participation to interaction

interactive art is examined in this reading, primarily through its history. beginning, with Marinetti and the variety theater shows of the early 1900's, Dinkly examines 'interactive art'. Marinetti
is referenced for his use of the audience in his theater productions
where the audience was asked to interact, instead of simply segregating
themselves from the stage. this attempt to merge the 'viewer' from the
'performer', and blur those existing boundaries, is the foothold for
interactive,performative artwork.
from the futurists, dinkla moves on toward the Dada exhibitions that followed shortly after. Earnst,
through object placement and simple written instruction, attempted to
involve (or create the possibility of involvement for) the viewer.
closely followingEarnst's motivation, Duchamp challenged the audience with illuminating work themselves.
Cage and Kaprows
ideas in the 60's, translated the interaction through 'happenings'.
these events took place void of normal galleries and exhibition spaces,
thus attempting to avoid the normal constructions and relations of art
to viewer in the gallery. although these events were successful, they
still were looked upon as 'art events', simply with a different
conceptual approach.
Dinkla then moves on to talk about interactive work through newer technological means. the use of wireless technology, closed circuit television
"kaprow's happenings make abundantly clear that not every form of participation per se implies a higher responsibility for the visitor and this a less authoritarian role of the artist."

there is more talk in this article of interactions, but the importance
of the rest of the article, is the drive and desire to make truly
'interactive' work. the problem withalot of this field of work, is that
its not truly 'interactive'. it is simply dictation by the artist upon
the actions of the participant. the work moves toward closedcircuit television, where the viewers can choose whether to be in the sight of the camera or not, but still insnt
fully allowing the viewer to make decisions. work like Soundings creates unknown
and discovered interaction, yet it was an object not a space.
the closed circuit tv pieces by Nam June Paik
created simple outputs created and dictated by movement and sound of
others. in this way they are at least unknowingly confronted and
interacting, still staged and led, but allowed freedetermination of how they will react and interact.

"happenings and performances are
generally characterized by the impulse of bringing art and life closer
together..."

Being here: Performative aspects of locative media

I have to admit I found this to be a rather tedious read. Alan Peacock's writing style is very dull and did not keep my interest very well. However, the subject matter he is talking about is rather interesting.
The reading is about locative media in all of its forms. This can include technology, like PDAs, MP3 players, mobile phones but also books and other literary devices. Basically, the phrase 'locative media' used here refers to artifacts that fall into the broad and increasingly loosely defined cultural category of 'art.' (pg.65) He states this and then goes on to include pretty much any conceivable way to use locative media in terms of art and what it would mean to do so in terms of performance.
Generally, locative media is very much made of place and location. It deals with ideas about travelling, and being in one place and out of another, of located and dislocated, and the feelings and states of being this brings (pg.70). There are so many different elements and ways of perception that locative media can bring to an artistic project. Alan Peacock attempts to cover all of them.
This article made me think how saturated my world is with technological devices, and how it is becoming very difficult to live a life without them. Our lifestyles are so engrossed that we do not even notice it anymore. Take OSU for example. You cannot function or really attend the school without a computer and Internet access. Everything is online this class is mostly online. I do not have Internet and until recently ( as in 2 weeks ) I did not have a computer. It has been so difficult for me to accomplish my schoolwork, and schedule for classes, and everything else that goes along with it. It seems only appropriate that now that our lives revolve around technology that art should be constructed in the same vain.
Peacock's last sentence states, "Most notably, perhaps, they need us to re-imagine issues of audience and participation, and as a part of that, our own roles as artists." I think this is true not only within locative media but within any form or style used to create art.

Chapter 12/ Yi-Fu Tuan

Chapter 12
Physical Setting and Urban Life Styles

Yi-Fu Tuan nicely summarizes the evolution of environment and life styles around the globe. It is interesting to think about our life styles as the sum of our various economic, social, commonplace activities and the spatial patterns they create which in turn influence the patterning of our activities. I look back to my upbringing in Slovakia and my own spatial patterns which require, as Tuan mentions, architectural forms and material settings. Spatial patterns that now help me understand my life style, including my attitude to the world with the evidence of acts and the physical circumstances in which they might have had occurred.
I grew up walking everywhere. Distances were short and the public transportation was easy to use. Most people used their cars only if they needed to leave the city. When I moved to the United States I experienced a tremendous shift in the balance between walking and other means of locomotion. I tried to fight it by walking one and a half hours to school every day. I would never encounter another pedestrian on my walks and due to too much attention and heckling I eventually gave up.
Tuan provides an interesting timeline of this shift in balance from the Middle Ages up to present. In the Middle Ages pedestrians from all social groups mingled together in the crowded lanes. From the 17th century onward there was less mingling of the social orders due to increasing use of carriages by the wealthy. At the beginning of the Victorian era, pedestrians still dominated the street scene. Tuan compares the past to the streets in contemporary Los Angeles, where vehicles cause congestion while the sidewalks are relatively bare or even missing in some sections.
It is sad to think that many people’s perceptions of the external surroundings are based on the view from their car. Ever since I moved to Columbus, I have been taking walks to register the space around me. I am interested in exploring the ordinary, the everyday. What happens and recurs everyday: the banal, the common, the obvious, the background noise, the habitual. I want to be able to speak of these ‘common things’, to track them down, to give them a meaning, a tongue, to let them speak of what is, of what we are. It is interesting to think about the Situationist International and psychogeography in this context as well. How are we to understand psychogeography as the study of specific effects of the geographical environment on our emotions and behavior if most of us don’t even experience it first hand?

TOPOPHILIA

PREFACE:
-The sixties and the seventies American landscape was seen as prosperity rather than beauty.

-Topophilia: All the different ways that human beings can develop a love of place.

-In our passion to preserve nature we tend to become misanthropes-to look upon technological progress and large-scale creations, especially the city, with a jaundiced eye.

Since the mid 18th century there has been a constant progression in our (Western) attitudes toward the environment. Mid 18th century was known as a time that was able to reach balance and intimacy between man and earth. Today in our Western society we look at the land as prosperity rather than something to contemplate.

- “The beauty of nature is something I can admire only from the safety of a humanly constructed world.” Tuan

There is an uncertainty and fear of nature imbedded in humankind. We continue to use technology to construct a world of fake comfort. This makes us believe that we are in control, and yet the world would collapse with the absence ants and not with the absence of humans.

CHAPTER ONE:
-The themes- perception, attitude, value- prepare us, to understand ourselves.

-Structured theme of Topophilia:
• #4, Examine the search for environment in the city, suburb, countryside, and wilderness from a dialectical perspective.
• #5, Distinguish different types of environmental experience and describe their character.

-Perception, attitude, value, and worldview are among the key terms of the present work; there meanings overlap.

-Topophilia is the affective bond between people and place or setting.

CHAPTER TWO:
-“No two persons see the same reality.”

-“No two social groups make precisely the same evaluation of the environment.”

-“A human being perceives the world through all his senses simultaneously.”

-“Perception is an activity, a reaching out to the world.”

CHAPTER TEN:
-“Man plays two rolls, the social-profane and the mythical-sacred, the one bound to time, the other transcending it.”

-For subsistence farmers of the middle latitudes life on earth depends on events in the sky.

-“In the last few centuries nature has lost further ground. To speak of nature today is to speak of the country side and the wilderness,”

-“Scenery and landscape are nearly synonymous.”

-“The medieval cathedral was meant to be experienced; it was a dense text to be read with devout attention and not an architectural form to be merely seen.”

Isometric Gardens:
-“Gardens mirror certain cosmic values and environmental attitudes.”

-“Social distinctions are discarded in the garden where man is free to contemplate and commune with nature in neglect of his fellow human beings.”

-“The cloisters and gardens of monasteries were places of contemplation.”

Perspective Gardens:
-“The art of Andre le Notre made a caricature of the belief that man could impose his aesthetic taste on nature. The garden was for show: it glorified man.”

-“Such a show of human will in formal design left no sense of nature or of the divine.”

Premodern Responses:
-“The cosmos of premodern man was multistoried; nature was rich in symbols, its objects could be read at several levels and evoke emotion-laden response.”

Symbolical Depth:
-“Consider the symbolic significance of the garden. At the deepest level, it may stand for the vulva of the earth, expressing humanity’s yearning for ease and the assurance of fertility.”

-“Buddhism contributed to the increasing awareness of nature and to garden design, enriching its symbolic content.”

Sacred Places:
-“The garden is a type of sacred place.”
-“Every effort to define space is an attempt to create order out of disorder.”

FURTHER:

Together we have compiled these quotes that seemed relevant to our thinking and art practice. Since the end of last quarter we have considered the collaboration of a project that addresses local gardening in the public landscape. Through our concern with the privatization of public space, we have decided to deconstruct land that relies on sight rather than the perception of all senses. Our surrounding is made up of multiple un-used static compartments that could be utilized in a way that encompasses a constant change and stimulates the use of multiple sense receptors. We desire to re-create the balance between man and nature that has disappeared in the past two centuries. Going back to Yi-Fu Tuan’s book Topophilia, the Aivilik Eskimo do not perceive space as pictorial or boxed in, but something as always in flux. They understand space as creating its own dimensions moment by moment. In the same manner, our gardens will be designed to involve and to encompass the visitor who is exposed to constantly shifting scenes. We want the gardens to evoke an experience that involves sight, sound, touch, and smell.

Zuzana - Herb

Simone Forti

Animate Dancing
A Practice in Dance Improvisation
Simone Forti

“ I have found that we think differently when we are in motion. And this is the thinking I am trying to access.”
Simone Forti

I am very much interested in the same idea or observation in my own art practice. I am fascinated with the way electric impulses in our brain work and also in the sudden bright ideas. I discovered this sensation when I started taking walks on the railroad tracks. Due to the repetitious nature of my form of walking I caught myself in a theta brainwave state. This is also something that happens to people who are driving on a freeway, and discover that they cannot recall the last five miles. Individuals who do a lot of freeway driving often get good ideas during those periods when they are in theta. During my walks I noticed that it is a state where tasks become so automatic that I can mentally disengage from them. I am in a state of mental relaxation which makes me prone to a flow of ideas.

Landscape Architecture Fun

In the Forti reading, Simone mentioned studying for four years under the dancer Anna Halprin and mentioned that Anna's husband, Lawrence Halprin was a landscape architect. Both Anna and Lawrence were great artists and also great examples of how to incorporate Image Body Landscape in different forms with a focus on design or dance. We read in Forti about Anna but I've attached some images of Lawrence's works that are pretty fascinating.

Lawrence often looked at how people every day can be choreographed to move in a certain way through a space. His designs helped people to experience the landscape, rather than just move through it. He would put barriers of rocks and rushing water into plazas to make people pay attention as to where they were walking, while soaking in the natural soundtrack of the rushing water. He would provide different walking surfaces and railing types so the pedestrian would feel different sensations while moving through the space.

An Essay on Place and Home

Barbara Mason
Responses to Part I of Lucy Lippard's The Lure of the Local
January 15, 2007


The Lucy Lippard reading was interesting, evocative and I could relate to many of the things she talks about, especially in the Introduction and chapters 1 to 3. As a person who has moved many times in my life, experiencing a multitude of places and regions, I am very familiar with the "seductive embrace of places." One of my favorite Beatles' songs is the one that starts: "There are places I remember . . ." I even choreographed a dance to it; and any time I hear a few notes of the melody, I am nearly overcome by nostalgia.

Lippard speaks of the "visceral pull" of place with its visual and emotional attraction. I have also experienced place as a visceral repulsion, a kind of anti-attraction based on visual and emotional experiences. I have even fallen in or out of love with places I have never been to. Reactions to places are subjective. For example, the town my mother grew up in--Sanger, California--was a beloved place of mine as a child because my favorite and closest cousin lived there with our grandparents. However, later in my life after my mother remarried another Sanger native and moved back there with him, I began to dislike the place. My cousin was no longer there and I began to develop negative experiences of Sanger as a small, homely, dull and alienating place far from any of my friends. My mother and stepfather (who farmed the land for a living) loved this place and never understood why I didn't want to move there and settle down permanently as they did.

I grew up in Salinas, California and as a child and teen I longed for East Coast architecture, landscapes and seasons--based on pictures I saw in books and magazines. I actually felt as if I had been born in the wrong place. Early on I also predetermined that I never wanted to live in Kansas; and of course I got my first teacing job in Lincoln, Nebraska--just a hop, skip and jump from Kansas. Lincoln eventually "told me" to move on, and I felt I had "used up the place" long before I left it. After that my career sent me to reside in Upstate New york, Eastern Tennessee, Illinois, Northern Texas, and finally Columbus. Each of these places evoked in me (and still do in memory) specific physical sensations and emotional reactions, both good and bad. Another time I would like to write about these experiences in more detail.

With my dreams of the East Coast, I was especially happy when attending dance workshops in places such as Boston, Connecticut, Maine, the White Mountains of New hampshire and the Catskills of New York. They, along with West Coast's Seattle, created in me a sense of expansiveness and adventure, spiritual fulfillment and creativity. At heart I have been a gypsy, and have much enjoyed the opportunity to travel to and experience new places, cities, and regions. The biggest thrill was probably when I first went to Boston. Everything was new, but I felt as if I were "coming home" the moment I saw the old houses nestled in the hills surrounding the harbor.

"Place" is more intimate than "space;" and "home" is more intimate than "place." As Lippard points out, Americans vacillate between mobility and stability, exploration and rootedness. I have experienced both ends of the spectrum. Recently I bought my first home. Before that dorm rooms and apartments were "home." I really can create "home" almost anywhere by bringing along and/or acquiring things that make a place a home. While moving and saying goodbye are difficult, I am glad to have experienced many homes. For continuity, I have tended to "collect" wonderful friends along the way with whom I keep in touch, even though time and distance have created attrition. I am glad to know how much I love the ocean, mountains, small gurgling streams and quaint buildings in quaint towns as well as the impressive skylines and cultural excitement of large cities. I believe one can find "center" anywhere; and my many centers travel with me through memories and dreams There is an element of wistfulness that comes with relocating, but for the artistically inclined that can be a good thing.

My purchased home is small but delightful, and Lippard's discussions of Feng Shui and identity of place through stories resonate with me. I select a "home" by feeling the quality of the spaces within it and by looking out every window to see the view provided. Space, light and what lies beyond my walls are of great importance to me. Even though I am not a regular church-goer, one of my favorite things about my house is that from the dining room I can see a beautiful church across the street. This view brings me aesthetic pleasure and a sense of peace. The process of bonding with my home (and defining it) was made even more special by the fun stories my neighbor told me about its former residents.

In closing, I will say I could go on at length about the pros and cons of stability versus mobility as related to place. Perhaps I will pursue this topic more in the future, thanks to Lippard and her thought-provoking book on the local.

Schecner Reading Response

Schecner’s reading dealt with performance. Schecner identified eight kinds of performance (everyday life, the arts, sports/entertainment, business, technology, sex, ritual, play.) I completely understand the concept that every person on earth performs at all times. With just the issue of talking, I perform differently around different people. I use a softer, more formal vocabulary when talking with my grandparents. I use a more energetic, looser vocabulary when I am hanging out with a group of friends. When I go back to Pittsburgh on breaks, my vocabulary reverts back to my Pittsburghese language and I hear myself saying words I would never say in Columbus. This is all performing, even though I do not always realize I am doing it.

Schecner also went into quite a bit of detail on the concept of “restored behavior” or “twice-behaved” behavior. Schecner compared the Heraclitus idea of life ever changing with the theory of restored behavior, or that all physical or verbal actions have been performed before.

The example about the mother feeding the baby helped explain the restored behavior theory. It explains that you don’t do any action unless you have already seen it being performed or have imagined you performing it. This theory negates all concepts of original thought. If I have done no original actions throughout my entire life, then I am just a copycat of all people who have lived before me. All actions which are said to be original, are really just an original combination of already done actions or one original action performed in a different context.

I heard my mom complain the other day about how Hollywood can’t come up with original movies anymore. The plots are taken from existing books, TV shows, or are strikingly similar to previous plots of movies. According to Schecner, there has never been an original movie. All the situations that take place in “groundbreaking” movies have already happened in some combination. Even when there appears to be “twists” in movies, those twists are just actions put in a different context so the viewer doesn’t expect them.

Thinking about all of life as “twice-behaved” is sad. The thought that I have not ever had an original thought or action makes my self identity of being a “creative person” not true at all. I like to think of myself as creative. Although I do understand the restored behavior theory, my pride does not allow me to want to fully accept it. I want to someday become a fresh, hip, contemporary landscape architect. Now I realize that I can only be as fresh and hip as those before me.

Kaprow Reading Response

The Kaprow reading was a collection of excerpts and stories dealing with experimental art. Through these stories, Kaprow poses some questions. What is experimental art? What is the purpose of experimental art? How does one participate in experimental art?

Robert’s presentation on Tuesday was very similar to content of this reading. It helped me understand where Robert and the other artists may have been coming from when performing their works. I saw each situation described in the Kaprow reading as setting up a series of rules to a game. The outcome of the game as well as the direction and purpose of the game may not be known, but each “player” must follow specific rules set up at the beginning. Kaprow describes it as “playing.” The very first example, what I like to call the Follow the Leader’s Shadow game, is a good example of setting up a system, or rules to follow and seeing where it might take you. The rules were established beforehand and the two men acted out the rules, observing what happened as a result of those rules.

I was talking to a friend in the engineering department and he hated the entire idea of experimental art. “Are you saying that all 3-year-olds are experimental artists?” was his response. He just could not grasp the point, the lack of a point, or why anyone would even want to do this kind of thing. I must admit, I more than likely do not grasp completely the experimental art idea, for I am definitely what Kaprow describes as the “analytically inclined.” With my architectural background, I have been taught to always ask the “whys,” and look at the deeper meaning behind things. I look for the purpose and the statement artists are trying to make. If there is not supposed to be a statement, I look at the lack of the statement, and why the artist is trying to NOT make a statement. I understand that Kaprow warns against this way of looking at experimental art. He states, “the experiment is not to possess a secret artistry in deep disguise… As soon as such acts and thoughts are associated with art and its discourses, it is time to move on to other possibilities of experimentation.” This will definitely be a constant struggle of mine.

Curiously, this experimental art situation, as well as the others described did not seem so completely strange to me as it was to my friend. Although I had never experienced this kind of art before, it just seemed like any other kind of improvisation in any other art form. In theater, there is Viewpoints, an exercise that is a group improvisation in which the only rule is that your movement/words react off of those around you but in your own way. In dance, Contact Improvisation is establishing some base techniques, or rules, for how people can interact with each other’s weight and reacting off of your partner/partners. I have played a group improvisational sketching game in which each person draws a line on a piece of paper and passes it around, eventually seeing what comes of the sketch. In architecture, I am often told to establish a base system and “see where my work takes me.” The only reason I believe that others cannot accept the experimental art described in Kaprow’s readings is that it is not in an “artistic” setting, but rather deals with everyday scenery. It is not performed on a dance floor, a canvas, or in a theater. It is performed walking down the street, crawling through pipes, and interacting with everyday people. Anyone can participate in experimental art and the performer does not have to have an educational background or a focus area of study to effectively participate.

While reading Kaprow, I asked myself the following questions:

Is experimental art more of an art to living than living art? Is it a way to appreciate the world around you? A philosophy? A guide to soaking up all that is around you? A way to eliminate the mundane? Maybe it is not an art at all? Maybe it is a way of life? A way to observe the world as it comes to you?

Is it silly? Do people perform experimental art every day without knowing it? Do people “play” every day without knowing it? Do you look both ways before you cross a street or just use the peripheral vision and hearing to? When driving on the highway do you “play a game” to try and pass the car in front of you without missing your exit? Do you “play a game” to see how little you can read text for a class and still participate in class discussion? (no implications here I promise) Do you see how late you can possibly sleep in while still making it to class on time, decreasing the amount of time to get ready each day until you are late?

Is switching out a bucket of dirt and talking to people about it beautiful? Or is it crazy?

Is it selfish to do art just for the sake of creating art? Is it bad to participate in experimental art of your own every day and not tell anyone about it or is it modest? Do you have an obligation as an “artist” to share your work?

Sharing the Moment Through Dance Improvisation

Barbara Mason
Response to Simone Forti's Animate Dancing--A Practice in Dance Improvisation
January 15, 2007


Simone Forti is skilled at sharing the moment through both dance and writing. She captures the "now" of her felt experience and presents it to her audience, whether on a stage with movement or on the page with words.

Forti's career was greatly influenced since the 1950's by Anna Halprin and her "Dancer's Workshop." Halprin developed a system for teaching dance improvisation; and she collaborated with musicians, landscape-architects, visual artists, and people in theatre and psychology. Forti was impressed with these collaborations and also with Halprin's environmental studies where people would go into the environment, make sensory observations of the place, and return to the studio to improvise on these experiences.

Forti's description of moving to the image of "crinkly tree bark" reminded me of an experience I had in the early 1990's at a workshop called "Authentic Movement" in Amherst, Massachusetts. One of our assignments was to spend some time in nature tuning into the sights, sounds, smells and textures of a chosen place. Later we translated this sensory stimuli into movement. During my career as a dance teacher, I have known people who trivialize and mock dance improvisation by saying it is all about "being a tree." But it is far more than, for example, mimicking the gross shape and size of a tree; it is about finding the essences of the tree and translating these into human movement that conveys qualities of both the tree and the person who is moving. The mover is not "being a tree" but is using the sensory qualities of the tree to create new and interesting movement. Improvisation provides an effective way for artists to expand their creative vocabularies.

Forti, who was first an art student, draws many comparisons between dance improvisation and the teaching of visual arts. She states that the teacher gives a "point of departure for an exploration" and the students begin from there. She gives two examples: in art the point of departure might be to explore the various qualities of line; while a dancer might be asked to explore all the possible movements that can be made at the shoulder joint. Forti is emphatic that "there always has to be a context " for improvisation, even if that context is "waiting for a movement impulse" as Isadora Duncan did when she turned her back on classical ballet to develop a freer, more expressive way of moving.

I was especially interested in Forti's thoughts on rehearsal and performance. She says on page 20 of our New Ground collection of readings: "I like to think of rehearsal or preparing for performance as a wave that will crest into the lap of the audience." Although we may think of rehearsal as the process of discovering what to perform; Forti thinks that "the performance should be full of discovery" too (p. 20); that performance should include an ongoing awareness (by the performer) of what is being "made." She asks whether or not the performance is "fresh." "Is it going someplace?" "Is it accessible to the audience?" I believe that this perspective on the act of performing comes from Forti's interest in and emphasis on improvisation and sharing the moment as a means of creating performance. For her there is no clear separation of process and product. Process is part of product.

During her career Forti has found inspiration from observing the movements of animals, the news, gardening, landscapes and collaboration with musicians who are also improvising. Many times in the past I have enjoyed creating dances by improvising to the improvisations of one or more musicians. One of my favorite collaborative experiences was performing with a cellist. We were both on stage, sharing the attention equally. Sometimes I would move and he would "answer" my movement, and sometimes he would create a series of improvised sounds and I would respond to those. Sometimes we would "talk" simultaneously. Another time I choreographed a dance for five women called "Sea Watch," and during the performance a musician played structured improvisations on the inside of a piano to create eery sounds that might be heard in a harbor or out at sea.

Other fascinating ways Forti found to elicit creativity included "moving the telling" in which she moved and spoke at the same time about a particular subject. She feels that combining two methods of expression provides a way to "integrate aspects of our knowing." (p. 26) She also practices "timed writing" developed by writer Natalie Goldberg. A person has a specified amount of time to write continuously, without pausing, in a kind of stream of consciousness without self-editing. Lastly, Forti's "movement memory snapshots" exercise reminds me of a class I took where couples were asked to recall/relive an action-oriented memory then perform that memory through movement for a partner to first watch then try.

Many dancer-choreographers have been influenced by Forti's improvisational methods. Liz Lerman is one of these. I met her in Upstate New York in the early 1980's and attended an informal performance in which she did a series of solos using both movement and speech. Each solo was a wonderful example of Forti's "moving the telling." (Or could we also say "telling the moving?") Reading this article made me want to do some improvisational investigations of my own, to move a telling, to time a writing, to make a memory snapshot. To share the moment.


Discussion questions for my classmates:

1. What kind of improvisations have you experienced in your art field(s)? What have you learned from them?

2. Forti says that artists must ultimately "choose for themselves" what they want to do with their art. What artists in your field have broken with tradition or the taste of the times to take "the road not travelled?" In what ways have you done, or will you try to do, this yourself?

3. Do you agree with Forti that producing art requires a "context?" Why or why not?

4. How is this quote of Forti's pertinent to the non-performing arts: "I like to think of rehearsal or preparing for performance as a wave that will crest into the lap of the audience."

5. (Related to #4) Think about/discuss the concepts of rehearsal, performance, and audience in the context of your art form(s).

response 1, biberstine

zachary biberstine

on Debord

Methods of detournement

Although some of the specific phrases that debord uses in the introduction, are somewhat brash when applied today. I think that his ideas about detournement and the application thereof are not only important, but are in place today.
He begins speaking about reformist politics and the state of culture to be, at this time, already reactionary and referencing of the past and of history. This introduces the idea of negating the negation. The idea that he begins to evolve, at first sight, is already in place. He then proceeds to take this one step further. Saying things such as…

“The appearance of new necessities outmodes previous ‘inspired’ works. They become obstacles, dangerous habits. The point is not whether we like them or not. We have to go beyond them.”

I find intrigue in his use of elemental properties to build this complex idea of detournement. He lists simplicities such as, “any elements, no matter where they are taken from, can serve in making new combinations.” And proceeds to describe the outcome as, “a synthetic organization of greater efficacy.”. he describes the outcome to be me
By far, the portion of this reading that draws me the most is when he speaks about examples of detournement. .”…and it is in the advertising industry, more than in a decaying aesthetic production, that one can find the best examples.” This idea that progressive ideas and structures that should be noted are found mostly in advertising, is both unsettling and at the same time predictable. It is always true that advertising and mainstream media take ideas that are considered progressive and ‘hip’, and make them their own. Although, I believe that he is describing minor detournment and deceptive, as well as simple cases of detournement, it still holds true that he finds strength in the advertising industry’s methods and approach.
In listing the ‘four laws’ he begins to describe in detail what he means and what is effective. These approaches, in my view, parallel many artists, designers, and musicians approaches today. In many instances these ideas of, appropriation and reassignment are used. In fashion, perhaps it is a style of an era. In music, perhaps it is a backbeat in a hip-hop song, taken from a classic. In art, perhaps the appropriation of a street artist, using everything and anything he/she can get their hands on.
These ideas today are not only widely used, but I would have to assume that, by Debord, need to be negated once again. It seems that in these theories, once comfortable and commonplace, again they will need reworked.
Two quotes that I find very interesting from this work are…

In relation to urbanistic realizations, “Life can never be too disorienting.”

In regard to detournement its self at the closing of the article, “In itself, the theory of detournement scarcely interests us. …”

artist seeks situation

Producing photographic images for me has become less thinking about the image I want to make, and more about getting into a situation where good photography can occur. In the past this has meant finding a person committed to the act of being photographed, as well as a location suited to the work, be it a body of water, a home, or a studio. In the article Methods of Detournement, Debord writes about a different situation. He writes of a situation, or activity that “detournes” or subverts or somehow turns something (art? culture? politics? government? advertising?) against itself.

In this article Debord calls for and describes methods of detournement. He writes, “The literary and artistic heritage of humanity should be used for partisan propaganda purposes.” (emphasis added, Course Packet p.7) Methods he advocates include appropriation of works or fragments of works, and parody. Advertising, he asserts contains the best contemporary examples of detournement, including minor, deceptive, and extended detournement. He formulates four laws of detournement, and explores several uses or potential uses including posters, metagraphic writing, cinema, and urban planning. In conclusion Debord writes that detournement itself “scarcely interests us,” but that it is valuable as a vehicle for transition. (Course Packet p. 13)

Interpreting the meaning and uses of this work is difficult without understanding the context and intent that surrounded the situationist movement, I think (an understanding that I must admit I lack). From the beginning, however this work seems radical, revolutionary, and somewhat nihilist. Debord writes of “the civil war phase we are engaged in,” and I wonder if that war was lost or won, forgotten or still being fought! The article is broad, sweeping and full of revolutionary zeal. It is however, also vague, condescending, and in many ways inaccessible.

It does, however, propose a specific situation or method in which to do creative work. Detournement applied to modern issues, (the work of the yes men, for example) is still very effective for taking a message to a larger stage. The methods laid out in this article could be used to find a situation or starting place for creating critical artworks.

The Change for Revolution

Despite the all the ideologies or “Methods” of Detournement that Debord gives us, I became interested within the first few paragraphs. In an overt way we are given a charge to understand what we are capable of doing. How do we change the past for our future, is it by the way of propaganda and “Detournement” of which Debord speaks of?
It is possible to see the relevance of this today within our visual culture and how the context can be altered for something new. Debord writes, “It goes without saying that one is not limited to the correcting a work or to integrating diverse fragments of out-of-date works into a new one… “Art and the visual language has seen this before the understanding of Detournement was coined, and as well after. Artists like Joel Peter Witkin, Hanso, and Goyaz are contemporaries that express this at their will. How are they making the change? And what depths will be taken to “alter” the true context of what we believe is real or truth? What would our society be like with out the creation of Adbusters. A corporate magazine geared to silence the corporate industries by using imagery of popular icons and logo marks. “Joe Chemo”, was an Advertisement against smoking that targeted R.J. Reynolds Tobacco and their “Camel” cigarettes. Hanso, a Swiss designer has created much work that uses the propaganda margin. After further articulation of a certain company, Hanso became aware that during WW2, money and support was given to the Nazi party. In their 2000, 100th year career posters, Hanso used past historic images and children to spell out the word Nazi. This was unaware to most unless seen in the whole context of each of the 4 posters.
…”one can also alter the meaning of those fragments in any appropriate way leaving the imbeciles to their slavish reference to “citations.” After this said and more read, my question becomes, when do we stop the already re-creation? If everything is being re-done to re-invent context, does authorship exist and who can place their name amongst it?
I read that the French word detournement means deflection, diversion, rerouting, distortion, misuse, misappropriation, hijacking or otherwise turning something aside from its normal course or purpose. Debord makes it possible for us to see ways into reshaping and defining our world; I suppose the only question I leave with is how do we continue to do this?

Reading 1: Debord

In the essay, “Methods of Detournement,” Debord discusses different methods of reusing elements of past works. Although the essay was written in 1956, the material seems strikingly applicable in today’s culture. There are obvious indications of detournement in today’s music, literature, film, dance, architecture, clothing, and language. Phrases in songs, Shakespearean references and retro clothing all contain a level of detournement that we live in every day. Detournement changes the way the past is viewed while creating a unique work of its own. I enjoyed Debord’s reference to clothing and his idea of “disguise closely linked to play.” We see this in the revival of the 80’s style of clothing seen in today’s fashion world. Back in the 80’s, the clothing was seen as ordinary and everyday. By reviving the 80’s and putting a contemporary twist to the clothing, the current fashions are worn not for respect and reverence, but rather to smile at the ridiculousness of the style back then. The fashions are fun and playful; worn to create a different message than originally intended in the 1980’s.
I enjoyed Debord’s reference of the slogan “Plagiarism is necessary, progress implies it.” Like Debord, I agree that the process of growth and forward momentum requires using already established work as a spring board. In all areas of study, one looks at the techniques and styles of masters before them in order to generate new ideas. When I first began my studies of landscape architecture, I was initially asked to duplicate and analyze numerous existing works. Later, I was asked to reuse elements of those existing works in my own design. Since the human mind delights in familiarity, the design was aesthetically entertaining for my fellow landscape architecture students. It was not so entertaining, however, for the rest of the world who is not as knowledgeable on the classic gardens and early landscapes. This leads me to believe that detournement as a style in today’s popular culture encourages education.
An exaggerated example of detournement in today’s popular culture that encourages education is the film “Scary Movie.” This movie mocks the techniques that directors use to give a film its frightening feel. According to Wikipedia, detournement is when “images produced by the spectacle get altered so that rather than supporting the status quo, their meaning gets changed in order to put across a more radical or oppositional message.” With the mockery in “Scary Movie” the images of scary scenes in movies change their meaning to put off an oppositional message in the form of humor. The previously viewed horror film is broken down to the point where viewers laugh at it. If the viewer is not familiar with the references to other works throughout the movie, the humor is lost. In order to effectively enjoy “Scary Movie” the viewer must be educated in the other films involved. This movie has been such a hit that several other have sprung off of this same idea including, “Not another Teen Movie” and “Epic Movie.” Although this is a poor example of the craft of detournement, it relays the point that in order to understand a work involving detournement to the fullest depth, one must be educated in the world around them. No one wants to be in the awkward situation of not getting a joke. In this way, detournement encourages education.

Debord's Methods of Detournement

Zuzana Muranicova
Response to Guy Debord’s Methods of Detournement
Reading-01


The main theme interwoven throughout the article was that art and poetry are a production by all people. I though this was interesting since we live in a society where individualism is encouraged and where power rests in a small group of individuals. It is empowering to think that the transformation of societal structure requires only a change in our perception of the world. Detournement, a strategy that Guy Debord helped invent, is similar to parody but it directly reuses a mimicry of the original work rather than creating a new work which merely alludes strongly to the original. It suggests appropriating the weapons of the enemy and turning them against it. I found it fitting to read that tendencies toward detournement can be observed in the advertising industry. The creators in advertising industries reuse elements of well known media to create new work with a different message, often opposed to the original. Overall I saw the article as an attack on authoritarian structures and bureaucracy, which seemed refreshing. The idea of detournemenet proposed a way to make art the dominant power and to discover new aspects of talent. I understood it as an exploration of labyrinths of language and as something with peculiar power which stems from the double meaning, from the enrichment of most of the terms by coexistence within them of their old and new senses. Detournemenet is widely applicable in things such as language, clothing, actions, situations, etc. , which are all susceptible to being converted into something else.

METHODS OF DETOURNEMENT, by Guy-Ernest Debord

METHODS OF DETOURNEMENT, by Guy-Ernest Debord

Detournement can be seen in every kind of art, like poetry, writing, cinema, architecture, clothing…. or even in the advertising industry. Detournement is to bring again in current scene old works of art. In a way, it is a reaction to the past and can have three options. The first option can be to ridicule existing and important works of art, like Duchamp who drawn a mustache on the Mona Lisa of Da Vinci. But a constructive and deductive criticism, which can bring progress, requires comments plus suggestions and this is something that appears as the second option of detournement. It is similar to the deconstruction, because it forms new combinations from existing elements. William Forsythe in the realm of dance and Frank Gehry in the realm of architecture are both using existing elements which place them in a new context. The last option of detournement is a renovation or an adaptation of an act, like Pina Bausch did in “Le Sacre du Printemps”. Detournement can live the history alive, but also the point is not to loose the present and the future. The point is to go beyond the past and create new works of art.

Welcome to our Wandering

This is the Blog for New Ground. The 2007 cycle is looks at the intersections between image body and landscape for artists working with technology from dance, photography, architecture, geography, and other allied fields. Work completed can include performances, art installations or written analysis.

This blog will emerge from the theories and practices of a group of artists concerned with issues of landscape, possibilities of performance, and the re-appropriation of technological toolkits.

We begin by looking to the situationists and psychogeographers of 1950s-60s Paris and Amsterdam for inspiration into the practice of critical engagement with lived spaces and for creative strategies for interdisciplinary play. We will follow this line of inquiry deep into Yi-Fu Tuan's Topophilia and Foucault's Heterotopias, through the interactive and participatory Happenings of Alan Kaprow, and on into the improvisational practices of site-specific dancers, performative photographers, and utopian architects. What follows are our responses to readings and to each other.