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Situationist

A Situationist is a member or adherent of the Situationist International (SI), an international collective of artists, theorists, and activists active from roughly 1957 to 1972. The term is also used for individuals influenced by SI ideas or for practices that emphasize creating direct, shared social experiences to counterpassive consumption in modern capitalist society.

Origins and goals: The SI arose from the merger of several radical groups, including factions of the

Key ideas and practices: Central concepts include the spectacle (the mediated, image-saturated world described by Debord),

Impact and legacy: The SI produced theoretical writings and publications, most famously Debord's The Society of

In contemporary usage, 'Situationist' can describe adherents of the SI or others who adopt its tactics and

Lettrists.
It
sought
to
critique
the
commodification
of
everyday
life
under
capitalism,
oppose
conventional
art's
separation
from
daily
life,
and
promote
the
construction
of
situations—events
that
would
disrupt
ordinary
routines
and
encourage
spontaneous
social
interaction.
détournement
(the
appropriation
of
existing
cultural
elements
for
new
purposes),
psychogeography
(the
study
of
the
emotional
effects
of
urban
environments),
and
unitary
urbanism
(a
project
for
reimagining
city
design).
The
group
also
stressed
collective
action
and
the
use
of
artistic
and
theoretical
work
to
influence
social
life.
the
Spectacle,
and
inspired
later
avant-garde
movements,
critical
theory,
and
some
student
and
urban
protest
movements.
The
organization
formally
dissolved
in
the
early
1970s,
but
its
ideas
persisted
in
debates
about
consumer
society
and
urban
space.
critique.