The beach beneath the street : the everyday life and glorious times of the Situationist International

Over fifty years after the Situationist International appeared, its legacy continues to inspire activists, artists and theorists around the world. Such a legend has accrued to this movement that the story of the SI now demands to be told in a contemporary voice capable of putting it into the context of twenty-first-century struggles.McKenzie Wark delves into the Situationists’ unacknowledged diversity, revealing a world as rich in practice as it is in theory. Tracing the group’s development from the bohemian Paris of the ‘50s to the explosive days of May ‘68, Wark’s take on the Situationists is biographically and historically rich, presenting the group as an ensemble creation, rather than the brainchild and dominion of its most famous member, Guy Debord. Roaming through Europe and the lives of those who made up the movement—including Constant, Asger Jorn, Michèle Bernstein, Alex Trocchi and Jacqueline De Jong—Wark uncovers an international movement riven with conflicting passions.Accessible to those who have only just discovered the Situationists and filled with new insights, __The Beach Beneath the Street__ rereads the group’s history in the light of our contemporary experience of communications, architecture, and everyday life. The Situationists tried to escape the world of twentieth-century spectacle and failed in the attempt. Wark argues that they may still help us to escape the twenty-first century, while we still can ...The book’s jacket folds out into a poster, __a collaborative graphic essay employing text selected by McKenzie Wark with composition and drawings by[Kevin C. Pyle](http://boatfire.blogspot.com/” target=“_self).__ Over fifty years after the Situationist International appeared, its legacy continues to inspire activists, artists and theorists around the world. Such a legend has accrued to this movement that the story of the SI now demands to be told in a contemporary voice capable of putting it into the context of twenty-first-century struggles. McKenzie Wark delves into the Situationists unacknowledged diversity, revealing a world as rich in practice as it is in theory. Tracing the groups development from the bohemian Paris of the 50s to the explosive days of May 68, Warks take on the Situationists is biographically and historically rich, presenting the group as an ensemble creation, rather than the brainchild and dominion of its most famous member, Guy Debord. Roaming through Europe and the lives of those who made up the movementincluding Constant, Asger Jorn, Michle Bernstein, Alex Trocchi and Jacqueline De JongWark uncovers an international movement riven with conflicting passions. Accessible to those who have only just discovered the Situationists and filled with new insights, The Beach Beneath the Street rereads the groups history in the light of our contemporary experience of communications, architecture, and everyday life. The Situationists tried to escape the world of twentieth-century spectacle and failed in the attempt. Wark argues that they may still help us to escape the twenty-first century, while we still can ... The books jacket folds out into a poster, Totality for Beginners, a collaborative graphic essay employing text selected by McKenzie Wark with composition and drawings by Kevin C. Pyle. McKenzie Wark - an artist, provocateur and professor at Manhattan's New School for Social Research - offers a history of the avant-garde social and artistic movement known as the Situationists, and the group of eccentric people behind it. These 1950s and '60s artists, writers, bohemians and alcoholics influenced political events, other artists and notions of what art is, beginning in their era and continuing until today. Because they made a point of never being pinned down to any ideology, the Situationists resist standard biography. Wark resists it, too. He begins with the antecedents of the Situationists, works through their endless internal feuds, details how they influenced art and social thinking, and abruptly ends by barely exploring the Situationists' greatest glory, the Paris student uprising and workers' strikes beginning in May 1968. The book derives its title from a slogan of the uprisings, combining the hard activism of the streets with the freedom and pleasure of a beach just underneath. Wark's fractured attention span and devotion to stiff intellectual jargon - while quite Situationist - will frustrate those seeking a conventional history of avant-garde art movements and their effects. That said, getAbstract recommends Wark's often hilarious chronicle to artists, writers and anyone interested in contemporary art or the political and artistic counterculture A fresh history of the Situationist International by the author of A Hacker Manifesto.Over fifty years after the Situationist International appeared, they continue to influence activists, artists and theorists. From the Invisible Committee's bestselling The Coming Insurrection to Iain Sinclair's psychogeographic explorations, their work is still found to be rich with possibilities, yet its breadth and diversity is still unexplored. In the first account since Greil Marcus's Lipstick Traces (1989), McKenzie Wark traces the Situationist International's beginnings in 1950s bohemian Paris up to the explosive days of May 1968. This account puts the legendary figure of Guy Debord back into the context of the other fascinating figures who made up the movement, including Constant, Asger Jorn, Michèle Bernstein and Jacqueline De Jong. It treats them as an international movement of conflicting passions rather than as a Paris coterie. Accessible to those who have only just discovered the Situationists and filled with new insights, Wark reconnects their work to new practices in communication, built form, and everyday life. Wark Explores The Breadth And Diversity Of The Situationist International Movement, From Its Beginnings In The 1950s Up To The Explosive Days Of 1968. Accessible And Filled With New Insights, Wark Reconnects The Situationists To New Practices In Communication, Built Form, And Everyday Life. Acknowledgements -- Leaving The Twenty-first Century -- 1. Street Ethnography -- 2. No More Temples Of The Sun -- 3. The Torrent Of History -- 4. Extreme Aesthetics -- 5. A Provisional Micro-society -- 6. Permanent Play -- 7. Tin Can Philosophy -- 8. The Thing Of Things -- 9. Divided We Stand -- 10. An Athlete Of Duration -- 11. New Babylon -- 12. The Beach Beneath The Street -- Notes -- Index. Mckenzie Wark. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.