The Spectacle of Disintegration: Situationist Passages out of the Twentieth Century

by McKenzie Wark

Following his acclaimed history of the Situationist International up until the late sixties, The Beach Beneath the Street , McKenzie Wark returns with a companion volume which puts the late work of the Situationists in a broader and deeper context, charting their contemporary relevance and their deep critique of modernity. Wark builds on their work to map the historical stages of the society of the spectacle, from the diffuse to the integrated to what he calls the disintegrating spectacle. The Spectacle of Disintegration takes the reader through the critique of political aesthetics of former Situationist T.J. Clark, the Fourierist utopia of Raoul Vaneigem, René Vienet’s earthy situationist cinema, Gianfranco Sangunetti’s pranking of the Italian ruling class, Alice-Becker Ho’s account of the anonymous language of the Romany, Guy Debord’s late films and his surprising work as a game designer.

At once an extraordinary counter history of radical praxis and a call to arms in the age of financial crisis and the resurgence of the streets, The Spectacle of Disintegration recalls the hidden journeys taken in the attempt to leave the twentieth century, and plots an exit from the twenty first.

The dustjacket unfolds to reveal a fold-out poster of the collaborative graphic essay combining text selected by McKenzie Wark with composition and drawings by Kevin C. Pyle.

Genres: Philosophy, Politics, Art, Theory, History, Nonfiction

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

McKenzie Wark (she/her) is the author of A Hacker Manifesto, Gamer Theory, 50 Years of Recuperation of the Situationist International, and The Beach Beneath the Street, among other books. She teaches at the New School for Social Research and Eugene Lang College in New York City.

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Received as a Goodreads Giveaway.

Very heady stuff, and extremely interesting.
Unlike some critiques on modernity, this is not awash with gripes but postulates the turns we have made as a world and what could have been. This book feels very honest in a field of study that I have not delved into much and begs the mind to question without sending it off into a tailspin. Solid.

[Tosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

McKenzie Wark wrote a fantastic book on the beginning and the middle part of the Situationist International in his first book "The Beach Beneath the Street." Now we have the later years or if you want the death of the Situationist movement in his new book "The Spectacle of Disintegration.". In my opinion that's really not the case because I think the artwork, the writing, and political philosophy will stay fresh in our rather horror world.

In brief chapters we get Guy Debord's later films as well as his intriguing interest in board games "Art of War" and his wife Alice Becker-Ho's deep interest in Gypsy language specially in the world of slang - where language is coded among the tribe.

The gang is all here and Wark wraps up their world and work in a very readable manner.

Overall we have a wonderful group of thinkers that made an important mark on this world. May they wander and wonder forever.

[Jeroen · Rating 2 out of 5]

There seems to be an irony to this book, to the fact that it mostly follows the trail of the commodified debris that the Situationists left behind after the group disbanded. The book is organized in chapters discussing one by one the books, films, and journals that emerged from Situationist actors after 1972. Perhaps it is too much to ask it to be any other way. After all, Wark was not a conspirator running alongside these actors: he talks in hindsight and in hindsight, only print and video seems to last.

Yet Wark must know perfectly well that history is not made at the Press Conference, but before it. As such, Wark recounts the recounting of history, the official, polished version of it. Moreover we are talking here mainly of a man, Guy Debord, who has done all he can to thwart any easy attempts at biography or - the horror! - hagiography. Debord is the man who famously boasted that while he wrote less than other writers wrote, he drank much more than other drinkers drink! Debord, who also boasted that his best work was only two words long: never work.

I think part of why Debord took down the Situationist banner was precisely because he didn't want his life's work to be diminished into an easy narrative. Writing as a Situationist means being judged on all that the group had stated already. Debord, I think, wanted the freedom to contradict himself, because he knew things were complicated. I am thinking here of what Dylan said when confronted by journalists with his shifting political allegiances: "Who'd ever said I was sincere!?" That, better than anything, sums up Debord and his Situationists. Therefore the most important takeaway from this book is the point that Debord was not a philosopher but a strategist: he tried to work "situations" in such a way that they might do some good, that they might dispel or alleviate at least a little bit, the spectacle that surrounds us.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of challenging essays was stimulating and frequently baffling. Wark is updating the Situationist program for our not-so-new millennium, and it involves taking stock of how we live, work and process information in a post-everything civilization. Get ready for a tour of obscure iconoclastic writers and directors and a celebration of their eccentric work.

This was a good companion piece to John Gray's Heresies, because they're both witty and skeptical writers who deal with the absurdities of our age.

[Inna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Totally cool book about the struggle against the society of spectacle, dealing with situationists, but also with their artist predecessors and ending with Occupy Wall Street.

[melancholinary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting. Especially the part of René Viénet. However, it spends too much meandering on the ghost of Debord and the debris of Situationist rather than examine the potentiality of Situationist in another context (e.g. its impact in anthropology, the critique from radical feminist—I'm thinking of Precarias a la Deriva, etc). There is a small underdeveloped part of Tiqqun's critique of Situationist that I think could've been more explored. Would be great to read one chapter only about that.

[Severin M · Rating 2 out of 5]

In addition to its predecessor, this book is best regarded as a catalog rather than a guide or a commentary.

[Lukasz Rogowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Czkawka po Debordzie, stylowo zbliżona do Fishera.

[June · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting, but not very coherent. Like the Situationists!

[Ivan Labayne · Rating 2 out of 5]

alanganing baudrillard, alanganing left left. ayaw nya ke zizek at badiou