Sunday, 3 June 2012

McKenzie Wark's Keynote Talk


A (Post) Situationist, (Pre) Situationist Aesthetics

Fulton A Lecture Theatre, 6pm (Friday 8th June)

McKenzie Wark
The New School for Social Research

There can of course be no such thing as a Situationist aesthetics, there can only be one that anticipates the realization and overcoming of the aesthetic into everyday life. Hence our topic is necessarily Pre-Situationist aesthetics. The particular examples I want to talk about are Debord's films of the 70s: Society of the Spectacle and Refutation of All Judgements. Based on interviews with Debord's film editor, I will talk about the process by which these films were made, but also how they are something more than theory texts illustrated with détourned images. There's a critical logic to the editing as well. These films were of course made after the dissolution of the Situationist International, and so in that sense are post-Situationist. This presentation is part of a work in progress called The Spectacle of Disintegration, to be published by Verso in March 2013.

No comments:

Post a Comment