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The journal Internationale Situationniste defined situationist as "having to do with the theory or practical activity of constructing situations." The same journal defined situationism as "a meaningless term improperly derived from the above. There is no such thing as situationism, which would mean a doctrine of interpretation of existing facts. The notion of situationism is obviously devised by antisituationists."
One should not confuse the term "situationist" as used in this article with practitioners of situational ethics or of situated ethics.
The most prominent member of the group, Guy Debord, has tended to polarise opinion. Some describe him as having provided the theoretical clarity within the group; others say that he exercised dictatorial control over its development and membership. Other members included the Scottish writer Alexander Trocchi, the English artist Ralph RumneyRalph Rumney ( June 5, 1934 March 6, 2002) artist, born in Halifax, England. In 1957 lifelong conscientious objector Rumney was one of the co-founders of the London Psychogeographical Association which was dissolved to form the Situationist International (sole member of the London psycho-geographical society, Rumney suffered expulsion relatively soon after the formation of the Situationist International), the Scandinavian vandalThis page is about the East Germanic tribe. You might also be looking for vandalism in common usage someone who maliciously defaces or destroys property or the punk rock band called The Vandals. The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the lat-cum-artist Asger JornAsger Jorn ( March 3, 1914 May 1, 1973) was born in Vejrum, Jutland, Denmark under the name Oluf Jorgensen. Sometimes also called Asgar Jorn. He was a brother to Jorgen Nash. In 1936 he went to Paris to join Fernand Leger's Academie Contemporaine. During, the veteran of the Hungarian Uprising Attila Kotanyi , the French writer Michele Bernstein , and Raoul VaneigemRaoul Vaneigem (born 1934) is a Belgian writer and philosopher. He was born in Lessines ( Hainaut, Belgium). After studying romance philology at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles from 1952 to 1956, he participated in the Situationist International from 19. Debord and Bernstein later married.
One way or another, the currents which the SI took as predecessors saw their purpose as involving a radical redefinition of the role of art in the twentieth century. The Situationists themselves took a dialecticSocial philosophy Broadly speaking, a dialectic is an exchange of propositions (theses) and counter-propositions (antitheses) resulting in a synthesis of the opposing assertions, or at least a qualitative transformation in the direction of the dialogue.al viewpoint, seeing their task as superseding art, abolishing the notion of art as a separate, specialized activity and transforming it so it became part of fabric of everyday life. From the Situationist viewpoint, art is revolutionThis article is about revolution in the sense of a drastic change. For other meanings of the word, see revolution (disambiguation). A revolution is a relatively sudden and absolutely drastic change. This may be a change in the social or political institutary or it is nothing. In this way, the Situationists saw their efforts as completing the work of both Dada and Surrealism while abolishing both. Still, the Situationists answered the question "What is revolutionary?" differently at different times.
The SI experienced splits and expulsions from its beginning. The one prominent split in the group resulted in the Paris section retaining the name Situationist International while the Scandinavian section, or the Second Situationist International organised under the name of Gruppe SPUR. While the entire history of the Situationists was marked by their impetus to revolutionize life, the split between the French and the Scandinavian sections marked a transition from the Situationist view of revolution possibly taking an "artistic" form to it taking an unambiguously "political" form.
Those who followed the "artistic" view of the SI might view the evolution of SI as producing a more boring or dogmatic organization. Those following the political view would see the May 1968 uprisings as a logical outcome of the SI's syncretic approach: while savaging present day society, they sought a kind of utopia in the fusion of the positive tendencies of capitalist development. The "realization and suppression of Art" is only one of many supercessions which the SI sought over the years. For Situationist International of 1968, the world triumph of workers councils would bring about all these supercessions.
An important event leading up to May 1968 was the so called Strasbourg scandal. A group of students managed to use public funds to publish the pamphlet On the Poverty of Student Life: considered in its economic, political, psychological, sexual, and particularly intellectual aspects, and a modest proposal for its remedy. The pamphlet circulated in thousands of copies and helped to make the situationists well known throughout the nonstalinist left. [need paragraph on SI involvement in May 68, including occupation of the Sorbonne by the situs & Enrages ...]