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The expression '''situationist prankster''' has been later established as a typical label used on those who perform [[media prank]]s or [[publicity stunt]]s, as in the cases of ''[[The KLF]]'',<ref name="Vincentelli04">Vincentelli, Elisabeth (2004) [http://books.google.com/books?id=yoCV0eaetb0C ''ABBA gold'']</ref> the ''[[K Foundation]]'',<ref name="Fortnight335-345">[http://books.google.com/books?id=edhnAAAAMAAJ Fortnight, Issues 335-345] p.349</ref> [[Genesis P-Orridge]],<ref name="Buckley">[http://books.google.com/books?id=7ctjc6UWCm4C The rough guide to rock edited by Peter Buckley]</ref> [[Harun Farocki]],<ref name="Elsaesser">[http://books.google.com/books?id=OHBrp2_W2ccC Harun Farocki: working on the sightlines By Thomas Elsaesser] p.106</ref> and others.<ref name="Gimarc94p47">[[George Gimarc]] (1994) [http://www.gimarc.com/PUNK_DIARY.html ''Punk Diary 1970-1979''], p.47</ref><ref name="Sabin99p182">Sabin, Roger (1999) [http://books.google.com/books?id=Pnb1g3oIzTIC ''Punk rock: so what? : the cultural legacy of punk''], p.182</ref>
The expression '''situationist prankster''' has been later established as a typical label used on those who perform [[media prank]]s or [[publicity stunt]]s, as in the cases of ''[[The KLF]]'',<ref name="Vincentelli04">Vincentelli, Elisabeth (2004) [http://books.google.com/books?id=yoCV0eaetb0C ''ABBA gold'']</ref> the ''[[K Foundation]]'',<ref name="Fortnight335-345">[http://books.google.com/books?id=edhnAAAAMAAJ Fortnight, Issues 335-345] p.349</ref> [[Genesis P-Orridge]],<ref name="Buckley">[http://books.google.com/books?id=7ctjc6UWCm4C The rough guide to rock edited by Peter Buckley]</ref> [[Harun Farocki]],<ref name="Elsaesser">[http://books.google.com/books?id=OHBrp2_W2ccC Harun Farocki: working on the sightlines By Thomas Elsaesser] p.106</ref> and others.<ref name="Gimarc94p47">[[George Gimarc]] (1994) [http://www.gimarc.com/PUNK_DIARY.html ''Punk Diary 1970-1979''], p.47</ref><ref name="Sabin99p182">Sabin, Roger (1999) [http://books.google.com/books?id=Pnb1g3oIzTIC ''Punk rock: so what? : the cultural legacy of punk''], p.182</ref>


A growth of campaigns using tactics such as the [[Flash Mob]] or [[Subvertising]]‎ in recent years can be traced to situationist pranks. These tactics, notable in stunts by [[The Yes Men]], campaigns by [[Green Peace]], and guerilla art by [[Banksy]], have been characterised by their appropriation of establishment symbols, shifting the intended purpose of public (now private) space, or creating bizarre reality hacks that merely remix the cultural context, as opposed to providing something entirely surreal. <ref name="New Statesman">New Statesman (2013) [http://http://newstatesman.com/culture/2013/05/spectacle-disintegration ''The Spectacle of Disintegration''] </ref>. Some surreal pranks continue to exist in more subversive movements, such as the Alley concept,<ref name="Alley concept">[http:alleyconcept.tumblr.com] </ref> can also be traced to situationist pranks in their deliberate constructions of surreal situations that juxtapose the [[Spectacle| Spectacle (critical theory)]] aiming to reawaken authentic desires and liberate everyday life.
A growth of campaigns using tactics such as the [[Flash Mob]] or [[Subvertising]]‎ in recent years can be traced to situationist pranks. These tactics, notable in stunts by [[The Yes Men]], campaigns by [[Green Peace]], and guerilla art by [[Banksy]], have been characterised by their appropriation of establishment symbols, shifting the intended purpose of public (now private) space, or creating bizarre reality hacks that merely remix the cultural context, as opposed to providing something entirely surreal. <ref name="New Statesman">New Statesman (2013) [http://http://newstatesman.com/culture/2013/05/spectacle-disintegration ''The Spectacle of Disintegration''] </ref>. Some surreal pranks continue to exist in more subversive movements, such as the Alley concept,<ref name="Alley concept">alleyconcept.tumblr.com</ref> can also be traced to situationist pranks in their deliberate constructions of surreal situations that juxtapose the [[Spectacle| Spectacle (critical theory)]] aiming to reawaken authentic desires and liberate everyday life.


The concept forms the primary genre on popular Australian television series "The Chasers War on Everything". Worldwide media attention followed their successful entry into the G20 Summit held in Sydney, Australia - September 2007. The group formed a motorcade with a Bin Laden-esq character inside a limousine flying flags of a non-existant country.<ref>[[www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvH3YQGQwLM]] Sep 12, 2007 - Chas dressed as Osama bin Laden the Chasers drive a disguised Canadian motorcade ...</ref>
The concept forms the primary genre on popular Australian television series "The Chasers War on Everything". Worldwide media attention followed their successful entry into the G20 Summit held in Sydney, Australia - September 2007. The group formed a motorcade with a Bin Laden-esq character inside a limousine flying flags of a non-existant country.<ref>[[www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvH3YQGQwLM]] Sep 12, 2007 - Chas dressed as Osama bin Laden the Chasers drive a disguised Canadian motorcade ...</ref>

Revision as of 11:14, 3 October 2013

Situationist prank is a term used in the mass media to label a distinctive tactic by the Situationist International, consisting of setting up a subversive[1][2] political prank, hoax or stunt;[3] In the terminology of the Situationist International, stunts and media pranks are very similar to situations.[4][5] The détournement technique, that is "turning expressions of the capitalist system against itself,"[2] was the essential element of a situationist prank.[3] The Situationist tactic of using détournement for subversive pranks is such a distinctive and influential aspect of the Situationist International, that they are sometimes labeled as a group of political pranksters.[2]

The tactic was reprised by the punk movement in the late 1970s, with Malcolm McLaren's launch of the Sex Pistols,[2][3] and inspired the culture jamming movement in the late 1980s.[2] The expression situationist prankster has been later established as a typical label used on those who perform media pranks or publicity stunts.[6][7][8][9]

By Situationists

Notre-Dame Affair on National TV

Main article: Notre-Dame Affair

One of the earliest Situationist pranks,[2] The Notre-Dame Affair was an intervention performed by members of the radical wing of the Lettrist movement (Michel Mourre, Serge Berna, Ghislain Desnoyers de Marbaix and Jean Rullier), on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1950, at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, while the mass was aired lived on National TV. Michel Mourre, dressed in the habit of a Dominican monk and backed by his co-conspirators, chose a quiet moment in the Easter High Mass to climb to the rostrum and declaim before the whole congregation a blasphemous anti-sermon on the death of God, penned by Serge Berna.[10][11][12]

Strasbourg scandal

Main article: On the Poverty of Student Life

Taking advantage of the apathy of their colleagues, five "Pro-situs", Situationist-influenced students had infiltrated the University of Strasbourg's student union in November 1966 and began scandalising the authorities.[13][14] Their first action was to form an "anarchist appreciation society" called The Society for the Rehabilitation for Karl Marx and Ravachol; next they appropriated union funds to flypost "Return of the Durruti Column", Andre Bertrand's détourned comic strip.[14] They then invited the Situationists to contribute a critique of the University of Strasbourg, and On the Poverty of Student Life, written by Tunisian Situationist Mustapha/Omar Khayati was the result.[14]

The students promptly proceeded to print 10,000 copies of the pamphlet using university funds and distributed them during a ceremony marking the beginning of the academic year. This provoked an immediate outcry in the local, national and international media.[14]

Sanguinetti's Report to save capitalism

By 1972, Gianfranco Sanguinetti and Guy Debord were the only two remaining members of the SI. Working with Debord, in August 1975, Sanguinetti wrote a pamphlet titled Rapporto veridico sulle ultima opportunita di salvare il capitalismo in Italia (Eng: Veritable Report on the Last Chances to Save Capitalism in Italy), which (inspired by Bruno Bauer) purported to be the cynical writing of "Censor", a powerful industrialist. The pamphlet was to show how the ruling class of Italy supported the Piazza Fontana bombing and other mass slaughter, for the higher goal of defending the capitalist status quo from the communist claims. The pamphlet was mailed to 520 of Italy's most powerful individuals. It was received as genuine, and powerful politicians, industrialists and journalist praised its content and guessed on the identity of its high profile author. After reprinting the tract into a small book, Sanguinetti revealed himself to be the true author. Scandal raised after the revelation, as it successfully exposed the truth and hypocrisy on the mass slaughters,[1] and under pressure from Italian authorities, Sanguinetti left Italy in February 1976, and was denied entry to France.[citation needed]

Others

Film Hurlements en faveur de Sade (Howls for Sade) (1952) by Guy Debord, had 24 minutes of black screen. Book Mémoires (1959) by Guy Debord and Asger Jorn had the cover made of sandpaper.

Legacy

The situationist tactic of a détournement-based hoax was nototriously reprised by the Punk movement, like in Malcolm McLaren's 1977 launch of the Sex Pistols.[3]

The expression situationist prankster has been later established as a typical label used on those who perform media pranks or publicity stunts, as in the cases of The KLF,[6] the K Foundation,[7] Genesis P-Orridge,[8] Harun Farocki,[9] and others.[15][16]

A growth of campaigns using tactics such as the Flash Mob or Subvertising‎ in recent years can be traced to situationist pranks. These tactics, notable in stunts by The Yes Men, campaigns by Green Peace, and guerilla art by Banksy, have been characterised by their appropriation of establishment symbols, shifting the intended purpose of public (now private) space, or creating bizarre reality hacks that merely remix the cultural context, as opposed to providing something entirely surreal. [17]. Some surreal pranks continue to exist in more subversive movements, such as the Alley concept,[18] can also be traced to situationist pranks in their deliberate constructions of surreal situations that juxtapose the Spectacle (critical theory) aiming to reawaken authentic desires and liberate everyday life.

The concept forms the primary genre on popular Australian television series "The Chasers War on Everything". Worldwide media attention followed their successful entry into the G20 Summit held in Sydney, Australia - September 2007. The group formed a motorcade with a Bin Laden-esq character inside a limousine flying flags of a non-existant country.[19]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b Ken Knabb Gianfranco Sanguinetti
  2. ^ a b c d e f Holt (2010) p.252
  3. ^ a b c d Marrone, Gianfranco (2005) Sensi alterati: droghe, musica, immagini, p.45, quote:

    [...] gioco al coplotto, alla manipolazione dei media, alla beffa, alla "grande truffa," o al detournement -- inventato dai situazionisti e ripreso dai punk -- che appunto del situazionismo sono talvolta concreti continuatori. Pensiamo in questo senso al fin troppo noto caso, esagerato dai media, ma paradigmatico, del manager dei Sex Pistols, Malcom McClaren, a partire dal quale, nell'estate del 1977, si scateno', con grande scandalo, il lancio del gruppo dei Pistols in pieno Giubileo della regina, e l'interesse della stampa per la nascente scena punk. Tuttavia, anche in questo caso non si tratta, come invece e' stato spesso sostenuto, di freddo "gioco a tavolino", di cinismo, di furbo lancio di un prodotto da parte di chi aveva studiato i media e lavorava sulla guerriglia semiologica (cfr. Fabbri P. 2002, p.40), di una tattica che sarebbe poi stata facilmente sfruttata e fatta propria da quel momento in avanti dall'industria culturale mainstream.
  4. ^ Sandlin, Jennifer A. (2009) Critical pedagogies of consumption p.240 quote:

    Through artistic interventions, hoaxes, tactical media pranks, or what the SI called "situations," culture jammers direct public attention ...
  5. ^ Franks, Benjamin (2006) Rebel alliances: the means and ends of contemporary British anarchisms p.315

    Stunts are very similar to situations but have an additional characteristic, namely that the imaginative interaction is aimed at the mainstream media, the intention being that they broadcast the prank to a wider public
  6. ^ a b Vincentelli, Elisabeth (2004) ABBA gold
  7. ^ a b Fortnight, Issues 335-345 p.349
  8. ^ a b The rough guide to rock edited by Peter Buckley
  9. ^ a b Harun Farocki: working on the sightlines By Thomas Elsaesser p.106
  10. ^ snarkout: to have done with the judgment of god
  11. ^ miro renzaglia - COSTRUIRE L'UNITA' D'AREA/2
  12. ^ miro renzaglia - SITUAZIONISMO
  13. ^ Plant, Sadie (1992). The Most Radical Gesture. New York: Routledge. p. 94. ISBN 0-415-06222-5.
  14. ^ a b c d Vague, Tom (1997). Anarchy in the Uk: the Angry Brigade. Stirling: AK Press. pp. 13–14. ISBN 1-873176-98-8.
  15. ^ George Gimarc (1994) Punk Diary 1970-1979, p.47
  16. ^ Sabin, Roger (1999) Punk rock: so what? : the cultural legacy of punk, p.182
  17. ^ New Statesman (2013) The Spectacle of Disintegration
  18. ^ alleyconcept.tumblr.com
  19. ^ www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvH3YQGQwLM Sep 12, 2007 - Chas dressed as Osama bin Laden the Chasers drive a disguised Canadian motorcade ...

References

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