e S ituat i o n i st
International, there i s always a netwo rk. T h i n k i n g about such
netwo rks c a l l s for a somewhat d ifferent approach to history and
thought f rom either the biog raphy of i n d i v i d ua l s or the hi sto ry
of i nstitutions. B ut then re i mag i n i ng what is l iv i n g rather than
what i s dead in the S ituat i o n i st a rchive might cal l for some
new a p p roaches. H oward Sl ater: " H i stor i o g raphy is one t h i n g
when it i s a history i n t h e abstract that s e e ks to fi n d orig i n s a n d
f r o m these orig i n s reassume t h e reproduction o f those al ready
,, 18
B ut anothe r h i sto r iography can
outmoded soci a l relations.
exi st, and perhaps it cou l d in a certa i n sense be a Situat i o n i st one.
11

Experi menta l Behavior

15

G i useppe Ga l l i z i o (1902-64}- P i not to h is f r i e n ds-was, by h i s

own accou nt, a n "archaeo l o g i st, bota n i st, c h e m i st, parfumier,
,
parti san, k i n g of the gypsies., 19 A n d one cou l d add: an i nvento r
o f both p e rformance a r t and the i nsta l lati on. It was h e , togethe r
w ith A s g e r Jorn, who brought togethe r the C o n g ress of Free
A rt ists in 1956 in Ga l l i z i o 's hom etown of A l ba. T h i s was
the event that l a i d the g rou ndwork for the formation of the
Situat i o n i st Inte rnational the fol l ow i n g year in Cosio, where he
wou l d become a fou n d i n g m e m ber. T h i s w h o l e com i n g togeth e r
he d e s c r i bed a s a "chem ical reactio n ," f o r w h i c h Debord 's
group was the cata l yst.
Gal l i z io 's approach was cons i stently expe r i mental. H e saw
rationa l i s m as a k i n d of case-by-case j u stifi cation for ex i st i n g
relatio n s o f power, a cas uistry, a l ways a rg u i n g about wheth e r
someth i n g is beautifu l o r ug ly, good o r bad, a b l e o r u n a b l e
t o c reate a nyth i n g i nterest i n g . F o r Ga l l i z i o a n yth i n g i nterest i n g
wo u l d be outs i d e t h e g r a s p o f such categories. H e took a i m at
"an e l ite capa b l e of l y i n g in order to be r i ght a l l the t i m e and n ot
for the sake of reason ." J u d g i n g l e g i t i m ates power as val uation,
not creation. A g a i nst which h e offered "the Espe ranto of color
or sound o r shape"-f1ows of sen sation ava i l a b l e to anyone.20
For Ga l l i z i o the mate r i a l s and practices of an expe r i menta l
com portme nt are avai l a b l e to everyone: "the masses h ave
u n d erstood and a l ready the b reath lessness of a new poetic
moment i s a n x i o u s l y beat i n g at the d oors of peo p l e bored by the
t i red ideals fabricated b y the self- r i g hteous i ncom p re h e n s i o n
o f t h e myste r i o u s powerf u l o f t h e e a rth."2 1
G a l l i z i o's exp e r i menta l practice was entirely o n e of p rocess,
and h i s i nterest was in the com i n g i nto b e i n g and autonomous
deve lopment of a esth eti c processes, wh ich cou l d occur
by parthenog e n e s i s . H e ca l l ed his work ensemble painting.
T h i s sh ifted detournement from the a r ra n g i n g of preexi sti ng
aesth etic e l e m e nts to the arrangng of preex i sti ng re l ati ons h i ps
among peo p l e . H i s goal was what he cal l ed an anti-patent
p rocess for the s h a r i n g and mod ification of l ife. Pai nt i n g wou l d
b e l i ke the group i mprovi sat i o n s of jazz, o r l i ke a good cockta i l,
12

a c h e mistry of com bination, a sym phony of e m otions, made by

urban ists of the m i n i ma l , creating new k i n d s of civitas.
Gal lizi o's ensem b l e s did n ot j u st produce rare and sin g u lar
works like oth er artists. They produced industrial painting.
These were o n l y very min i ma l l y the product of actu al mac h i nes
(a ltho ugh G a l l izio did invent his own pig m e nts and a specia l
k i l n for rapid dye i ng) . The idea was m ore that painting c o u l d
b e made u s i ng mechan i s m s of repetition a n d var iation to
u n d ermine the uniq u e g esture. T h i s process of paint i ng
d eve lops by itse lf, but is not predicta b l e. G a l lizio wanted to
make the mac hine p e rfo rm the u niqu e gestu re. The res u lt
wo u l d br i ng tog eth er the c reative and sing u l ar with the serial
and repeated. He i nvented, in short, a synthesis of the two
o pposed strands of the avant-ga rd e: the S u rrea l i sts a n d the
Constructivists. I nd u str i a l p rod uction is a qua ntitative concept,
yet i n d ustri a l p a i nt i ng is a form of production i n which each
meter of the art produced is u niq ue. Mic hele Ber nstein:
,,
"a sh rewd mixture of chance a n d mechanics. 22
I nd ustr i a l paint i ng was an i nti mation of a new soci ety
of standard luxu ry, which c o u l d com b i n e abu ndance with
d ifference, where qua ntity and q ua lity cou l d e nter into
new, no ndial ectical rel ations. " Perhaps the mac h i n e is the
o n l y i n strument q u a l ified to create art that is i nflationary and
ind ustria l and therefore based on the anti-patent." 23 I n an
u nconsci o u s echo of, and va riation on, Wa lter Benjamin,
G a l lizio conj ures u p a mecha nization of art that does not
reproduce exist i ng images but is capa b l e of producing ever-new
o nes.24 Mac h i n es, he says prop h etica l l y, "wi l l produce so much
art we won't even have the time to fi x it in our me mory; machines
wil l re m e m be r for us. Other machines wil l inte rvene to destroy,
d eterm i n i ng the s ituations of no val ue; there w i l l no l o nger be
wor ks of art . . . but exchanges of air-ecstatic, artistic-a mong
,,
,,
peoples. 25 Mire l l a Bandini: " u n l eash inflati o n everywhere. 26
The pote ntia l of machines to i n flate the creative production
of n ew sen sations a p pears on the scene as a direct result of
the i nternal contradictions of the commodification of c u lture.
" For a l l these t h i n g s o h sti l l powerf u l l ords of the earth, sooner
or l ater you wi l l give us the machi n e s to p l ay with or we wi l l
13

16

bui l d them to occ u py that free time that you, with crazy greed,
look forward to occu pying with bana lity and the progressive
,,
depopulation of brains. 27 The spectacle, which renders all
c u lture equival e nt, relies on an indu strial base that can be
turned against e q uiva l e nce and exch ange. Industrial painting
is Gallizio 's model for a g e n era lized creative production that
c o m bines the m u ltiplication that the machine all ows with the
creative processes of variation and montage.
I nd u strial painting im plies not o n l y a new aesth etic, but a
new economy, what Gal lizio called the anti- patent society.
A nti-patent is a practice of exchange among creators that
does not have to pass through the general eq uivalent of money.
Rath er it is an exchange based o n the purely q u a litative.
"The c urre ncy of the future wil l be time-space or rather the
exchange between Situationists of experience that will take
place in a s pace-time and the sca l e of the phenomena wil l
,
also deter mine the inte nsity., 28 One qu alitative gesture calls
forth a noth er, and a n oth er, making every re l ationship creative,
aesthetic, in a word, different. Gal lizio fa ntasizes a society
of pure difference, yet a l so of abu ndance. It is a return to the
precapitalist world that he discovers in his work as an amateur
archaeologist, digging u p and carefully annotating the sto n e
a n d pottery creations o f t h e ancient Lig urians aro u n d his
be loved A l ba. B ut the sin g u l ar creative acts of the a n cients
are c o m bined in Gallizio's experi mental laboratory with the
overcoming of scarcity that the machine a n n o u nces.
Thus emerges the non-order that at last-brings socia l
relatio ns back in line with the n o n - order, or rather e m ergent
order, of nature. The work that best em bodies this is Gallizio's
Caver n of Anti-Matter (prod uced perhaps with some painterly
assistance from Soshana Afroyim). Like Jorn, G a l l izio took
a strong interest in contemporary science, and what his
somewhat fanciful and poetic riffi ng on it amounts to is the
intuition that late twentieth -century scie nce was undoing the
last rem nants of belief in a divine,a nd eter nal order. With the
d eath of God and the d eath of Art, scie nce sti l l p l ayed a role in
legitimating bourg eois society, in providing, in directly and often
unintentio nally, an image of an eter nal and lawf ul cos mic order.
14

G a l l i z i o antici pates the poss i b i l ity of what Ma n u e l D e Landa

has cal l ed an onto logy without law. 29 H i s Cave rn of A nti-Matter 17
i s a n al l-encompass i n g world of pure becom ing .
Whereas the bou rgeo i s appropriation of s c i ence sti l l d reams
of a l aw-gove rned cosmos that may conta i n i s l a nds of d i sord er,
Ga l l i z i o proposes q u ite the reverse, a cos m os of chaos with
i s l ands of ord er: "The constants of matter wi l l defi n it i ve l y
c o l l a pse: a l l the i d e o l og i es o f ete rn ity w i l l d i s i nteg rate i n the
hand s of the powerf u l and i m m o rta l i ty wi l l d i si ntegrate and
the pro b l e m s of eterna l i z i n g matte r wi l l increas i n g l y fade to
nothing, thus l e av i ng the art i sts of chaos the infinite joy of the
forever-new. The new, conceived with the r i s k of an i nfi n ite
fantasy . . . proc u re d from free energ i es that man w i l l u s e i n the
m e lt i ng down of the gold val ue, m eant as the f rozen e nergy
,,
from the ignoble ban k i n g system that i s n ow decompos i ng. 30
A l l that re m a i n s i s to conce i ve a practice of d ri ft i n g through
18
a wor l d itself a d r ift. Let's ri de.

T h e Derive Genera l i zed

Your car has been sto l e n , that much you know. The p o l ice c a l l
to say they may have found it. They take you to see the most
tan g l ed, m a n g l ed wreck you have ever seen. The fenders are
bent, the b u m pers crushed, even the roof s e e m s l i ke someone
j u m ped g l eef u l l y up a n d down on i t, a lth o u g h it i s hard to te l l
as the car i s u p s i d e down. Gradual l y you pi ece tog eth e r what
happened . "Yes, t h i s i s my c a r," you te l l the pol i ce. "I t h i n k it
was sto l e n by i nc red i b l y dru n k joy r i d ers." It's detect i ve work as
geometry. You recog n i ze a form that has been folded, twi sted
and rotated 180 degrees.
Asger Jorn (19 14-73) i s w i d e l y acknowl edged as one of the
g reat mid twe ntieth-century artists. T. J. C l ark: "the g reatest
,,
pai nter of the fifties. 31 H i s contr i bution to the Si tuat i o n i sts
has been somew hat ig nored. It is w i d e l y h e l d that he f u nded it,
and that even after he l eft it he s u p ported D e bord by donating
h i s p i ctu res. Yet his writi ngs rarely s how u p i n anth o l o g i e s of
Situationist materi a l. T h i s i n sp ite of the fact that he made
15

seve ral key contri b utions to the j o u rnal. The S ituat i onist
International even p ub l i sh ed a book l et of h i s writi ngs on v a l ue
and the economy.32
It doesn 't h e l p matters that Jorn's writings are next to
unreadable. H i s prose is m e rc u r i a l i n a q u i te prec ise sense.
It cl u m ps togethe r obsessively around a top i c that ag itates
h i m, before speed i n g off l i ke q u i c ks i l ve r onto someth i n g e l se.
Sti l l , it is pos s i b l e to extract from Jo rn's texts a qu ite u n i q u e
take o n t h e Situationist p roject, o n e he was more entitled than
most to c l a i m as i n part his own.
Jorn concei ves of a situology that wo u l d be based not ju st
on aesthetic or pol itical g ro u n d s , but a l so on geometr ical ones.
S ituology wou l d p l ay out the conseque nces for an exp e r i mental
practice b u i lt on that b ranch of g e ometry known as to pology.
C onventional art h i story sees as a d e c i s ive turn i ng p o i nt the
E u c l idean geometry that enters p i cto r i a l representation as
perspect i ve in the Rena i ssance, but it never q u ite retu r n s to
advances i n geometry as a source for new p r actices. For Jorn
the situatio n is n ot j u st a pol itical and aesthet i c move, it i s a l so
a geometric one. The s ituation i s a "spat i a l -te mporal wor k
a l i e n t o t h e o l d properti es o f art." 33
One way of expl a i n i ng J orn's idea of the s ituation wou l d be
to say that a situatio n i s a s e r i es of mom ents that a re congruent.
In c l ass ical geometry, two tri a n g l e s are co n g ruent if I can make
one i d e ntical to the othe r by rotat i n g , fl i pp i ng , o r sh ift i ng i t.
In topo logy, th i ng s are a l ittl e m o re com p l i cated. In the famous
exam p l e, a coffee cup a n d a d o u g h n ut are cong ru ent because
one can be transformed into the oth e r by stretc h i ng, s q ueez ing,
o r fold i n g the form without m a k i n g any holes i n the shape.
Indeed, m o l d i n g d o u g h n uts into coffee-cup shapes m i ght be
a s u itab l y J or n i a n exe rcise.
In topology, as in c l a s s i c a l geometry i n general, time is
assumed to be as uniform and even as s pace is. Thus, the
fli p p ing of the triang l e or the s q u e e z i n g of the d o u g h n ut i nto the
coffee-cup shape can happen th same way every ti me. In J o r n 's
s ituolog y, t i me is not so c o n s i stent. S ituology is the stud y of
mom ents that are cong r uent with each oth e r as a s e r i es but that
a re not repeatab l e. Situology is the experience of a s ituation
16

g enera l i zed, al most as a kind of onto logy. S ituol ogy is the point
of v i ew of the joyride r of time rather than that of the detective
who conte m p l ates the stretched, squ eezed, o r folded rema ins
after the event.
J o rn ref utes the idea of a s pati al g e ometry independ ent of
ti me, s i nce it is movem ent that c reates the bas is for measu re
and com parison, and hence for quanti ficat i on and i d entificat i on,
i n g eometry. S ituology stu d i es what the Situationists e l s ewhere
ca l l ambiences, whi c h are experi enced s u bjecti vely as
cons i stenc ies of mood, but whi ch for J o rn a re l i ke bl ocks of t i m e
that form a te mporal unity independent o f t h e universal, abstract
time that the c l oc k meas u res. S ituol ogy, J o rn wr ites, i s "that
which concerns the intrins i c properties of fig u res without any
,,
rel ation to the i r env i ronment. 34 Jorn wants to position avant
g arde p ractice not onl y in advance of certa in aestheti c , pol itical,
or cultural precedents, but in advance of m athematical ones as
well. A rt took over f ro m c l assical g eo m etry certa in l i m itations.
It perc e i ves s pace as uniform and abstract. It conc e i ves t i m e
as if i t were a d i mens i on o f s pace.
Interesting l y, J o rn th inks there is a countertrad ition in art
that, in the '50s at l east, was hard l y we l l known. A convent i onal
v i ew m i g ht start with the G re e k d i scovery of c l assical geometry,
form a l i zed by E uc l i d and passed on f ro m the H e l l enist i c wor l d
to the Rena i s sance, and then o n t o a certa in k ind o f modernis m,
exe m p l i fied by the a rchitectu re of Le C o r b u s i e r whi ch the
Situationi sts so revi led. Jo rn co unte rposes to t h i s a few
instances of a d iffe rent a p p roach to geometry. If the e m b l ematic
fi g u re for the G reek a p p roach i s the set squ are, Jo rn's i ma g e
for the co untertradition i s the knot, w h i c h h e find s in L e Tene
and othe r C e ltic d e s i gns, for exa m p l e. Half a century l ater
we cou l d perhaps construct a who l e canon of such forms.
If "s ituo logy i s the transformative m orpho l ogy of the unique,"
then we do not lack for exa m p l es of p ractices by w h i c h the
unique was produced.35
The knot i s not a bad e m b l e m of a situati on, at l east as
Jorn conc e i ves it. Viewed f rom the outs ide, a complex knot
appears as a m ess of intersecting b its, l i ke a dev i l 's street map.
B ut conceived intrins i c a l l y, experienced, as it were, i t h as a
17

19

20

con s i ste ncy, despite its twi sts and tur ns. It is the "same" rope,
no matte r how its a n g l e vari es, o r which other parts of itself i t is
i n co ntact with. The knot i s a s ituati on. Lea r n i n g to t i e a f a b u l o u s
knot i s l i ke the a r t o f the derive, i n whi ch the S ituati o n i sts
wandered the streets of Pa r i s l o o k i ng for cons i ste n c i es of
a m b i e nce, mak i ng connective threads through the street g r i d .
The knot i s Jorn's fig u re o f si tuology a s the derive general ized.
One ne ed not wander the streets forever. The derive, raised to
the l eve l of the concept, can now be practiced i n al most any
k i n d of t i m e-s pace whatsoever.
If for c l as s i c a l geometry a triang l e j ust "is," p u re and ete r n a l ,
f o r J o r n a knot i s someth i n g that comes i nto being and passes
out of b e i n g , is tied and untied, in ti me. The t i me that passes i n
the tyi n g of the knot i s part o f it. A s ituology encompasses both
the spatial and temporal aspects of form, but is sti l l i nte rested
in the " u n itary" p roperties of form in ti me. A s ituation is a
un i ta ry spatio-te m poral fi g u re. "The exc l u sion of breaks a n d
i nte r r u ptions, the constancy o f i ntens ity a n d the u n i q u e fee l i n g
of the p ropagation of the processes, whi ch d efines a situat i o n ,
a l so exc l udes the d i v i s i o n i nto seve ral ti mes . . . . " 36 A s ituation i s
somewhere between the ordered a n d the random, a tempora r i l y
stab l e a m b ience o r autono my, that comes i nto b e i n g a n d passes
away, as D e bord wou l d say, "in the war of t i m e.,,37 A s ituology is
l i ke a d i v i n i n g rod for d i scove r i n g i nteresti n g times and spaces.
H e re Jorn wants to d i sti n g u i sh his s ituology from the
to pology that neverthe less e n a b l es hi m to thi n k i t. Topology
is i nterested i n the congruence of forms, of how one form can
be transformed i nto a n othe r by cont i n uo u s d eformati on. Once
such a cong ruence is p roven, it can be repeated. It occurs with i n
a u n iversal and abstract ti m e. Situology i s not i nterested i n
the v i ew from o uts ide, i n look i n g at the transformation from
outsi de. It i s m o re i nte rested i n the i nternal expe r i e n ce of the
transfo rmation. It i s i nte rested i n b locks of s pace-t i m e that a re
38
cont i n u ous and autonomous, a n d not necessa r i l y repeata b l e .
S ituology i s to po l og y without eqlli val ence. "Our goal i s to
o p pose a p l astic and e le m e ntary geometry agai nst egal itarian
and E ucl i d e a n geometry, and with the he l p of both, to go toward
,,
a geometry of variables, a p layf u l and d ifferent i a l geometry. 39
18

Jorn rather boldly c l a i m s to set topo l o g y itself on the r i g ht

cou rse. "What is needed today i s a thoug ht, a ph ilosophy,
and a n art that conform to that which i s projected by topolog y,
but t h i s i s only poss i ble o n condition that t h i s branch of modern
sci ence i s retu rned to its o r i g i nal course: that of the s itu
analysis or s ituology.,,4o An extravagant c l a i m , but J o r n was
writing in the cl i m ate of postwar thoug ht, when the mai nstream
of mathematics, particula r l y in France, had taken a particular l y
log ical, ri gorous, a n d formalist ro ute, a n d was especi ally
s u s p i c i o u s of g e o metry. Jorn antici pates the rev ival of i nterest
i n com plexity, chaos, and t u r b u lence that wou ld not come for
some years.41
More i nteresti n g , perhaps, are the conseq uences Jorn i ntu its
for m o re aesthet i c and expe r i mental practices. Fro m v i s u al art
to c i nema o r i n stallations or "happe n i ngs," the flat p i cture plan e
i s extended i nto n e w d i m e n s i ons, n e w spat i a l d i m e nsi ons, the
temporal d i m e n s i o n , but always with i n certai n l i m its. "[O] n e
can not speak anymore o f p u re l y spatial phenomena," he says,
"movem e nt is there from the very beg i n n i n g.,,42 A rt has h itherto
been ju st l i ke pla ne geometry, b racketing off the com plex ity
of t i me and space, as if that c o m p l exity were an i nvad i ng
random ness. Jorn i s p o i nt i ng to a practice of the eve nt, a n
aesth etics o f t h e eve nt, a n d even a politics of the eve nt, where
the event is conceived as a block of t i m e and s pace that varies,
deforms, morphs, but that happens i n time and may not happen
a g a i n . In oth er words, a situation.
J o r n d raws a fateful d i sti ncti on: "Here t h e fie ld of
situolog i c al expe r i ence is d i v i ded i nto two o pposed tendencies,
the lud i c tendency and the anal yt i c tenden cy.,,43 On the one
hand, the te ndency of art and p l ay; o n the oth e r, that of theory.
The j oy r i d e r takes up the fi rst tendency; you as the hapless
car own e r, the seco nd. Jo rn's a m b ition was for a s ituology
that m ig h t advance both. T h i s d i v i s i o n is i n many ways the
fault l i n e a l o n g w h i c h the S ituati o n i st International fell apart,
with Debord's Par i s faction purs u i n g the a n a l ytic tendency,
and the Scand i na v i a n s around J orn's brother Nas h , the
German S p u r g roup, and Jacq u eli ne d e J o n g 's S ituat i o n i st
Times i n A m ste rdam purs u i n g the ludic. Legend has it that
19

gifts of artworks from J orn hel ped fund a l l of these facti ons,
and perhaps for him they were a l l fragments of a larger project
whose eventual synth e s i s he foresaw but did not live to see.
With J orn's death in 1973 a l l of these incong ruous S itu ationi st
projects m o re or l ess came to an end.
For J o rn, s ituol ogy p i c ked up the th read of what he i mag ined
was someth ing of a secret know ledge of certa in morphol ogies.
A way of tying and untying knots. The knots and othe r intricate
patte rns that decorate certain works in J o rn 's countertradition
are keys to a knowledge that is neithe r esoteric mysti c i s m nor
P l atonic rationa l i sm, but someth ing q u ite d i fferent. A practica l
knowledge o f s ituations. J orn wanted to introd uce t i m e into
geometry, but a l so chance into ti m e.
A Ga lton mach ine is a fie l d of equa l l y spaced pins, above
which is a s lot that releases ba l l s, and be low which is a ser i e s
o f s l ots that catch them. If t h e top s l ot i s positioned in the
m i d d l e and bal l s are rel eased i nto the g r i d , the chances are that
most ba l l s w i l l deviate a bit when they hit the p i ns but w i l l fa l l
in one of the center s l ots below. A few of the bal l s wi l l end u p
bouncing farther off the center l i ne, but overal l the device wi l l
s h ow a Gaussian d i stribution.
It's essent i a l l y p i nba l l without the fun. I n pinba l l , the bal l i s
a l ways g o i ng to end u p pass ing th rough t h e m i d d l e between
the fl i p pe rs, but some ba l l s-th rough l uck or s k i l l-wi l l take
a l ong t i m e to do so. The Ga lton mach ine, or p i nba l l, is J o rn's
i ma g e of the derive. Ti m e and space are not smooth and even.
Th ere are ti lts, there are edd i es, there are zones that attract
the ba l l s and zones that repel them. T h i s is also, Jorn rem inds
us, how the te l e p hone network functi ons. C ons i d ered in the
abstract, the Ga lton mach ine or a te l e phone network is a flat
and even fie ld. A ba l l cou l d land anywhere; a c a l l cou ld connect
any two points. B ut in a r i c h e r spatia l and tem pora l context it
i sn't l i ke that. S o m e passages are more l i ke l y than oth e rs, but
there are infinitesimal edd i es and fis sures shaping the ba l l 's
move ment, or the cal l 's ci rcu it, o rlhe swerve of someone on a
derive, who takes t h i s street rather than that one. Or a joyrider
who ste a l s yo u r car rather than m i ne.
20

Un itary Urban i s m
F o r a l l of h i s theoret ical extravagance, J orn re mai ned a pai nter.
It wo u l d not be ev i d e nt to anyone for qu ite some t i me to come
just how ext raord i n ary J o r n 's practical contr i b utions to t h e
movement rea l l y were. I n t h e e a r l y '60s a l l that w a s apparent
was the i n s uffici ency of pa i nt i ng, and the d e s i re to abo l ish and
transce nd it. Gal l i z i o's i n d ustri a l p a i nt i n g m i ght po i nt t h e way,
but it was sti l l too t i ed to the a u ra of the u n ique and s i n g u lar
artwo rk, what G a l l i z i o ca l l ed the "overs i zed postage stamp."
Indust r i a l p a i nt i ng was st i l l bound by what it negated and was
a l l too eas i l y rec upe rated.
The S ituat i o n i sts were l i ke Ni etzsche's madman in the
mar ketpl ace, a n n o u n c i n g that A rt i s dead, that we k i l l ed it,
but that we are ref u s i ng to confront t h i s wor l d that is n ot o n l y
God l ess, b u t A rt l ess. J ust a s M a n loses a l l coherence as a
concept w ithout the othe r of God, so the everyday d i s i nteg rates
without the other of A rt. The most extraord i nary response to
t h i s c h a l l e nge is s u re l y New Babyl on, a work named after a
suggest i o n by Debord, beg un wh i l e Constant Ni euwe n h uys
(1920-2005) was a m e m be r of the S i tuati on i st Internat i o n a l , and
conti nued by him for some years afte r h i s resig nation.
I nteresti n g l y, of the three g reat Marxist uto p i as I know, it i s
t h e o n l y o n e actu a l l y s ituated o n earth.44 C o nstant was n eve r
comfortable with the not i on that h i s p roject was uto p i a n , but
then few modern uto p i a n s are. It is a form that, s i nce i t a lways
appears as d efin i t i ve, has a hard t i m e acknowledg i n g its
predecessors, w h i ch a l so i ma g i ned themse lve s as definitive.
B ut New Babylo n i s a l itt l e d ifferent i n be ing not s o m u ch a
uto p i a as an i nf rastructure for utopia. We i rd l y, New Babylon is
now also the name of the i magi nary city of the pop u l a r evange l i st
C h ri stian Left B e h i n d book s e r i es by T i m LaHaye, about the e n d
ti mes of the Tri b u l at i o n and the Raptu re. In choos i n g the n a m e
New Babyl on, D e bord and Constant h it upon an e n d u r i ng i ma g e
o f contested powe r.
.
Constant's a m b itions were, extravagant as it may sound,
m o re than utopian. H e sought to both rea l i ze and a bo l i s h
utopia. Fred r i c J ameson: " I be l i eve that w e c a n beg i n from
21

21

22

the propos ition that Uto p i a n space i s an i ma g i nary enclave

with i n real soc i a l space, i n oth e r words, that the very
poss i b i l ity of Utopian space is itself a res u lt of spat i a l and
soc i a l d ifferentiation. But i t is an aberrant by-product, and
its poss i b i l i ty i s depend ent on the mome ntary formati o n of a
k i n d of eddy or se lf-co ntai n ed backwater with i n the g e n e ra l
d ifferentiation p rocess and its see m i ng l y i rreve r s i b l e forward
,,
momentum. 45 In New Babylon, the chaotic eddy i s not a
bac kwater with i n the soc i a l order, it is the soc i a l o rd e r, o r rath e r
non-order. It is t h e smooth p l ane u po n w h i c h r a n d o m moveme nt
pushes toward e m e rg e nt q u a l ities of self-org a n i z i n g form.
Perhaps it make s m o re sense to ca l l it not utopia (no- p l ace)
but atop ia (placel essn ess) .
New Babyl on is a whole wor l d at p l ay, o r at l east it a p pears
so if consi d e red on the h o r i zonta l plane. Ma r k W i g l ey:
"New Babylon i s a see m i n g l y i n fi n i te p l ayground. Its occu pants
conti n u a l l y rearrange the i r sensory e nv i ro n m e nt, redefi n i n g
every m ic ro-s pace with i n t h e sectors accord i ng t o the i r l atest
des i res. In a soci ety of e n d l ess l e i s u re, wor kers becom e p l ayers
,,
and arch itectu re is the on ly game in town. 46 C o n s i d e re d
vert i ca l l y, New Babyl on makes l iteral Marx's d i agram of base
and s u pe rstructu re. Its sectors are l itera l l y su perstructures,
made poss i b l e by an i nf rastruct u re b e low g r o u n d where
mechan ical reprod ucti on has abol i s h ed scarc ity and f reed a l l
o f ti me f ro m necess ity. I t i s a n i mage of what Constant i magi nes
the d eve l o pment of productive forces has made p os s i b l e,
but w h i c h the fette r of exist i n g re l ations of producti on p revents
f rom com i n g i nto bei ng.
I want to e m p h a s i ze the d i sti nctly Marxist provenance of
New Bab lyon, w h i c h predates Con stant's partici pation i n the
Situat i o n i st International. I n the conventional h i sto r i ography
of the S ituation i st I nternati onal, most a re a g reed that the e a r l y
"a rtistic" phase i s somehow less "rad i c a l " t h a n t h e later,
more "pol itical" phase, where Debord asserts h i s authority
over the movem ent and the arti sts, one after the othe r, res i g n
o r are ex pel led. To me it i s str i k i ng how m u c h three o f t h e othe r
fo u n d i n g fi gu res-Ga l l i z io, Jorn, a n d Constant-brought a
con s i stent and Marxist- i n flected rad i ca l i s m i nto the movement
22

that i s hard l y d etecta b l e i n the g ro u p around D e bord at a l l in the

1950s.47 Both the e l d e r states m en of the movement, Gal l i z i o and
J orn, had m i nor roles, afte r a l l , i n res i stance move ments d u ring
Wor l d Wa r II and hard l y needed confir mation fro m Debord i n
the catech i s m of Marx and E n g e l s.
One can trace the Marx ist strand through five texts by
Con stant gathered for his retrospective at The D rawi n g Ce nter
in 1999.48 These texts show C o nstant in a c o n s i stent atte m pt
to re i m a g i n e a pol i tics, wi th and against Marx, that both pre
dates h i s membersh i p i n the S ituation i st Inte rnat i o n a l and
conti nues l ong after he l eaves it. In a 1948 " Ma n ifesto," Constant
writes critica l ly about how "Weste r n art, once the c e l ebrator
of e m p e rors and popes, turned to se rve the newl y powerfu l
bourgeo i s i e, becom ing an i n stru m ent of the g l o rification of
bourgeo i s ideals. Now that these i d e a l s have become a fiction
with the d i sappearance of the i r econo m i c base, a new era is
upon us, i n whi c h the whole matrix of cu ltu r a l c onventions loses
its s i g n ificance and a new freedom can be won from the most
p r i m ary source of l ife." 49 The determ i n i s m of these sentences
is on a l l fo urs with Marx's famous-a n d i nfamous-preface
to h i s C ontri b ution to the C ritique of Pol itical Economy:
"The changes i n the econ o m i c fou ndation l ead sooner or l ater
to the transformation of the whole i m mense superstructu re." 50
In 1948 Constant i s think i n g with i n the radical and
experi mental express ion i s m of the C o B r A g roup, of which
he and J o r n were m e m bers. W h e reas Debord's Lettrist
group arrived at a critique of th e i r Su rrea l i st predecessors
mostly with i n the l o g i c of ava nt-g ard ist posturing , for C o B r A ,
S u rrea l i s m i s a t o n c e a pol itical a n d p h i l o s o p h i c a l p ro b l e m .
The S u rrea l i sts i m p r i soned the u ncons c i o u s with i n the l o g i c
o f a Fre u d ian analys is. They d i d not want t o express it but to
represent it. C o B rA took the oth e r fork. T h rough exp e r i m enta l
practice in wh i ch c o l l ective h u m a n ag ency confronts raw
mate r i a l s, forms and concepts can a r i se as prod ucts, not
precepts. S i nce c reative labor i s a capac ity that everyone
possesses, as part of what the young Ma rx wou l d cal l o u r
species-being, expe r i mental expression c a n be the bas i s o f a
peo p l e's a rt. A n art that i s as far beyond beauty and u g l iness
23

as it is beyond good and evil. It is not governed in advance by

aesthetic norms.
Constant will come to reject art in general, and painting
in particular, and like Gallizio posit the machine as the central
fact of contemporary creativity. "A free art of the future is
an art that would master and use all the new conditioning
techniques.,,51 It offers the possibility of reconciling quality
with equality. The socialist artist is no longer forced to choose
between socialism and art. Constant finds the Northwest
Passage out of the dreaded socialist realism or Popular Front
concessions a committed artist might have had to make without
landing in the territory of a rarefied and elitist vanguard art.
Interestingly, it is not a question of the artist coming around to
the Realp olitik of the party, but the party coming around to a
new aesthetic reality. It is, I suggest, an intuition more powerful
than Constant knew.
"The lights go out. The room is filled with a strange
unintelligible noise. A huge architectural plan is projected on
a waiL" The camera pushes in toward the plan and discovers
within its network of lines elements of a Plexiglas and steel
strut model. "The floating horizontal megastructure catches the
light and stretches as far as the eye can see." The camera closes
in again. "The sound of an aeroplane accompanies the descent
and another set of sounds fill the room as we land on the roof
deck. Each image-shift is synchronized with an acoustic shift
,,
although the sounds remain largely unintelligible. 52 In Mark
Wigley's description, Constant's unveiling of New Babylon at
the Stedelijk Museum in 1960 sounds like a hipster version of a
new high-end condo development sales pitch. And while there
are no units to invest in here, it does have some of the same
logic. Constant is using multimedia to create an ambience,
a space and time for desire. As he writes in 1963: "New Babylon
is not a town planning project, but rather a way of thinking, of
,,
imagining, of looking at things and at life. 53 Constant's unitary
urbanism gives concrete contours to a very real terrain, but it
is that of the virtual rather than the actual. What he finds there
is not the eternal formlessness of the surreal but a definite
expression of historical and collective desire.
24

The inhabitant of this space of desire is not the banker or

corporate lawyer in the market for luxury condos, but homo
ludens, the species-being of play. The Dutch writer Johan
Huizinga proposed homo ludens as an expl iCitly anti-Marxist
figure, opposed to homo faber, the productivist worker-bee
of Stalinist discourse. But as Constant discovers, what
Marx always had in mind was the reconciliation of quantity
and quality-the productive surplus of capitalism plus the
qualitative being of the premodern world. I n short, something
closer to homo ludens: a species at play, collectively, with the
materiality of its environment, under conditions of abundance
that could only apply after the great productive expansion
of the capitalist mode of production. As capitalism shortens
the working day necessary to sustain the species, a new
possibility opens up: to imagine a world in which homo ludens's
relation to space through play can be as free as its relation to
time through leisure. Homo ludens will no longer make art,
but wiII create everyday life.
New Babylon responds to both the expansion of objective
resources and the expansion of population. Like a suburban
family that adds a new story when the second kid is born,
Constant builds a second deck for the whole planet. But rather
than suburban sprawl inserting itself into any and every
terrain, he imagines leaving much of the old world untouched
including, interestingly, the classic spaces of the derive in
the heart of the old cities such as Paris and Amsterdam.
His is a new world that expands, not horizontally but vertically.
It is "a new skin that covers the earth and multiplies its
living space." 54 And why not? Who knows what built form
can do?
The sectors of New Babylon are open and mobile spaces
for nomadic play. There's no need to have a "home" here.
By the time your wanderings bring you back to where you
started it wi II be different anyway: "the intensity of each
moment destroys the memory that normally paralyses the
,,
creative imagination. 55 Here is the architecture that Debord
and his Lettriste companion Ivan Chtcheglov only dream of
as they wander the streets of Paris: "Every square mile of
25

23, 24

New Babylon's surface represents an inexhaustible field of

new and unknown situations, because nothing will remain
,,
and everything is constantly changing. 56 Constant's quibbles
notwithstanding, here is utopian space reimagined as a way
to exit the twentieth century. Roland Barthes: "Utopia (a fa
Fourier): that of a world in which there would no longer be
anything but differences, so that to be differentiated would no
longer mean to be excluded."57 Constant draws the consequence
that such a space must become atopian in form and planetary
in scale.
For Constant, the Situationist International "did not
constitute a real movement. The adherents came and went
and the only view they shared was their contempt for the
current art practice."58 He does, though, credit the movement
with contemplating the end to culture conceived as scarcity
and property and pursuing this possibility to its conclusions.
The question of relating the impossible fragments of the
movement to each other poses the problem of organization,
communication, and documentation with all its pathos. Not
only did the Situationist International not know how to organize
the project it was bold enough to conceive, neither could it
communicate its consequences. From the documentation that
survives, the project remains to conceive an organizational
practice. The place to start might not be with the "official"
Situationist International so much as with what it excluded,
among other things the so-called Second Situationist
International, formed largely by the Scandinavians whom
Debord expelled in the early '60s.
While the more coherent Situationist International Debord
created in the '60s proved worthy of an era of heightened
political tension, it could not outlive it. Thought strategically,
the Situationist International shifted its sphere of operation
from avant-garde art to militant politics as it moved from the late
'50s to the '60s. Strategic thinking would ask what other zone
of operation might be more suitable for other times. Constant's
strategic interventions, in and against architecture, provide one
such model. But one thing that is absent from Constant's New
Babylon is a conception of how architectural space is doubled
26

and transformed by communicative space, both negatively,

in the form of spectacle, and perhaps positively, in the form of
the detournement of media practice that the "First" Situationist
International would begin to grasp consciously as a project
late in its existence.
Constant is one of the variables of the Situationist movement
taken as a whole, one that it could not maintain in tension with
all of its other variables. In breaking with Constant-and with
Gallizio and Jorn and others-Debord would in the end be able
to achieve intellectual and organizational coherence, but at the
price of purging some of the tensions and differences that might
have driven the movement forward. The task of recuperating the
Situationist International is not to play one variable off against
another-although this has been a persistent characteristic
of the literature-but to discover the unknown pleasures toward
which the unrecognized fragments might still direct us. In this
case it is toward the paradoxical thought that Constant offered
a theoretical solution to the problem of giving form to the virtual
(what is real but not actual), while it was Debord who proposed
an architecture for investigating the strategic potentials of
escaping actual space and time. Between these two positions
lies the situation.

Situationist Architecture
The only member of the Situationist International to remain in
1972 from the founding in 1957 was Guy Debord (1931-94), and
he is often taken as synonymous with the movement. There
are anti-Debordist accounts, which rightly stress the role of
others, such as Jorn or Constant, but which often in the process
privilege the earlier, more "aesthetic" phase. On this score my
provocation in this essay is fourfold. First, while acknowledging
the significance of Jorn, Constant, and the less well known
Gallizio, I have tried to show how their work is at once both
aesthetic, political, and an attempt to escape from recuperation
as merely one or the other. Second, I want to insist on the
centrality of a hitherto marginalized figure, Michele Bernstein,
27

25

to whom I will return shortly. Third, I want to gesture toward

the value of the work of the so-called Second Situationist
International and some other excluded figures, and on this
front I will discuss Jacqueline de Jong. Fourth, I want to think
about Debord in a slightly different light. So I will discuss not
so much his writing or his actions, but a game. Besides being a
writer, a filmmaker, an editor, and a first-rate professional of no
profession, he was also, of all things, a game designer.
Fourth things first. According to Debord's second wife,
Alice Becker-H o, Debord patented his Game of War in 1965 .
In 1977 he entered into a partnership with his then-publisher,
Gerard Lebovici, in a company to make board games.
The company published Game of War and commissioned a
craftsman to make four or five sets in copper and silver. In 1987
Debord and Becker-H o published a book about the game.59
On this account, the game was a part of Debord's life for more
than thirty years, and had its beginnings in the midst of the
second, "political" phase of the Situationist International.
It is, I would argue, an expression in a new form of something
both the "artistic" and "political" phases of the Situationist
International had in common despite their different fields of
operation: namely a concept and a practice of strategy.
Debord's Game of War is a strategy game, and to see this
as a major rather than minor part of his legacy is to insist that
above all else Debord was a strategist. De Jong: "He was a great
,,
strategist. 60 Giorgio Agamben: "[O] nce, when I was tempted
(as I still am) to consider Guy Debord a philosopher, he told me:
' I' m not a philosopher, I' m a strategist.' Debord saw his time as
an incessant war, which engaged his entire life in a strategy." 59
The strategist is not the proprietor of a field of knowledge, but
rather assesses the value of the forces aligned on any available
territory. The strategist occupies, evacuates, or contests any
territory at hand in pursuit of advantage.
The avant-gardes have a long-standing connection to
games, and perhaps to strategy. The Surrealists invented
many games.62 Marcel Duchamp famously gave up art for chess.
H e even coauthored a book about it.63 Fran9 0is Le Lionnais:
"What [Vitali] Halberstadt and Duchamp perfected was the
28

theory of th e relationsh ip between squares wh ich have no

apparent connection, les cases conjugees, wh ich was a sort of
th eory of th e structure of th e board . Th at is to say, because th e
pawns are in a certain relationsh ip one can perceive invisible
connections between empty squares on th e board wh ich are
,,
apparently unrelated . 64 Like th e Surrealists, Debord invented
h is own game, but as with Duchamp, it took th e form of a
sustained effort to create via the game a conception of h ow
events unfold in space.
Among the Game of War's particular qualities is that it
is not a territorial game. It d oes not conceive of space as
property, to be conquered and h eld . It is modeled on classic
war games, wh ich go back at least to th e time of Clausewitz.65
It includ es more or less plausible parameters of movement and
engagement for infantry and cavalry. Yet it is not really a game
of war at all. If it is, it models someth ing more like a full
spectrum war where th e opposing sides are composed of forces
not restricted by th eir extension only in space.
Besid es th e usual fi gh ting pieces of cavalry, infantry,
artillery, and th e arsenal, Game of War also includ es units for
communication. Wh ile military units move at given speed s per
turn across the board , th e lines of communication, so long as
they are not broken, are instantaneous and d irect. This "war"
can be fough t as much on th e plane of communication as on
that of extensible space. Wh at d istinguish es th e two planes
is their relation to time. Debord and Becker-Ho conceive
contemporary strategy as taking place in a d oubled terrain,
one of both spatial extension and sequential time, a space of
both arch itecture and geography. This terrain is th e other of th e
simultaneous time of communication-the spatio-temporal
matrix th at, in Society of th e Spectacle (1967), Debord would
come to conceive as world h istory.
Wh ile it looks like its eigh teenth-century ancestors,
Game of War is really a d iagram of th e strategic possibilities
of spectacular time. Debord : "Th e bourgeoisie has th us mad e
irreversible h istorical time known and h as imposed it on
society, but it h as prevented society from using it. ' Once th ere
was history, but not anymore, ' because the class of owners of
29

the economy, which is inextricably tied to economic history,

must repress every other irreversible use of time because it
is directly threatened by them all. The ruling class, made up
of specialists in the possession of things who are themselves
therefore possessed by things, is forced to link its fate with the
preservation of this reifi ed history, that is, with the preservation
,,
of a new immobility within history. 66 In Game of War, history is
made mobil e again, in an irreversible time where strategy can
reverse the course of events.
Game of War incorporates the problems of conflict in general
within a manageable framework. Debord's ambition seems to
be no less than to create a game which has possibilities for play
that are as great as chess but which conceives of play in a
different manner. That one' s communication must remain intact
is equivalent to the rule in chess that the king must not remain
in check. Debord includes in his presentation of the game a line
from the 1527 poem "Scacchia Ludus" by Marcus Hieronymus
Vida (who was, incidentally, the bishop of Alba). The opening
lines of the poem are: "We play an effi gy of war, and battles
made like / real ones, armies formed from boxwood, and play
realms, / As twin kings, white and black, opposed against
,,
each other, / Struggle for praise with bicolored weapons. 67
That strategic genius, in any fi eld, is the only thing worth
commemorating is a characteristically Debordian note. Effi gy
is a word that might appeal to Debord in its modern sense,
given how careful he was to preserve his bad reputation.68
But here it might mean something else: that the game is
a form, a mold-an allegory perhaps-for a certain kind of
strategic experience.
But Game of War does not enclose space within strategy
as chess does. Space is only ever partially included within
the range of movement of the pieces. Some space remains
"smooth" and open. The game is also subject to sudden
reversals of fortune rare in chess. "In fact, I wanted to imitate
poker-not the chance factor in poker, but the combat that is
characteristic of it." 69 Each side makes its initial deployments
in ignorance of those of the enemy, introducing at least an
element of the unknown characteristic of poker.
30

The game requires attention to the tactical level of defending

each of one's units, since once one starts losing one can
quickly lose many pieces. H owever, units cannot move or
engage unless they remain in communication with their arsenal,
making lines of communication particularly vital. Players are
usually more concerned with breaking the adversary's lines
of communication than with offensive action directed against
either the adversary's arsenal or fi ghting units. Outside of
the quantitative struggle between blocks of fi ghting units is a
qualitative struggle, in which a force suddenly loses all its power
when the enemy cuts off its communications; "thus the outcome
of a tactical engagement over just one square may have major
,,
strategic consequences. 70
Each player has to keep three quite different aspects of the
game in mind: fighting units, arsenals, lines of communication.
"This war game-like war itself and like all forms of strategic
thought and action-tends to demand the simultaneous
,,
consideration of contradictory requirements. 71 While
attempting to maintain freedom of action, each side is also
obliged to make diffi cult choices between qualitatively different
kinds of operations, the means for the realization of which
are always in short supply. One may have the means but not
the time, or the time but not the means, for their realization.
"Each army must strive to keep the initiative, compensating
for shortfalls in troop strength b y the speed with which it can
concentrate its forces at a decisive point where it must be
the stronger: strategic maneuvers succeed only when victory
yields an immediate return, so to speak, in terms of tactical
confrontation. ,, 72
Antonio Gramsci famously juxtaposed the concepts of
the war of position and the war of maneuver. For Gramsci the
war of maneuver is associated with syndicalist approaches to
political conflict, with Rosa Luxemburg, and with the events
of the Octob er revolution in Russia. He associates the war of
position with "mature" Leninism, and the lessons of the defeats
suffered across Europe by the revolutionar y movement that the
October revolution was supposed to spark. Gramsci: "In the
East, the state was everything, civil society was primordial and
31

gelatinous; in the West, there was a proper relation between

state and civil society, and when th e state trembled a sturdy
structure of civil society was at once revealed. The state
was only an outer ditch, behind wh ich there stood a powerful
system of fortresses and earthworks . . . .,,73 For Debord this
line of th inking can only justify th e bureaucratic apparatus
of the C ommunist parties, their obsession with creating one
institutional bunker after anoth er, from th e trade unions to
the official C ommunist art perpetuated b y former Dadaists
and Surrealists such as Tristan Tzara and Louis Aragon in
their waning years. Game of War is a refutation of this whole
conception of strategy.
In the war of position, tactics are dictated from above b y
strategic concerns with taking and holding institutions across
the landscape of state and civil society. The Game of War
refutes this territorial conception of space and this h ierarchical
relation b etween strategy and tactics. Space is always partially
unmarked; tactics can sometimes call a strategy into b eing.
Some space need not be occupied or contested at all; every
tactic involves a risk to one's positions. "It makes sense to move
against the enemy's communications, but one's own will be
stretched in the process. ,, 74 As in a game of poker, advantage
comes quick and is lost even quicker.
Debord moves the conception of conflict away from the
privileging of space that persists in Gramsci's war of position.
Key to Game of War is the question of judging th e moment
to move from the tactical advantage to th e strategic. Tactics
and strategy do not have a hierarchical and spatial relation,
but a mobile and temporal one. Plans h ave to b e changed or
abandoned in th e light of events. "The interaction b etween
tactics and strategy is a continuing source of surprises and
reverses-and this often right up to the last moment." 75
Game of War is a rigorous and schematic presentation
of conflict, if missing certain qualities. The spatial fi eld is
asymmetrical b ut unchanging. The moment of surprise comes
only once, wh en each side reveals to the other the initial
disposition of its forces. In documenting one game for th eir book,
Debord and Becker-Ho present each move on a diagram th at
32

ou tlines as a static figure the changing disposition of forces,

bu t this gives no real sense of the ebb and tension in time of
game play. Still, the ambition of Game of War is clear:
"Before they went to the printers, the figures looked like a truly
dazzling pu zzle awaiting solu tion, just like the times in which
,,
we live. 76
Whereas Jorn attempts to construct a situ ology of a
congru ent bu t variable u nity of space and time, Debord proposes
a more rigorou s architectu ral stu dy of how a fi xed u nity of space
and time yields tactical and strategic advantages. Whereas
Constant imagines the whole of the earth as a space for play,
Debord inqu ires into the accu mu lated experience of contesting
social forces that might make this other kind of play possible.
War is the effigy of play. A certain kind of conflict, perhaps a
new kind, has to be won before play can appear as more than a
caricatu re of itself, screened off within its closed circle, fading
into a dream.

Permanent Play
Not all is fair in war, or love. Both have their strategies, bu t
also their ru les. For example, how is a woman who lives in an
"open relationship" with a man su pposed to retain her hold on
him if he starts an affair that has a little more intensity than
affairs u su ally do? Affairs are allowed. They are within the
ru les, bu t they are not su pposed to break with a fu ndamental
agreement the man and woman maintain. And if this man is
coming too close to breaching that agreement, what stratagems
can the woman employ to see that he retu rns to it?
It sounds like the scenario for a French novel or movie and
in a sense it is. It is that of Michele Bernstein's two novels,
Tous les chevau x du roi and La Nu it. Both cover the same
events in the lives of Gilles and Genevieve bu t from different
perspectives and in different styles. Tou s les chevau x
Itdetou rnes" the style of Franc;oise Sagan; La Nu it, that of
Robbe-Grillet. Sagan's racy novels coincided with the arrival
of mass paperback pu blishing in France in the '50s. Those
33

of Robbe-Grillet were a high- modernist analogue of the new

consumerist and technocratic France of these years.
Both novels may be read as fi ctionalized accounts of the
relationship between Michele Bernstein (b. 1932) and Guy
Debord, who married in 1954 and divorced in 1972, the year the
Situationist International dissolved. Rather than read them for
dubious historical details, it might be more interesting to take
the books on their own terms, as fictions, but as presenting
in fictional form a practice, perhaps even an ethics, for a
Situationist conduct of everyday life. Situationist writing
contains elaborate theories of fiction, but just two novels that
are fi ctions of theory.77
It is fi tting that Bernstein's story begins at an opening and
subseq uent dinner party for a mediocre Surrealist painter.
As Debord wrote to Constant: "Surrealism presents itself as
a total enterprise, concerning a complete way of living. It is
this intention that constitutes Surrealism's most progressive
character, which obliges us now to compare ourselves to it." 78
One could imagine this anecdote, f rom another letter in which
Debord writes about an art scene party, as if it took place at the
party Bernstein describes: "Madame Van de Loo, after telling
me by way of a pleasantry that she was surprised to hear of
practical actions involving me, whom she saw as a theoretician,
was again surprised when I told her sincerely that ' nothing
has ever interested me beyond a certain practice of lif e.'
(It is precisely this that has kept me back f rom being an artist,
in the current sense of the word, and, I hope, a theoretician of
,,
aesthetics! ) 79 Debord and, perhaps even more so, Bernstein are
theoreticians who want to invent a complete way of living.
Bernstein's presentation of an ethics of lif e begins with the
tale of the Surrealist's daughter. She says elsewhere that while
Dada was the "good f ather" of the Situationists, the Surrealists
,
were the "bad f ather.' 80 Chevaux opens with a bad Surrealist
father, or rather stepfather, who covets his nubile stepdaughter,
Carole. In La Nuit we learn of the sexual tension between them
that "though by her spite she showed that she wanted no part
,
of it, still she encouraged it a little, admitted it was there.' 81
The bad infl uence that matters to Gilles and Genevieve is more
34

aestheti c than moral, however. With a little prompti ng from

C arole' s mother, Gi lles and Genevi eve whisk Carole away from
the old man.
Gi lles takes her wanderi ng around the streets of Pari s,
and i n the morni ng finally makes love to her. In C hevaux, we
only hear i n general terms about Gilles and hi s art of wanderi ng.
Genevieve goes home to sleep and the story pi cks up again
the next day. La Nui t i s centered on the events of that ni ght.
"They pass besi de a column, a streetli ght rather, on whi ch is
fixed, above thei r heads, a blue and white sign i ndi cati ng by an
arrow: Cluny Museum. On the same column, another si gnal,
lumi nous and blinki ng, i s the only one that attracts the glance
of the passersby. At regular i ntervals, for the pedestri ans, the
permi ssi on to pass or the order to wai t fl ashes. Gilles and
C arole pass near the column without seei ng i t. Gilles waits,
b efore crossi ng, for the cars to stop. Carole follows Gilles,
who holds her by the nape of the neck. They take the direction
indi cated by the si gn Cluny Museum, and skirt the railings of
the garden of the museum."82 Here the famous Situationist
practice of the derive i s Carole's i ni tiation into the knotted
streets of the sleepi ng ci ty. "I'd li ke to be i n a labyri nth with
you, " says C arole. "We already are, " says Gilles.83
Gi lles's affair with Carole causes at least two rifts i n this
li bidinal uni verse. Carole's gi rlfri end Beatrice i s jealous
and possessive. Genevi eve's feelings are perhaps more
complicated. It is not the first time Gi lles has had other lovers,
b ut Genevi eve is a li ttle worried about this one. La Nuit can
b e read as an account of the disturbance the affai r causes
Genevieve. Her character i s in the habit, on waki ng i n the
morni ng, of putting the events of the previ ous ni ght in order,
b ut in La Nui t events refuse to fall i nto place. The novel jumps
from one fragment of ti me-charged wi th affect-to another.
C hevaux presents a rather more strai ghtforward versi on
of Genevi eve's strategi es for keeping her hold over Gi lles. One
strategy i s to b ecome Carole's intimate friend, estab li shing a
relationshi p i ndependent of Gilles b etween the two women.
It i s an emoti onal inti macy perhaps greater than the sexual one
b etween C arole and Gi lles, i f rather one-sided. C arole confides
35

26

27

in Genevieve but not vice versa. Another strategy is to take the

same liberties as her husband. Whereas Gilles found Carole
at a party hosted b y passe old Surrealists, Genevieve finds her
love interest at the rather more advanced soiree hosted b y Ole,
an artist modeled perhaps on Jorn. There she hooks up with a
young man called Bertrand, fucks him in a hotel, throws him out
next morning, then telephones Gilles to tell him about it.
Both Carole and Bertrand make bad art. Carole dabbles at
painting but she merely repeats the cliches current in the art
world. Bertrand's poetry is worse, in thrall to experiments that
have long since lost their charge. What neither of them quite
realizes is that they already embody the aesthetic, without
having to objectify it. Neither Carole nor Bertrand quite realizes
that they are in play in a game of everyday life. Of the two,
Carole comes closer, at least when she sings. She has a small
repertoire of old French songs. For Gilles she appropriates their
words as her own, detournes them, as the Situationists say.
When she sings she reveals a capacity that leads Genevieve to
suspect that here might be a rival.
Bertrand is handsome enough, b ut if anything, bringing him
into the picture only gives Gilles more license to love Carole.
The four of them, Gilles and Carole, Genevieve and Bertrand,
go off on vacation. While on vacation, they meet Bertrand's
friend Helene, a slightly older and very sophisticated woman
from the literary scene. On returning to Paris, Genevieve
discards Bertrand and takes up with Helene. This gets Gilles's
attention. Gilles drops Carole. The trio of Genevieve, Helene,
and Gilles hangs out together for a while, b ut it doesn' t last.
In the end it is j ust Genevieve and Gilles again- for now.
But the game has changed. Chevaux ends with letters from
Carole and Helene in which it is clear that Carole, while still
young, is beginning to appreciate a new way of thinking ab out
life, and that Helene, encrusted with habit, is left to her fate.
In a letter to Bertrand, Helene dismisses Gilles and
Genevieve as "damaged people, " b ut she does not really
understand them.84 Neither Gilles nor Genevieve are really
heartless libertines. They appreciate beauty b ut not j ust as
an object, a thing apart. "I wasn't built like a Greek statue, "
36

Genevieve remarks.s5 Th eir romantic strategies are not about

conquest or possession. Gilles really does fall in love, and
often. Genevieve's strategies are aimed at sustaining Gilles's
love for her because sh e cannot h elp loving him. But this love is
h ardly romantic. It may be closer to th e late eigh teenth -century
libertines in Laclos's Les Liaisons dangerouses-"Friendsh ip
joined with desire has so much the appearance of life! "-than
to th e early nineteenth -century romanticism of, say, Sh elley's
"Epipsych idion" : "L ove's very pain is sweet, I But its reward is
in th e world divine." s6 Their feelings are genuine, but feelings
can be shaped aesth etically, in p ursuit of adventures, in th e
creation of situations, in th e river of time.
Love is temporal, an event. Th ere is nothing eternal in it.
Timeless love, like God, like Art, is dead. All that remains is
the p ossibility of constructing situations. Odile Passot:
"In Bernstein's universe, there is no transcendence, divine
or diabolic; humans are subject to th eir own negativity,
wh ich th ey cultivate to destabilize th eir century's received
truths." s7 Like th e devils in Marcel Carne's fi lm Les Visiteurs
du soir, Genevieve and Gilles trouble th e sh eets of th e bourgeois
bedchamber by disregarding p roperty and p ropriety in th e
name of a quite different ethic of love.ss It's a question
that is still with us, if in less exalted terms. Ch ris K raus:
"what kind of life could th ey believe in? What kind of life could
they afford? " s9
Bernstein's ethics, and p olitics, of love comes perh aps
from th e utopian socialist writings of Ch arles Fourier. For
Fourier th ere are truth s that we "civilized" folk are unwilling
to acknowledge or to use as th e basis for constructing life.
Our experience of p leasure is so impoverish ed that it must be
propped up on a wealth of illusions, above all th e illusion of
p roperty rights over the affections of others. Couples demand
of each other an exclusive right of emotional and sexual
p roperty-with what success, we know. Fourier: "Marriage
,,
seems to have been invented to reward p erversity. 90 What will
replace th e incoherence of "civilized" society will be a world th at
has no place for bourgeois moderation or equanimity. It will call
for ardent passions. Boredom and indifference are the natural
37

enemies of th e passions. Keeping th e passions in play requires

a regular clash of contraries.
This Fourierist undermining of marriage as a relation of
property is particularly ch allenging wh en seen in the context
of the celebration of th e middle-class couple as th e essential
unit around wh ich postwar French consumerism and modernity
was supposed to coh ere. K ristin Ross: "The construction of
th e new French couple is not only a class necessity but a
national necessity as well, linked to the state-led modernization
effort. Called upon to lead France into th e future, th ese couples
are th e class wh ose very way of life is based on th e wish to
make th e world futureless and at th at price buy security." 91
As Genevieve says of Gilles: "When I met Gilles th ree years
ago, I realized quickly that h e was far from th e cool libertine
most people took him for. His desires always contain as much
passion as h e can put into them, and it's this same state that
he always pursued in various love stories that you' d be crazy
to call unserious. Th e climate h e created everywhere is one
of h onest feelings and a heigh tened consciousness of th e
tragically fl eeting aspect of anything to do with love. And th e
intensity of th e adventure was always an inverse function of
its duration. Trouble and breakups happened with Gilles before
any valid reason appeared: afterward, it was too late. I h ad
,,
been th e exception, I was immune. 92 Strategy, as Debord
says, "tends to impose at each instant considerations of
,,
contradictory necessities. 93 Genevieve's strategies aim at
th e very least to maintain her immunity, but perhaps sh e has
other ambitions as well. Sh e migh t surpass h er teach er at
his own game.
Games turn up four times in Chevaux. Genevieve and Gilles
play ch ess with each other. Genevieve plays a drinking game
with friends and a dice game with some Americans. Gilles and
Carole play "subjective" chess, wh ere each in turn makes up th e
value and moves of th e piece. Each move is an approximation
of the more general game that for Gi lles and Genevieve
encompasses the wh ole of everyday life. This game is at times
a game of skill, at times of chance. Sometimes it involves only
two players, sometimes many. Sometimes th e players are evenly
38

matched and sometimes not. Sometimes it is not clear wh o is

playing and wh o is b eing played.
Gilles tells Carole that h e and Genevieve have invented a
way of staying young forever, or at least up until the end.
( As Debord will say later, borrowing from Pascal, "th e last act
is bloody.,, 94) Or as Carole writes to Gilles and Genevieve:
"I dreamed of you a lot: we are walking in th e forest, j ust before
nigh tfall. We are holding h ands in order not to lose each other.
,,
We are still ch ildren. 95
To stay ch ildren means to keep playing th e game, to keep
drifting, th rough th e streets, in and out of love. But it is a
melanch oly game, and Carole does not quite grasp why.
As Debord says in Howls for Sade: "When f reedom is practiced
in a closed circle, it fades into a dream, b ecomes a mere
representation of itself. Th e ambience of play is b y nature
,,
unstable. At any moment ' ordinary life' can p revail once again. 96
Gilles is under no illusion about the power of love. It is not
eternal. It cannot conquer time. Everything passes. And h e will
always leave th e one h e loves before th e climate ch anges.
It is h ow the game keeps going. It is h ow the young stay young.
Genevieve trumps Gilles's desire for Carole wh en sh e
presents h im with h er affair with Helene. Wh ile Gilles is
intrigued b y Carole's now lost love of Beatrice, h e is much
more attracted to Genevieve's for the elegant Helene.
Th e reconciliation b etween Gilles and Genevieve entails not
so much a renunciation of th eir desire for oth ers, b ut rather a
gift of th e renunciation of that desire to each oth er. But wh ile
this ending has the appearance of equity, it is really Genevieve
wh o wins th e game. Sh e secures h er alliance with Gilles, sees
off h er rival, and does it with out invoking proprietary righ ts.
Sh e does not insist that Gilles be "hers," or th at she is "h is."
Th e title Tous les chevaux du roi does not refer as it migh t
in English to "all th e king's h orses" of "Humpty Dumpty,"
b ut to an old song, "Aux march es du palais." Carole sings it
on th e nigh t wh en sh e and Gilles and Genevieve fall into each
others' lives. It is a song about a queen and h er lover. One nigh t
h e steals into th e king's castle and lies with the queen in h er
b ed. Together th ey make a river that all th e king's horses cannot
39

cross. Greil Marcus: "It is as deep and singular an image of

revolution as th ere has ever been, but in Tous les ch evaux du roi
so distant an element it is barely an image at all." g7 When one is
bored with th e desire for mere th ings, there is only th e desire for
anoth er's desire. Gilles desires Genevieve's desire for Helene.
But what if one could create a desire so strong th at it put a river
between it and its other? A desire th at, like a river, has to keep
moving, h as always to ch ange, a desire that can play out in time
and play in the end into the sea.

Th e Detournement of Detournement
28-30

Jacqueline de Jong (b. 1939) was a member of th e Situationist

International for only a brief period. Sh e was Jorn's lover
and had made th e pilgrimage to Alba to work with Gallizio.
When sh e left in protest over th e way th e artists of th e
German Spur group had been expelled in an atmosphere
of mutual recriminations, sh e was a member of the central
committee. In a handwritten note about th ese events she
wrote, perh aps addressing Debord: "I'm proud you call us
gangsters, neverth eless you are wrong. We are worse: we are
Situationists." g8 Sh e goes on to articulate, for th e first time,
an accurate formula for th e impasse into wh ich th e Situationists
had wandered: "Th e Situationist International has to be
considered eith er as an avant-garde school wh ich has already
produced a series of fi rst-class artists th rown out after h aving
passed th rough th eir education OR as an anti-organization
based upon new ideology wh ich is situationist and wh ich has
not yet found in details its clear formulations in th e fields of
science, tech niq ue, and art." gg
This anti-organization could perh aps not q uite appear yet,
but sh e was right in proposing th at th e Situationist International
had functioned as a school for scandal, th rough which many
fabulous (one would not say disting uish ed) writers and
artists passed. She added th e first principle of th e new anti
organization to come: "Everybody who develops th eoretically
or practically this new unity is automatically a member of
40

the situationist international and in this perspective The

Situationist Times." 1 00
This principle would be taken up by the largely Scandinavian
Second Situationist International, whose founding document
de Jong signed: "now everyone is free to become a Situationist
without the need for special formalities." This text was rather
philosophical about the split between what it saw as the French
and Scandinavian approaches. Debord's practice it identified
as that of position, in opposition to the Scandinavians'-one
is tempted to say Jorn's-of mob ility. "In the argument neither
side can claim to have a monopoly on the right ideas." 1 01 The
distinction does not seem quite right. Perhaps it is rather one
between an analytic conception of mobility in a fi xed space and
a ludic conception of mobility in an open and variable space.
The Second I nternational hung together for a decade or
so, producing extraordinary work and one or two interesting
situations.1 0 2 They took the practice of art directly into everyday
life to create situations as experiments in ways of behaving
and being together. Their sophistication was at the level of
participatory experiments. Nothing in their writing stands
comparison to what T.J. Clark once called the "chiliastic
serenity" of Debord's key texts.1 03 But what was perhaps lost in
the breakup of the Situationist I nternational was the opportunity
to combine Debord's strategy with Jorn's situology in an
expanded terrain that includes Bernstein's aesthetics of love, all
of which would require an anti-patent collaboration that could
delimit the surfaces of the space of its own ongoing possibility,
which might look something like New Babylon. Keeping the
passions in play takes a periodic clash of contraries.
The SituationistTimes, which de Jong edited from 1962 to
1967, is a remarkable set of documents. The early issues were
edited jointly with Noel Arnaud ( 1919-2003) , who was a hospital
administrator by profession, a member of Dada and Surrealist
groups, of CoBrA and Oulipo, and a Satrap of the College of
Pataphysics. He was, in short, a walking history of the avant
gardes and the sort of person Debord avoided, at least in public,
like the plague. Recruiting him perhaps suggests de Jong's
awareness that the Situationists' recuperation of their own
41

31

immediate avant-g arde past was b y no means complete.

The SituationistTimes was initially proposed b y de Jong
in 1961 while she was still a member of the Situationist
International. She recognized the need for an Eng lish-lang uag e
journal of the movement. Perhaps she realized that it was no
long er possible for a transnational avant-g arde to use French as
its lingua franca. She was the person often caug ht translating
b etween the French speakers and the German section. At the
infamous presentation of the Situationist International at the
Institute for Contemporary Ar t in London in 1960, she was
even called on to vet a translation of the key speech that Ralph
Rumney had made from French to Eng lish-a lang uag e Rumney
suspects she b arely spoke at the time.
The SituationistTimes, produced outside of the Situationist
International itself, turned out to be a somewhat different
b east. It was often multiling ual rather than Eng lish-lang uag e,
and even as such more written in what I have elsewhere called
"Eng lishes"-E ng lish unapologetically written as a second
lang uag e patterned after the writer's first lang uag e.1 04
It anticipates the E ng lishes that fl ourished in the transnational
post-cyberpunk underg round documented and coordinated
by Nettime.1 05
The SituationistTimes pursued something of a middle course
between the experimental pr actice of the Scandinavians and
the strateg ic log ics of the Franco-Belgian g roup, who remained
the core of the orig inal Situationist International. De Jong
was interested in a log ic of images, of concepts that might b e
discovered and presented throug h the proliferation of imag es.
The SituationistTimes operates in something like Gallizio's
realm of industrial painting, where new relationships and
possibilities mig ht b e discovered in the plentitude of the imag e,
b ut where the medium is print, not paint.
The fi rst issue defended the Spur g roup, expelled from the
Situationist International at a time when charg es were b eing
brought ag ainst them for their "licentious" publication.
It also presented what remained of Mutant, a post-Situationist
International collaboration between Jorn and Debord that
aimed to turn away from the then current spectacle of the
42

"space age" toward a prescient interve ntion in the technological

transformation of earthbound life . It also introduce d material
for an ongoing investigation of topology, in keeping with one of
Jorn's key interests. The third and fourth issue s e xpande d on
the fi gure of the knot and topology in general, and extensively
docume nted Jorn's pet theory that there exi sted in E urope
an alternative geome trical culture, one able to think spatial
exte nsion and temporal process together.
E ach issue containe d the stateme nt, consiste nt with this
topological thought and with establishe d Situationist practice,
to the e ffect that "all reproduction, de formation, modifi cation,
derivation, and transformation of the The SituationistTimes
are permitted." This was similar to the "copyle ft" statement
published in Internationale Situationniste, and connects
Situationist practice with the hacker and pi rate practice s
of prese nt-day struggles around free culture as a fi tfully
acknowledged if still barely understood pre cursor.
The Second Situationist International se t itself up as both
a rival and a replace ment for the Situationist International.
Its principals had in mind the relationship between the
Workingme n's Association of which Marx was a somewhat
cantankerous member and the more Social Democratic
Se cond International that succeede d it. Less doctrinaire
and infle xible than Debord's group, it was in some ways less
inte resting for conceiving of a relation to Situationist thought
and practice today than de Jong's The SituationistTimes.
De Jong's actions amounte d less to a split within the movement
than a detournement of it. No longer a secre t e ne my of
spe ctacular society but a known one, Situationist thought
and practice had to change . As to how it might change and
what it might become, this is work that was bare ly begun in
The SituationistTime s. Perhaps the proble m is not the
recuperation of "situationism" in the fi fty years since the
ince ption of the Situationist International, but that the
re cupe ration is so partial and incomple te. Afte r all of the
variables of the move ment are accounted for, they might
lend themselves again to an agency that is at once critical
and creative.
43

32

33

At l east some of the key e l em ents are h e re before us.

Expe r i mental behavior, for i n stance. The word experimental
has l ost a l l p rec i s i on. But it can be u nd e rstood, with G a l l i zio,
as anti-patent exchanges of c reat i ve exper i ence, form i n g
e n s e m b l es that produce works both i n abu ndance a n d i n fi n itely
d ifferenti ated. The pract ice of derive i s m o re than j u st an u rban
wa l kabout. A s Jorn proposes, i t i s a p ract ice connected to
the d i scovery of the qualities of any block of space and t i me.
C onstant p o i nts toward a rea l i st concept of b u i l t s pace i n
negative. H i s i s the best exa m p l e o f what modern capita l i s m
has refused u s . Debord, f a r f rom be i ng a mess i a n i c fi g u re,
e m erges as the concept u a l arch itect of act i ng strateg i c a l l y i n
g i ven blocks o f space a n d t i m e. Bernste i n shows how t h e spaces
and t i mes ava i l a b l e for experi m e ntal comportment traverse
the p u b l i c/ p r i vate d i v i de, and that it does n 't take a multitude
to conceive of a new sove re i g n practi c e of perman ent p l ay.
S h e also s h ows t h at pl ay conta i ns, rat h e r than escapes, t h e
p ro b l e m o f powe r. De J o n g s hows u s that a l l of t h i s mate r i a l
i s a l ready avai l a b l e to us to detourne i n t h e i nterest o f new
expe r i m e nts, new concept i ons.
The S it u at i o n i sts are nobody's p roperty. T h ey belong now
to the very "l iterary co m m u n i s m " that Debord and company
announced befo re the move m ent had even rea l l y beg u n .
B u t before w e c a n proceed t o a new p ract i ce a n d escape
t h e i r o r b i t, the S it u at i o n i sts present us with some u n fi n is hed
b u s i ness. The derive has to become a practice wit h i n the arc h i ve,
a l lowing the d iscovery of the h i dden a m b i e nces w it h i n the
Situat i on i st stacks that escape the d i v i s i o n of i ntel l ectual labor.
T h e e l e ments thus freed have to b e recuperated f u l l y rat h e r than
part i a l l y. W h ic h , last, m i g ht raise detournement to a new l eve l,
to a sovere i g n a p p ro p r i at i o n of a p p ropriation itse lf. If j o u r n a l i s m ,
art, a n d scholarsh i p fai l us a s t h e resou rces f o r c r i t i ca l l everage,
the arc h i ve y i e lds t h e i r shadow i mage, revea l i ng in o ut l i n e the
cu l t u r a l resources we do not have, but req u i re, for leav i n g t h e
twenty-fi rst centu ry.

44

Notes

Activism in the Long Twentieth Century (New York:

Semiotext(e), 2007).
1 0. See Sadie Plant, T h e Most Radical Gesture:
The Situationist I nternational in a Postmodern
Age (London: Routledge, 1992); or more recently,
J o h n Roberts, P h i l os o p h i z i n g the Everyday:
Revol utionary Praxis and the Fate of Cultural
Theory (London: P l uto Press, 2006). G u y Debord
has i nteresti n g walk-on parts i n Alain Badiou,
The Century, translated by A l b erto Toscano

1. After Chateaubri a n d , as qu oted i n Guy Debord,

"Refutation of All J u d gments," i n Guy Debord:
C o m p lete Ci nematic Works, trans. Ken Knabb
(Oakland, CA: AK Press, 2003), p . 1 1 1 . The reader
is hereby notified that many of the best l i n es in the
present essay have been lifted from other sources
without acknowledgment.
2. E l i zabeth S u ssman, ed., On the Passage of a
Few People thro u g h a Rather Brief Moment in
Time: The Situationist I nternational 1957-1972
(Cambridge, M A : M I T Press, 1989); and G r e i l
M a r c u s , Li pstick Traces: A Secret H i story o f the
Twentieth Century (Cambridge, MA: Harvard
U n iversity Press, 1989).
3. S i m o n Ford, in The Realization and S u ppression
of the Situationist International: An A n notated
B i b l iography 1972-1992 (Sti r l i n g , U K : AK Press,
1995), docu ments mostly the Engl is h-lang uage
reception from the pro-Situ m i l ieus of the 1 970s to
the first "boom" i n interest aro u n d 1989.
4. A reading vigorously d i s p uted in Stewart Home,
The Assault on Culture: Utopian Cu rrents from
Lettrisme to Class War (Sti r l i n g , UK: AK Press,
1991); and Stewart Home, Cranked Up Really
H i g h : Genre Theory and Punk Rock ( H ove, U K :
Codex, 1995).
5. See Tom M c D o n o u g h , ed., Guy Debord and the
Situationist I nternati onal: Texts a n d Documents
(Cambridge, MA: M I T Press, 2002); and Tom
McDonough, The Beautiful Language of My
Century: Reinventing the Language of Co ntestation
in Postwar France 1945-1968 (Cambridge, MA:
M I T Press, 2007).
6. See Vi ncent Kaufman, Guy Debord: Revolution
in the Service of Poetry, trans. Robert Bonono
( M i nneapolis: U n iversity of M i n nesota Press,
2006); and Martin P u c h ner, Poetry ofthe
Revolution: Marx, Man ifestos, and t h e Avant
Gardes (Pri nceton: Prin ceton U n iversity Press,
2006).
7. G u y Debord, Oeuvres c i nematogra p h i q ues
completes ( G au m o nt V i deo, 2005).
8. See Libero And reotti and Xavier Costa, eds.,
T h eory of the Derive and Other Situationist
Writi n g s on the City (Barcelona: Actar, 1996);
S i m o n Sadler, The Situationist City (Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press, 1999); and Al berto lacovoni,
Game Zone: Playgro u n d s between Virtual
Scenarios and Reality (Basel: B i rkhauser, 2004);
Francesco Careri, Walkscapes (Barcelona:
Editorial G u stavo G i l i , 2003).
9. For exam ple, Anselm Jappe, G u y Debord
(Berkeley: U n iversity of California Press, 1993);
Darrow Schecter, History of the Left from Marx
to the Present (London: Conti n u u m , 2007); and
Gerald Raunig, Art and Revol ution: Transversal

(Cambrid ge: Polity, 2007); and S i m o n Critchley,

I nfinitely Deman d i n g : Ethics of Commitment and
the Politics of Resistance (London: Verso, 2007).
It w o u l d be worth investigating his "structural"
role i n these last two cases.
1 1 . Of particular interest are a n u m ber of British
p u b l i cati ons such as Here and Now, S m i le, Vague,
Break/Flow, and pamph lets from the Londo n -
Psychogeographical Association. On the h i story
of British pro-Situs, see K i n g Mob Echo 7 (2000);
and Stewart Home, ed., W hat Was Situationism?
A Reader ( E d i n b u rg h : AK Press, 1995).
1 2. For exam ple, A d i lkno, Media Archive (New
York: Autonomedia, 1998); Critical Art Ensemble,
Di gital Resistance: Explorations in Tactical Media
(New York: A utonomedia, 200 1 ) ; Stewart Home,
Neoism, Plag iarism and Praxis ( E d i n b urgh:
AK Press, 1995); J o s e p h i n e Bosma et ai., eds.,
Readme! F i ltered by Nettime ASC I I C u lture
and the Revenge of Knowledge ( N ew York:
Auto nomedia, 1999). T h e introduction to the
latter begins: " Noth i n g is spectacular if you are
not part of it."
1 3. See G uy Debord and G i l W o l man, "Methods
of Detournement," i n Ken Knabb, e d . , Situat i o n i st
International Anthology (Berkeley, CA: B u reau of
P u b l i c Secrets, 1985), p . 1 1 .
1 4. Four of m y books can b e read a s a rework i n g
of some c o r e concepts: Virtual Geography
( B l o o m i n gton: I n diana U n iversity Press, 1994),
of Debord's theory of time; Dispositi o n s
(Cambridge: Salt P u bl i s h i n g , 1999), of the derive ,
or drift, in the age of g l o bal positioning satellites;
A Hacker Man ifesto (Cambridge, MA: Harvard
U n iversity Press, 2004), of d i g ital detournement,
or appro p riation; and Gamer Theory (Cambridge,
MA: Harvard U n i versity Press, 2007), of play i n the
age of c o m p u l sory creativity. T h e present essay
is thus a "settl i n g of accounts."
1 5 . Guy Debord and Gianfranco San g u i netti,
T he Real S p l it in the I nternational, translated by
J o h n McHale (London: Pluto Press, 2003), p. 33.
16. I bid., p. 37.
17. Gerard Berreby, ed., Textes et docu ments
Situation n i stes 1957-1960 ( Paris: Editions A l lia,
2004), p. 47.
18. Howard Slater, " D i vided We Stand: An O ut l i n e
o f Sca n d i navian Situationism," I nfopool 4 (2001 ).

45

(New York: Harper C o l l i n s, 1992). Despite the title,

B o g danov broke with Len i n , and in a sense h i s
R e d Star is n o t " Bols hevik" at all. I f one reason to
read the Situation ists is as a cou nterwei g ht to the
q u ite strange L e n i nist revival per petrated by Slavoj
Zizek a n d Alain Bad i o u , Bogdanov too m i g ht be
d u e for an u ntimely "rehabil itati o n . "
4 5 . Fredric Jameso n , Archaelogies o f t h e Future
(London: Verso, 2005), p. 15.
46. Mark W i gley, ed., A n other City for A n other Life:
Constant's New Babylon, Draw i n g Papers 3
( New York: The Drawi n g Center, 1999), p. 9.
47. O n Jorn's worki ng-through of his Marxist and
synd icalist i n h eritance, see Graham Birtwhistle,
Living Art: Asger Jorn's Com prehensive Theory
of Art (Utrecht: Reflex, 1986). C o n stant's fasti d i o u s
relation to the letter o f Marx c o m e s o u t in t h e
interview w i t h h i m i n Catherine de Zegher a n d Mark
Wigley, eds., The Activist Drawing (Cambridge,
M A : MIT Press, 2001 ).
48. The Decom position of the Artist: Five Texts
by Constant, addendum to W i gley, A n other City
for A nother Life: Constant's New Babylon.
49. Constant, "Manifesto" (1948),
The Decomposition of the Artist, p. a2.
50. Karl Marx, "P reface" to A Contri b ution to the
Criti q u e of Political Economy, i n Early Writi n gs,
trans. Rodney Livingstone (Harmondsworth:
Pen g u i n , 1975), p. 426. The relat i o n of the CoBrA
artists to Marx i s compl icated. Jorn argued at the
time that art
was not i n frastructural, but superstructural.
It was for him the qualitative aspect of social labor.
51. C o n stant, "On Our Means and Our
Perspectives" (1958), The Decomposition o f t h e
Artist, p. a7.
52. Mark W i g l ey, " T h e Great U rbanism Game,"
Arch itectural Desi g n , special issue o n New
Babylonians, e d . l a i n Borden a n d Sandy McCreery,
vol . 71 , no. 3 ( J u n e 2001 ), p. 9.
53. Constant, "Lecture Given at the ICA, L o n d o n "
(1963), The Decompositi on o f the Artist, p. a9.
54. I b i d . , p. a12.
55. I b i d . , p. a13.
56. I b i d .
57. Roland Barthes, Roland Barthes by Roland
Barthes (New York: Noonday Press, 1 989), p. 85.
58. Constant, "The Rise a n d D ec l i n e of t h e
Avant-Garde" ( 1 964), The Decomposition o f t h e
Artist, p. a26.
59. Alice Becker-Ho, " Historical Note (2006) , "
i n A l ice Becker-Ho a n d G uy Debord, A Game
of War, translated by D o n a l d N i c h olson-Smith
(I.:ondon: Atlas Press, 2007), p . 7.
60. Jacqueline de J o n g , i n Stefan Zweifel et a I . ,
e d s . , I n G i r u m I m u s N o cte e t C o n s u m i m u r I g n i :
T h e Situationist I nternational 1957-1972
(Zurich: J R P-Ringier, 2006), p. 240.

19. Giorg i na Berto l i n o et aI., eds., P i n ot Gal lizio:

I I laboratorio d e l l a scrittura (Milan: C h arta, 2005),
p. 20.
20. Quoted in i b i d . , p. 135
21 . Q u oted in i b i d . , p. 1 64.
22. M i chele Bernste i n , " I n Praise of Pi not
Gal lizio," in M c D o n o u g h , ed., Guy Debord and the
Situationist I nternati onal, p. 70.
23. Q u oted in Bertol i n o , Pi not Gallizio: I I
laboratorio della scrittura, p . 171 .
24. See Walter Benjam i n , "The Work of Art i n
t h e Era o f Mechan ical Repro d u c i b i l ity: Seco nd
Versi on," Selected Writi ngs, vol. 3, 1935-38
(Cambrid ge, MA: Harvard U n iversity Press, 2002),
p p . 1 01 -33.
25. Berto l i n o , P i n ot Gallizio: I I laboratorio d e l l a
scrittura, p. 1 72.
26. M i rella Ban d i n i , "An Enormous a n d U n known
Chem ical React i o n , " in S u ssman, O n the Passage
of a Few People through a Rather Brief Moment in
Time, p. 72.
27. Berto l i n o , P i n ot Gallizio: I I laboratorio della
scrittura, p. 172.
28. I b i d . , p. 27.
29. Manuel DeLanda, I ntensive Science and V i rtual
P h ilosophy ( L o n d o n : Conti n u u m , 2002), p. 4.
30. I b i d . , p. 1 7 1 .
31 . T. J . Clark, Farewe ll to an I d ea ( N ew Haven:
Yale U niversity Press, 2001 ) , p . 389.
32. Reprinted in Asger J o r n , The Natural Order
a n d Other Texts, trans. Peter S h ield ( A l dershot,
UK: Ash gate, 2002), p. 1 2 1 ff.
33. Asger J o r n , "La Creation ouverte et ses
ennemis," I nternationale Situationn iste 5
( D ecember 1960), pp. 29-50. E n g l i s h translations
here a n d following are by the author u n less
otherwise attri buted.
34. I b i d . , p. 39.
35. I b i d . , p. 40.
36. l b i d . , p. 39.
37. G u y Debord, " I n g i r u m , " in G u y Debord:
Complete C i nematic Works, p. 1 50.
38. Asger Jorn, " La Pataphysique, une religion
e n format i o n , " I nternati onale Situati o n n iste 6
( A u g u st 1961 ), pp. 29-32.
39. Asger Jorn, "La Creation ouverte et ses
e n n emis," p. 42.
40. I b i d . , p. 44.
41. James G leick, Chaos: Maki n g a New Science
(Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1988).
42. Asger J o r n , "La C reation o uverte et ses
ennemis," p. 44.
43. I b i d . , p. 45.
44. Both A. A. B o g danov and Kim Stanley
Robinson b u i lt their utopias o n Mars. A . A.
Bogdanov, Red Star: The Fi rst Bolshevik Utopia
( B l o o m i ngton: I n d iana U n i versity Press, 2006);
a n d Kim Stanley Robinson, Red Mars

46

61. Giorgio Agamben, in i bi d . , p. 36.

62. See S u san Laxto n , Paris as Gameboard: L u d i c
Strategies i n Surrealism ( P h . D . diss., Colum bia
Un iversity, 2004).
63. Marcel D u c h a m p and Vitali Hal berstadt,
L' Op position et les cases conjugees sont
reconcilieesjOpposition und Schesterfelder sind
d u rch versohntjOpposition and Sister S q uares Are
Reconci led (Paris: L'Editions l ' E c h i q u i er, 1932).
64. Quoted in Allan Woods, The Map Is Not the
Territory (Manc hester, U K: Manch ester U n iversity
Press, 2000), p . 199.
65. See Ed Halter, From Sun Tzu to Xbox
(New York: T h u nder Mouth Press, 2006).
66. G u y Debord, Society of the S pectacle, trans.
Ken Knabb ( L o n d o n : Rebel Press, 2005), para. 1 43.
67. T h a n ks to Mic hael Petti n ger for this translati o n .
68. S e e G u y Debord, Cette mauvaise reputation
(Paris: Gal l i mard, 1993).
69. Becker-Ho and Debord, A Game of War, p. 156.
70. I b i d . , p. 19.
71 . I b i d . , p . 21 .
72. I b i d .
73. Antonio G ramsci, Selecti ons f r o m The Prison
Notebooks, trans. Q u intin Hoare a n d Geoffrey
Nowell Smith (New York: International P u b l i shers,
1971), p . 238.
74. Becker-Ho and Debord, A Game of War, p. 22.
75. I b i d . , p. 24.
76. G uy Debord, "P reface to the First Editi o n , "
in i b i d . , p . 9 .
77. M o r e c o u l d be s a i d a b o u t a Situationist
a pproach to the novel and about novels that were
key to the movement, s u c h as those by Malcolm
Lowry and Louis-Ferd inand Celine, or those
it inspired, s u c h as Patrick Straram's recently
rediscovered Les Bouteilles se couchent
(Paris: Editions Al lia, 2006), o r Georges Perec's
T h i n gs: A Story ofthe Sixties (Bosto n : David R.
Godine, 1990), or P h i l i p p e Sollers's The Park
( N ew York: Red D u st , 1977).
78. Debord to Constant, 8 A u g u st 1958, in G u y
Debord, Corresp o n dance, vol. 1 (Paris: Fayard,
1999). Thanks to B i l l Brown for t h i s reference.
79. Debord to Constant, 26 April 1959, in i b i d .
8 0 . Zweifel, I n G i r u m I m u s Nocte e t C o n s u m i m u r
I g n i : T h e Situationist I nternational 1957-1972, p . 9.
81 . M i c hele Bernstei n , La N u it (Paris: Buchet
Chastel, 1961 ), p. 40.
82. I b i d . , p. 18.
83. I b i d . , p . 92.
84. Michele Bernste i n , Tous les chevaux du ro i
(Paris: Editions Al lia, 2004), p. 1 1 6. I would l i ke to
thank J o h n Kelsey for making h i s translation of t h i s
text avai lable to m e . I h a v e mod ified h i s translation
s l i g htly here and there.
85. I b i d . , p . 53.
86. C h oderlos de Lados, Les Liaisons

dangereuses, translated by P. W . K. Stone

(London: P e n g u i n , 1961 ), p. 364; Percy Byss he
Shell ey, " E p i psyc h i d i o n , " i n T h e Poetical Works
of Shelley, ed. Newell F. Ford ( Boston: Hou g hton
Miffi i n , 1974), p. 306.
87. O d i l e Passot, " Portrait of G u y Debord as a
Y o u n g Li bertine," S u bstance 3 (1999), p. 77.
Odile Pas sot is a pseudonym; t h i s text was actually
written by J ean-Marie Apostolides. See his
Les Tombeaux de Guy Debord (Paris: Flammari o n ,
2006).
88. See Marcel Carne, Les Visiteurs du soir, 1942,
with scree n play by Jacques Prevert and Pierre
Laroche.
89. C h ri s Kraus, I Love Dick (New York:
Semiotext(e), 1997), p. 97.
90. Charles Fou rier, The Theory of the F o u r
Movements (Cambridge: Cambridge U n iversity
Press, 1996), p . 1 1 1 .
9 1 . Kristin Ross, Fast Cars, Clean Bodies
(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995), p . 1 48. For the
c haracters i n Bernste i n ' s novels, it's more l i ke fast
bodies, dean cars.
92. Bernste i n , Tous les chevaux du roi , p . 36.
93. Len Bracken, G u y Debord Revolutionary
(Venice, CA: Feral H o use, 1997), p . 245.
94. G u y Debord, Panegyric, Books One and Two,
translated by James Brook and J o h n McHale
(London: Verso, 2004), p . 61.
95. Bernste i n , Tous les chevaux d u roi, p. 113.
96. "Howls for Sade," G u y Debord: C o m p lete
C i nematic Works, p. 17.
97. G reil Marcus, L i pstick Traces, p. 423.
98. Jacq u e l i n e de J o n g , "Critic on the Political
Practice of Detournement," The Situationist Times
1 (1962).
99. I b i d .
1 00. I b i d .
1 0 1 . " T h e Stru ggle for the Situcratic Society,"
signed by Nash, d e J o n g , et aI., The Situati o n i st
Times 2 (1962).
1 02. See Howard Slater, " D ivided We Stand:
A n Outl i n e of Scandi navian Situationism."
1 03. T. J . C lark, T h e Painti n g of Modern Life
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton Un iversity Press, 1984),
p . 1 0.
1 04. See E m i l y Apter, The Translation Zone:
A New Com parative Literature ( P ri nceton, NJ:
Princeton U n i versity Press, 2005), p. 226ff.
1 05. See Josephine Bosma et aI., eds., Readme!.

47

Cred its
1 C h ris Jordan, Cell p h ones #2, Atlanta, 2005. From
the series I ntolerable Beauty: Portraits of American
Mass Consumption. Courtesy C h ri s Jordan
2 Edward B u rtynsky, Man ufacturing #16, N i n g bo,
Z h e ijang Province, 2005. From the series C h i na.
C o u rtesy Edward B u rtynsky and Charles Cowles
Gallery, New York/Robert Koch Gallery, San
Francisco/ N i c h o las Metivier Gallery, Toronto
3-10 Ralph R u m ney, photographs taken i n Cosio
d'A rroscia, Italy, J u l y 1957. C o u rtesy Avery
Arch itectural and F i n e Arts L i b rary, C o l u m b i a
U n iversity
11 Film sti l l from Bernadette Corporation, Get R i d
o f You rself, 2003. C o u rtesy Bernadette Corporation
1 2 Game sti l l from Radical Software Group,
Kriegspiel: G u y Debord ' s 1978 " Game of War," 2008.
C o u rtesy Radical Software G r o u p
15 P i n ot ( G i u sep pe) G a l l i z i o and gypsies, A l b a ,
Italy. P h otographer u n known. C o u rtesy Archivo
G a l l i zio, T u r i n
16 P i n ot ( G i u seppe) G a l l i z i o and S o s h a n a Afroyim,
i n Cavern of Anti-Matter i n stal lati o n , Rene D ro u i n
Gallery, Paris, 1959. Photographer u n known.
Courtesy Arch ivo Gallizio, Turin
17 Pi not ( G i u seppe) Gallizio, Cavern of Anti-Matter,
I n stallation view, Rene Drouin Gallery, Paris,
1959. P h otog rap her u n known. C o u rtesy Archivo
G a l l i z i o , Turin
1 8 P i not ( G i u se p p e) Gallizio, Untitled (detai l),
1959. Photographer u n known. Co urtesy Arch ivo
G a l l i z i o , Turin
21 Constant, New Babylon Yellow Sector, 1958-61 .
C o u rtesy Victor N ieuwen h uys
22 Constant, Combi nation of Sectors, 1958-61 .
C o u rtesy Victor N ieuwen h uys
23 Constant, New Babylon Paris, 1963. Col lection of
the Gemeentem useum, The Hague
24 Constant, New Babylon Amsterdam, 1963.
C o l l ection of the Gemeentemuseum, T h e Hague
28 Jacq u e l i n e d e Jong with Pinot ( G i u sep pe)
Gallizio in Al ba, Italy, 1960. P h otographer u n known.
Courtesy Jacqueline d e J o n g
2 9 Jacqueline de J o n g with Asger J o r n at a n
o p e n i n g o f an exh i b ition o f collages by Jacques
Prevert, 1962. Photogra p h er u n known. Courtesy
Jacquel i n e de J o n g
3 0 Jacqueline de J o n g i n h e r Paris stu d i o .
Photographer u n known. C o u rtesy Jacquel i n e
de J o n g
3 3 K e v i n C . P y l e and McKenzie Wark, Cataract
of Time, 2007. From Totality for Kids, on-line
work i n progress

48

1 C h ri s J o rdan, Cell p h o nes #2, Atlanta, 2005.

From the series I ntolerable Beauty: Portraits of Mass A m erican C o n s u m ption

2 Edward Burtynsky, Man ufact u r i n g #16, N i n g b o , Zheijang Province, C h i na, 2005.

From the series C h i na

With the development of capital ism, irreversible time is u n ified o n

a world s c a l e. . . . W h at appears the w o r l d o v e r as t h e s a m e day is
the time of e c o n o m i c production cut up into equal abstract fragments.
Unified irrevers i b l e time i s the time of t h e world market and, as a
coro l l ary, of the world spectacle. -Guy Debord

3-8 Ral p h R u m n ey, p h otographs taken in Cosio d ' Arroscia, J u l y 1957.

I d entifiable are Michele Bernstein, Guy Debord, Piero Sismondo, and Elena Verrone.

got s u m m o n e d , or i n vited, to Cosio d' Arroscia. 50 we went there

and Debord turned u p with this tract he'd written and we founded the
5ituationist Internati onal. 5 i s m ondo had a place there. H e was a friend
of Jorn's and Jorn was l i v i n g nearby ... anyway Piero had this place,
or h i s aunt had a hotel there where we could all stay and get free food.
50 we stayed there for a week gett i n g d r u n k , and that was how t h e
5ituationist I nternational w a s formed . - R a l p h R u m ney

9 Ralph R u m ney, p h otog rap h taken in Cosio d' Arroscia, J u ly 1957. Portrait of Michele Bernstein

1 0 Ralph R u m ney, p h otograph taken in Cosio d ' A rroscia, J u l y 1957. Portrait of G u y Debord

Since each parti c u l ar feel i n g i s o n l y a part of life and not life i n its
entirety, l ife yearns to spread i nto the f u l l d i versity of fee l i n g s so as to
rediscover itself in the whole of this d i v ersity . . . In love, the separate
sti l l exists, but it exists as u n ified, no l o n g er as separate: the l i v i n g
meets t h e l i v i n g . - G u y Debord

11 Bernadette Corporation, fi lm sti l l from Get Rid of Yourself, 2003

12 Radical Software Gro u p , game sti ll from Krieg spiel: Guy Debord ' s 1978 " G a m e of War", 2008

W h at we need to beg i n t h i n k i n g about is the totality of society u n d er

attac k. We are fac i n g a new subjective space, o n e that threatens
power and i g nores it. It's not political because it refuses any social role.
There are n o demands, there are n o negotiations. It's a mass exodus
o n the spot. -Bernadette Corporati o n

NOUVEAU THEATRE D'OPERATIONS

DANS LA CULTURE

Uuction da ulualiolU

LA DISSOLUTION DES

IDEES

ANCIENNES

VA f)

PAIR AVEC LA DISSOLUTION DES ANCIENNES

CONDITIONS D'EXIS TENCE ,

INTERNATIONAl.E
SITVATIONNISTE
'
1 3 Poster for the I nternati onale Situation n iste, 1958

1 4 Guy Debord, Map of Paris before 1957, 1957

I know G i l les's t h i n g for wal k i n g all n i g ht, how a cafe sti ll open late
becomes a pre c i o u s port of call in streets where s o m n a m b u l ists
normally don't go. After two, rue M ouffetard is deserted. Y o u have to
go up to the Pantheon to find a bar, to r u e Cujas. T h e next stop is by the
Senate, then rue d u Bac, if you really want to steer clear of what
we sti ll call the Quartier. Here, I g u ess Carole told h i m the story of
her life (if she even had one yet). And then the sun starts to rise over
Les H a i l es-it's a ritual. - M i c h e l e Bernstein

15 Pinot (Gi usep pe) Gallizio and gypsies, A l b a, Italy. P h otographer u n k n ow n

16

P i n ot ( G i u seppe) Gallizio a n d Soshana Afroyim in Cavern of Anti-Matter i n stallation,

Rene D r o u i n Gallery, Paris, 1959. P h otograp h e r u n known

The gypsies rightly contend that one i s never c o m pel led to speak
the truth except in one's own language; in the enemy's language,
the l i e m u st r e i g n . -Guy Debord

17 P i n ot ( G i u se ppe) Gal l i z i o , Cavern of A nti- Matter, i n stallati on view,

Rene Dro u i n Gallery, Paris, 1959. Photographer u n known

18 P i n ot ( G i u sep pe) Gall i z i o , U ntitled (detail), 1959

The patented society, c o n ceived and based on s i m p l e ideas, on the

e l e m e ntary gestures of artists and scie ntists reduced to captivity
l i ke fleas by ants, i s about to end; man i s expressing a c o l lective sense
and a suitable instrument for transmitt i n g it i n a potlatch system of
g ifts that can only be paid for by other poetic experiences.
- P i n ot ( G i u seppe) G a l l izio

19 Laoc oon's fate. I l l u stration for Asger Jo rn's article " A p o l l o and D i o nysus"
as pu b l i s h e d in Byggmastarn (Sweden), 1947

20 Grap h i c i mage of the movement of a p e n d u l u m . I l l ustration for Asger Jorn's arti cle
"Living Ornament" as p u b l i shed i n Forum (The Netherl ands), 1949

The tremendously consistent p u r g e of e m pty ornamental elem ents

ofform i s in reality class i c i s m ' s Pyrrhic victory. It is a
what is to come; for an art of the future. -Asger Jorn

tabula rasa for

21 Co nstant, views of New Babylon Yellow Sector, 1958-61

22 Constant, C o m b i nation of Sectors, 1 958-61

For many a year the gypsies who sto pped a w h i l e i n the little
P i e d m ontese town of Alba were i n the habit of camping ben eath the
roof that, once a week, o n Saturday, h oused the l i vestock market ....
It's there that i n December 1956 I went to see them i n the c o m pany of
the painter Pi not Gal l i z i o , the owner of t h i s u neven, m u ddy, desolate
terrain, who'd g i ve n it to them . . . . That was the day

I conceived the

scheme for a permanent encampment for the gypsies of A l ba and that

project is the o r i g i n of the series of maqu ettes of New Baby l o n . Of a
N e w Babyl o n where, u n der one roof, with the aid of movable elements,
a shared residence is b u i lt; a temporary, co nstantly remodeled l i v i n g
area; a c a m p f o r nomads o n a planetary scale. -Constant

23 Constant, New Babylon Paris, 1963

UIH 'AL VAH AlUTHOAH

........-,,.-.,,
...
-" --'"""
'
# '''-''

24 Constant, New Babylon A m sterd a m , 1963

The first step, arch itectu ral ly , wou l d o b v i o u s ly be to replace the

current pav i l io n s with an autonomous series of small Situation ist
architectural c o m plexes. A m o n g these new architectures ... o u ght
to be b u i lt perpetually c h a n g i n g labyrinths . . . . S h o u l d Les H a i les
of Paris survive unti l s u c h a t i m e a s these p ro b l e m s will b e posed by
everyone, it w i l l be fitting to try to turn them i nto a theme park for
the l u d i c education of the workers. - A b d e l h afid Khatib

25 Guy Debord, fil m sti l l s from In Girum I m u s Nocte et Consu m i m u r I g n i , 1978,

incorporati ng Debord's Game of War and detourned i mages from war movies

I have l o n g striven to maintain an obscure and el usive existence,

and this has enabled me to further d e v e l o p my strateg ical experiments,
which had already begun so wel l . A s someone not without abi lities
once put it, this i s a field i n which no one can ever become expert.
T h e results of these i n v estigations-and this is the only good news i n
the present c o m m u n ication-will n o t b e presented in c i n e m atic form.
-Guy Debord

26 Guy Debord, fi l m sti l l from Critiq u e of Se parati o n , 1961 ,

s h o w i n g Debord with Caro l i n e Rittener

27 M i c h e le Bernstein on the cover ofthe 2004 reissue

of her 1960 novel Tous les chevaux d u roi

Helene was at the center of a g r o u p t h at came apart. H e r presence gave

i t equ i l i br i u m , b u t l ater she became a s useless as a grand staircase i n
a r u i n ed castle. H e l e n e d i d n 't change, b u t a change i n perspective had
a b o l i s h ed her functi o n . We stopped s e e i n g her for all these reasons,
and for no reason ... out of sadness. N ot having anyt h i n g to confront her
with, I refused to confront her, and there was a bad
fi g h t on the telephone. - M i c h e l e Bernstein

28 Jacq ueline de J o n g with P i n ot ( G i useppe) Gallizio in Al ba, 1960.

P h otographer u n known

'
29 Jac q u e l i ne de Jong with Asger J orn at an o p e n i n g of an exh ibi tion
of collages by Jacques Prevert, 1962. Photographer u n known

30 Jacqueline de J o n g i n her Paris st u d i o . P h otographer u n known

I n 1962, the outrage expressed by de J o n g that such a g r o u p c o u l d be so

u n d em ocratic as to seek to eject a ' m ajority' of its own mem bers, could
well be i n d icative that as an organization of affi nities the Situatio n i st
International was self-selecti ng. T h e trum peted exclusions are
also i n dicative of its b i d for "sovere i g n power"-a political act that
annou nces its own state of exception, its own rules ("creating the
sphere of its own reference"), and in so d o i n g disregards any notion of a
b i n d i n g 'contract' b e i n g at the orig in of its power. -H oward S l ater

.. ..

ATIONAL

EDmON .

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31 The Situationist Ti mes 4, October 1963. Issue on the labyrinth

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Im}.bneift mil,... <in Kom alkin.

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im ...
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Samizdat movements, b e i n g uto p i a n , seek to intervene i n all areas

of l ife. However, the anti-profess i o n a l i s m of sami zdat b i ases it in favor
of cultural and p o l itical activities and away from seri o u s scie ntific
i n vestigation. S i n c e Western society e n c o u rages speciali zati o n ,
o n c e a n y g i ven sami zdat movement loses i t s dynamism i t tends t o be
pushed into a single area of contestat i o n . -Stewart Home

100

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106

II

Charles Olso12

The death in life ( death itself )

s endless. Etemit
1S

a false cause

The knot is other Ilse,

.
each topological comer
presents itseU' an

o sword

. Itself its fire

cuts it, each knot IS

Each knot of which the nets are made

. for the hands to untake

15

the knot's making, nd touch alone

can turn the knot IOta its own flame

107

.... f

.'"

(( , . -<---.;:
, 0) ==.!!:!
I uatlonist
Times 4 , 0 ctober 1963 . I ssue on the labyrinth
31 The S't
.

3JUf)'ON

H
- .

32 The Situationist Times 5, Decem ber 1964. Issue on the r i n g

In this n u m ber of The Situati o n i st T i m es, we try to open up the

pro b l e m of the ring, interlaced rings, and consequently c h a i n s ... we do
not want to make any statement . . . either in a so-called "symbol istic"
way or in a sc ie ntific one, even t h o u g h some of the contrib utors m i g ht
show a certai n tendency in o n e way or another. -J acq u e l i n e de J o n g

When freedom is practiced in a closed cirtle.

it fades into a dream. and becomes
a mere representation of itself.

All the eddies of the world course into history. but history does not fill up.

And to the place from whence these rilers of turbulence come they return.

33 Kevin C. Pyle and McKenzie Wark. Cataract of Time. 2007.

From Totality for Kids, on-li n e work in progress

Guy came in, dressed in black from head to foot, and i n b l ac k

corduroy n o less! . . . F l o urishes o f rare precision and without any
hurry. The real adventure novel i s C e l i n e . I'm entirely in agreement
with you there, Guy. He sat down with n o preamble other than
his s m i l e ... and ordered two liters of white w i n e , dry white wine.
-Patrick Straram