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.