(Image: http://www.ctrl-n.net/images/journal/journal_nakedcity.jpg)
Ahead of a visit to the 'Loud Flash' exhibition at Haunch of Venison, we were asked to conduct some research into previous art movements of the 20th Century, so as to arrive with a sense of context. Below are my initial notes from that research:
( key ideas read from 'The Society of the Spectacle' online at www.bopsecrets.org/si/debord/1.htm)
'some of the main principles of the Situationists:
1. In societies dominated by modern conditions of production, life is presented as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has receded into a representation.
2. The spectacle is not a collection of images: it is a social relation between people that is mediated by images.
3. In a world that is really upside down, the true is a moment of the false.
The Situationists defied any strict definition, with the concept of a static ideology being for them too far removed from life experience, social relation and the ability of human behavior to connect and reaffirm itself. This is probably how the concept of psychogeography arose.
They had a foundation in libertarian Marxism, but were not tied to it.
Situationism as the first movement to identify the conspicuous consumption of consumer goods as an issue, an alienation determined by the Spectacle:
"The Spectacle is capital accumulated to the point that it becomes images" (Debord)
Possible similarities to the Punk movement:
1. Punk's democratisation of music and rejection of consumerism is close to the Liberal Marxist foundations of Situationism, and it could be said that there was an awareness within Punk of the power of Consumerism on the public.
2. This is evidenced by Punk's DIY aesthetic, both in its approach to fashion and writing music.
3. A non-static ideology: Punk flirted with socialism, anarchy, communism and fascism during its brief lifespan.
4. Punk was concentrated on social relations and revolutions, not on technical excellence or academic prowess, it was, like Situationism, an organic, DIY movement.