McDonough.situationist Space

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Situationist SpaceAuthor(s): Thomas F. McDonoughSource: October, Vol. 67 (Winter, 1994), pp. 58-77Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/778967 .

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Situationistpace*

THOMASF.McDONOUGH

Proletarian revolution is thecritique ofhuman geography throughwhich ndividu-als and communitieshave to createplacesand events uitable ortheappropriation, olonger ust of their abor, but of their otalhistory.-Guy Debord, Society fthe pectacle

I. TheNaked CityIn the summerof 1957 the MIBI ("Mouvement Internationalepour unBauhaus Imaginiste"),n avant-garde roup composed ofvarious x-Cobra rtistsand their taliancounterparts,' ublisheda singularlydd map of Paris entitledTheNakedCity,hecreationofwhichwascredited oG uy]-Ernest]Debord. Thepublicationof thismap was in fact one of the last actions takenbythe MIBI,sincethisgrouphad recently ecided to oin with he French "Internationaleet-triste"-of whichDebord was the most importantmember-and the English"Psychogeographicalociety fLondon"inorderto form he"Internationaleitua-tionniste."2 owever, hemap acted both as a summaryfmanyof theconcernssharedbythe three rganizations,articularlyround thequestionof theconstruc-* This paper was originally onceived fora colloquium on European Art 1945-68, taughtbyRobert Lubar at the Institute fFine Arts; arlyresearchwithmycolleague Maura Reillywas instru-mental in formulatingts parameters.A year at the Independent Study Programof the WhitneyMuseumofAmericanArt nd theopportunityo workwithBenjaminBuchloh and RosalynDeutschewere thegreatest ources of nspirationnd challenge n thisproject'srealization. inally, would iketo thankmyreaders on October'sditorialboard and especiallyHal Fosterfortheir ritical ommentsand assistance.1. On theMIBI, see PeterWollen, "The Situationistnternational,"NewLeftReview 74 (1989),pp. 87-90.2. The official istoryf thefoundingstold nJean-FranCois artos,Histoire e 'Internationaleitu-ationnisteParis: Editions Gerard Lebovici, 1989), pp. 9-65. See Peter Wollen, "The SituationistInternational,"p. 87-90.OCTOBER67,Winter994,pp.59-77. ? 1994 Thomas . McDonough.


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Guy ebord. he NakedCity. 957.

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tionand perception furbanspace,and as a demonstrationf the directionso beexploredbythe Internationale ituationnisten thefollowing ears. urprisinglylittle attentionhas been accorded thisdocument,despite the fact that t hasbecome an almost conic imageof theearlyyears fthe Internationale ituation-niste, ppearingon dustacketsand as an illustrationn several fthemajorbooksand articles n thegroup.TheNakedCitys composedof nineteencut-out ections f a map ofParis,printednblack nk,which re linkedbydirectional rrows rintedn red. tssub-titledescribes hemap as an "illustrationf thehypothesisfpsychogeographicalturntables." ppropriated yDebord,the term plaque tournante," hichusuallydenotes a railway urntable a circularrevolving latformwith trackrunningalong itsdiameter, sed forturningocomotives), ere describes he function fthe arrows inking he segments f the psychogeographicalmap. Each segmenthas a differentunity fatmosphere." he arrows escribe the pontaneous urnsof direction akenby subjectmoving hrough hese urroundingsndisregard fthe usefulconnections hatordinarilyovernhis conduct."3 hus these"sponta-neous inclinations f orientation" hat inkvarious"unities f atmosphere"nddictate the path taken bythe given subject correspond to the action of theturntable, hich inks arious egments f track nd dictates he orientation fthelocomotive.The implications f analogizingthe subjectto a locomotive re, ofcourse,foundedon a certain mbiguity:lthough elf-propelled,he ocomotive'spath is determinedwithinstrictboundaries, ust as for the Situationists, hesubject'sfreedom fmovementsrestrictedythe nstrumentalizedmageof thecity ropagatedunderthereign fcapital.4It is immediately pparent that The NakedCity id not function ike anordinarymap. Thisobservations confirmed hen tsantecedentsn the Carte uTendref Madeleinede Scudery re examined.Cited n a 1959articlen the our-nal Internationaleituationniste,he Carte ad been createdthree hundredyearsearlier n 1653byScudery nd themembers fher salon.5 t usesthemetaphor fthespatialourneyto tracepossiblehistories f a loveaffair. eygeographical ea-tures, hroughpatheticfallacy,marksignificantmoments r emotions e.g., the"lac d'indiff6rence").ositing hisaristocratic iversion s an antecedentof TheNakedCitys another nstanceof appropriation, ut despitetheirverydifferentoriginsthe Carte id illustrate he key principleof the psychogeographicmap.3. From textprinted n thereverse ide ofTheNakedCity: sger orn, Quatriime xperienceduMIBI (Plans psychogbographiquese GuyDebord)," reprintedn Documentselatifs la fondationel'Internationaleituationniste:948-1957, d. G6rardBerrebyParis:EditionsAllia,1985),p. 535.4. The term plaquetournante"may lsobe an intended r unintended unon "tableau ournant,"whichrefers omagicalor seance-like perations ftrickery.I would ike to thankBenjaminBuchlohforpointing ut thispossibility.)5. The mapwaspublished n 1654 in her Cildie: istoireomaineGeneva:SlatkineReprints, 973).It is cited in "L'urbanismeunitaireA a fin des annbes 0," Internationaleituationniste(December1959),pp. 11-16. On themap,see Claude Filteau, Tendre,"n Cartest igurese a terreParis:CentreGeorgesPompidou,1980),pp. 205-7.




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Madeleine eScudry. artedeTendre. 653.IYA.:Al ::: 44,:

That is, both maps are figured s narratives atherthan as tools of "universalknowledge." he usersofthesemapswereasked to choose a directionalitynd toovercome bstacles, lthough herewasno "proper" eading.The reading hosenwas a performance f one among manypossibilitiesof the course of the loveaffair n the Cartedu Tendre; f the crossingof the urban environmentn TheNakedCity) ndwouldremain ontingent. he subject's chievement fa positionofmastery,hegoal ofnarrative'sesolution, asthereby roblematized.The odd title, endered n bright ed capitals,wasalso an appropriation fthename of anAmerican ilm oir of 1948. TheNakedCity asa detectivetoryetin NewYork nd filmedn a documentarytyle. ased on a story yMalvinWald,the screenplaywas a collaborationbetweenthe author and AlbertMaltz.6 Thetitleof thefilm,however,s itself n appropriation: riginallyntitledHomicide,themovie'snamewaschangedtomatch hetitle fa book ofcrimephotographsbyWeegee, published n 1945.)7Although hereferenceo thisHollywood ilm fthepreviousdecade mayat firsteemarbitrary,tspurposebecomesclearwhenone examinesthestructuref the movie.AsParkerTyler xplains t n The ThreeFaces of he ilm:In NakedCityt isManhattan sland and itsstreets nd landmarks hatare starred. he socialbody s thus, hrough rchitecturalymbol,aidbare ("naked").... The fact hat hevastly omplexstructure fa great

6. AlbertMaltzand MalvinWald, TheNakedCityCarbondale and Edwardsville:outhern llinoisUniversityress,1979). Maltz,bornin Brooklynn 1908,was a mainstayftheAmerican iteraryeftthroughouthe1930s; n 1941hemoved o LosAngeles,whereheworked n severalmovies-generallyeitherdetective ilms e.g., ThisGunforHire,1942) or wartime ropagandamovies e.g., Pride ftheMarines, 945). In 1947he wascalled before he House Committee n Un-American ctivitiesorhisinvolvement ith heCommunist artyn the1930s;hisrefusal otestifyed to hisbeingnamed one ofthe "Hollywood en." TheNakedCitywashis astfilm eforebeingcommitted o federalail in 1950.See JackSalzman,Albert altz Boston:G. K. Hall & Co., 1978) for fullbiography, hich,however,slightsMaltz'syears nHollywood.7. Arthur ellig Weegee),NakedCityNewYork:Da Capo Press, 975).




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city,n one sense, s a supremeobstacle to thepolice detectivest thesame time that tprovidestiny lues as important s certainobscurephysical ymptomsre tothetrained yeofa doctor.8

Just s the term urntable erves s a useful nalogyfor he"spontaneous urns fdirection" ndicatedon themap,so the title TheNakedCityerves s an analogyforthefunction fthemap as a whole. t is no longerthe streets nd landmarksofManhattan, ut thoseofParis that re "starred": ne quickly ecognizes,n thecut-out ragments,artsof theJardindu Luxembourg,Les Halles, the Gare deLyon,the Pantheon,etc. The act of "laying are" the social bodythrough hecity's rchitecturalymbolss implicitn thevery tructuref themap.Freed fromthe "usefulconnectionsthatordinarily overntheirconduct,"theusers couldexperience"the suddenchangeofatmospheren a street,hesharpdivision f acityntoone of distinct sychologicallimates; hepathof eastresistance-whollyunrelated o theunevenness f theterrain-tobe followed ythe casual stroller;thecharacter, ttractiver repellant, fcertainplaces."9So wroteDebord in his"Introductiono a Critiqueof UrbanGeography" "Introductionl une critiquede la geographieurbaine") of 1955,twoyearsbefore thepublication f hisver-sion of TheNakedCity. or Debord the structurefParis, ikethat f New York nthemovie,was also a "greatobstacle" thatsimultaneouslyffered tiny lues"-only theywere no longer clues to the solution of a crime, but to a futureorganization f ife n itspresentationf a "sum f ossibilities."Visually, heNakedCitysa collagebasedon theappropriationf an already-existingdocument,composed of nineteen fragments f a map of Paris. It issignificantn this ightthatDebord, in the 1955 "Introduction o a CritiqueofUrbanGeography," ad discussed "a renovated artography":theproduction fpsychogeographicalmaps may help to clarifyertainmovements f a sortthat,whilesurelynot gratuitous,re wholly nsubordinate o the usual directives."10These influences r attractions etermine he habitualpatterns hroughwhichresidents egotiate hecity. he complete"insubordination"fsuch nfluencessrealized n TheNakedCity ythefragmentingf themostpopularmap ofParis,the PlandeParis, nto a state f llegibility.TheNakedCityubvertshe structurefthePlan de Paris.The latter s struc-tured n a way nalogoustothe mode ofdiscourse alled "description,"hich ctsto "mask ts uccessive ature nd present t as redundant epetition,s if llwerepresent t thesametime. t is as iftheobject [here, hecity fParis]werealways8. ParkerTyler,The Three acesofthe ilm:TheArt, he ream, heCult, ev. ed. (SouthBrunswick,N.J.:A. S. Barnes,1967),p. 97.9. Guy-Ernestebord, "Introduction une critiquede la geographieurbaine,"LesLevres ues6(September 1955). Trans. as "Introduction o a Critiqueof Urban Geography,"n the SituationistInternationalnthology,d. and trans.Ken Knabb (Berkeley, alif.: Bureau of Public Secrets,1981),pp. 5-8.10. Ibid.,p. 7.




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Situationist pace 63

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alreadyvisually resent, ully ffered ofullview."11he Parisof thePlan exists na timeless resent; his imelessnesss imaged spatiallyn themap's (illusory) otalrevelation f tsobject.Thatis,usersof themapsee theentire ityaidout beforetheir yes.However, uchan omnipresent iew s seen fromnowhere: it s infactimpossible ooccupythis pace. It is a pointofspacewhereno man can see: a noplace notoutside pacebutnowhere, topic."12his s thetraditionalondition fthemap; in linguisticerms,t is pure structure"langue")withoutndividuation("parole").If the Plan de Paris s structured y description,which s predicatedon amodel of seeingthatconstitutes n exhibition f "theknowledge f an orderofplaces,"13 hen a verydifferentmode ofdiscoursestructures heNakedCity.tis predicated on a model of moving,on "spatializing ctions,"knownto theSituationistss ditives;rather hanpresenting hecityfrom totalizing ointofview, t organizesmovementsmetaphorically round psychogeographichubs.These movementsonstitute arrativeshat re openlydiachronic, nlikedescrip-tion'sfalse"timelessness."14heNakedCitymakes tclear, n itsfragmentingf theconventional, escriptive epresentationfurbanspace,that hecitysonly xpe-riencedin timebya concrete, ituated ubject, s a passagefrom ne "unity fatmosphere" oanother,not as theobjectof a totalized erception.

II. TheNakedCityndSocialGeographyBut the narrativemode does not fully ccount for the appearance ofDebord's map. First,TheNakedCity oes not coverall ofParis, s is expectedofany"good"map. Second, thefragmentsave no logicalrelation o one another;they re notproperly riented ccording onorth-southreast-westxes,and thedistancebetweenthemdoes notcorrespond o theactual distance eparatinghevarious ocales. (Consider,for nstance,the distanceseparating heJardindesPlantesfrom ts nnex,which recontiguousnthe Plan deParis.)Debord explains these featuresin his article of 1956, "Theory of theDerive."The fragments nly represent ertain reas ofParis because themap'sgoal is "thediscoveryfunities fatmosphere, ftheirmaincomponents nd oftheir patial ocalization."15resumably ot all areas in thecity end themselvesto such spatial ocalization;TheNakedCity amespartsof thecity certain"uni-11. Louis Marin, Utopics: patial Play, trans. Robert A. Vollrath (Atlantic Highlands, N.J.:Humanities ress, 984),p. 202.12. Ibid.,p. 207.13. Michelde Certeau,ThePracticefEverydayife, rans. tevenRendall (Berkeley:UniversityfCalifornia ress, 984),p. 119.14. LouisMarin,Utopics,p. 201-2.Although narrative" aynot be the deal term o describe hestructure f TheNakedCity,tdoes convey he sense that hemap is a representationfan event-ormoreproperly, sum ofevents, .e.,thespatializingctions f thedirive.15. Guy-Ernestebord, "Th(orie de la derive," es Levres ues9 (November1956). Translated s"Theory f theDIrive," n the Situationistnternationalnthology,. 53.




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tiesofatmosphere") nsteadof thewhole ("Paris") that ncludes them.Throughthis synecdochic procedure, totalities ike the Paris of the Plan de Paris arereplaced byfragmentsikethecomponentsof Debord's map.16But beyond the "discovery" f such unities of atmosphere,the map alsodescribes their hief xes ofpassage,their xits nd theirdefenses." he psycho-geographical urntablesf themap'ssubtitle llowone to assert distances hatmaybe quiteoutof scalewithwhat ne might oncludefrom map'sapproximations."'17Suchdistances ecomeblankareas n TheNakedCity, apsthat eparate he variousfragments.he suppressionf the inkages etween arious unities fatmosphere,"except for schematic directional arrows, orrespondsto the procedure called"asyndeton": processof "openinggaps in the spatialcontinuum" nd "retainingonlyselected partsof it."18Structuring heNakedCity hrough ynecdoche nd asyndeton isrupts hefalsecontinuityf the Plan deParis.The citymap is revealed as a representation:theproductionofa discourse bout thecity.This discourse s predicatedon theappearanceofopticalcoherence,on whatHenri Lefebvre alled the reduction fthecity o "theundifferentiatedtateof the visible-readableealm."19his abstractspace homogenizesthe conflicts hatproduce capitalist pace; the terrain f thePlan de Paris s thatof HaussmannizedParis,wheremodernization ad evicted heworking lassfromts traditionaluartersn the centerof thecity nd thensegre-gated thecity long class lines. But abstract pace is riddledwith ontradictions;most mportantly,t notonlyconcealsdifference,tsactsofdivision nd exclusionare productive fdifference. istinctionsnd differencesre not eradicated, heyare onlyhidden n thehomogeneous pace ofthePlan. TheNakedCity rings hesedistinctions nd differences ut into theopen, theviolenceof itsfragmentationsuggestinghe real violence nvolvednconstructinghecity fthe Plan.In thismannerTheNakedCityngagesthediscourse fgeography.n France,academic geography institutionalizedn the university)was a productof the1870s; n thewakeofthedefeat ufferedn theFranco-Prussian ar, numberofhistoriansround Paul Vidalde la Blanchefoundedwhatmaybe called a "spatialhistory." idaliangeography onsidered tself "science oflandscape"whosegoalwas taxonomicdescription;but,as in the Plan deParis,"description" annot beconsidered an ideologically eutral erm.By presuming n already given" bjectof study country, egion, city),thisgeographyhypostatized oncepts as trans-historical thatwere actually the products of particular historical relations.Moreover,the geographer's nterestn descriptionprivileges isual criteria hatdepend on the llusionof an object "fullyffered ofullview," view hat smore-

16. Michelde Certeau,PracticefEverydayife, . 101.17. Guy-Ernestebord, "Thboriede la d6rive," ituationistnternationalnthology,. 53.18. Michelde Certeau,Practicef verydayife, . 101.19. Henri Lefebvre, TheProductionof Space, trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith, (Oxford andCambridge,Mass.:Blackwell, 991),pp. 355-56.




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overgenderedas masculine,fromwhicha feminized pace is perceived. Vidalspokeof theeye "embracing"he andscape,which offerstself p" toview.)20But there s a curious contradictionnVidal'smethodology fdescription:despitehis relianceon thevisualpresenceof theobjectofstudy, is landscapescannotactually e seen. That is,he is not so much concernedwith n observable,concretespace,butwith typical,bstract pace that s constructed rom "syn-thetic nd derivativemobilizationof cliche" in the formofvariousexoticisms,references o literature,nd enumerations f ocal flora nd fauna.21 he abstractspace ofacademicgeographys the source of thehomogeneous, bstractpace ofthePlan deParis.In making The NakedCity, owever,Debord was not simplyrefuting neighty-year-oldraditionof academic geography;he was also, unconsciously,reassertinghe goals of a social geography. Social geography"was a termfirstused byEliseeReclus,a communard, ocialist, nd geographer orwhomgeogra-phywould become "historynspace."UnlikeVidal's"geographyfpermanences,"forReclusgeographywas "notan immutable hing. t ismade, t s remadeeveryday; at each instant,t is modifiedbymen's actions."22 ather thanexplainingspatial organization,ikeVidal,as theconsequence of inevitable ocialprocesses(mediatedbydeterministic etaphors,s in the"individuality"r "personality"fa region),Reclus theorized pace as a socialproduct nd thus s inseparable romthe functioning f society.Two dissimilar onceptsof societywerebeing pro-posed in thesetwogeographies.On theone hand,Vidal desocializesthesocial,employing n "environmental eterminism"n which"forms f metropolitansocial life" re theadaptations f "humanpopulations o environmentsnwhichcertainprocessestend to remain constant nd invariable."On the otherhand,Reclus understoodspace as a sociallyproduced category-as an arena "wheresocialrelationsrereproduced" nd as a social relationtself.23ebord,developingsimilar deas,wouldalso comprehend his ndivisibilityfurbanspace and social

20. This discussion f academicand socialgeographys indebted o the work f Kristin oss n TheEmergencefSocialSpace:Rimbaudnd the aris CommuneMinneapolis:Universityf MinnesotaPress,1988),pp. 85-97. The space of narrativee.g.,of concealment nd discoveryn filmnoir) is also gen-dered; see Teresa de Lauretis,AliceDoesn't:Feminism, emiotics, inema Bloomington: IndianaUniversityress,1984) and Laura Mulvey, VisualPleasureand Narrative inema,"Screen 6,no. 3(1975), pp. 6-18. To theextent hatDebord's NakedCitymaybe comparedwith henarrative ffilmnoir as themap's titlendicates), tspointofviewmustbe problematized; owever here re obviouslysignificant ifferencesn the subjectsconstructed ytheserespective narratives."Perhaps this swhere he imits f the usefulness f this erm ordescribing ebord'smaparereached.)21. Ross,Emergencef ocial pace, p. 86-87.22. Quoted in ibid.,p. 91. For moreon Elisbe eclus, ee Gary . Dunbar,ElisieReclus, istorianfNature Hamden, Conn.: ArchonBooks, 1978) and Marie Fleming, TheGeographyfFreedom: heOdysseyfElisie eclusMontreal nd NewYork:Black RoseBooks,1988).23. See RosalynDeutsche,"UnevenDevelopment: ublicArt n New YorkCity," ctober7 (Winter1988), p. 24. See also Manuel Castells,The UrbanQuestion: Marxist pproach,rans.Alan Sheridan(Cambridge,Mass.: MIT Press,1977) and PeterR. Saunders, ocialTheorynd theUrban uestionNewYork:Holmes& Meier,1981).




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modity."34owever, histhoroughlyominatedcapitalist pacewasnot seamless;in fact, t was fullof contradictions, idden only bya homogenizing deology.These contradictionsmade possible the struggle ormulated ythe Situationistproject:theexploration fpsychogeographynd the construction fspaces thataccommodateddifference. ituationistexperimental ehavior," heirpractice f"inhabiting," ereoperations ndominated pacemeanttocontest heretreat fthe directlyived into the realmof representation,nd thereby o contest theorganization fthesociety fthespectacle tself.The move from bstract pace to social space can be seen in a condensedform n the differentttitudes aken toward erialphotographs yChombartdeLauwe and the Situationists.n Chombartde Lauwe's 1952reporthe reproducesan aerialphotograph fthecity enterofParisalongwith ts mmediate uburbs.He writes hat uch photographs ermit betterunderstandingfcertain truc-turesand of the contrasts etween "the different inds ofurban textures." ecites thedifferentextures f the bourgeois quarters n the one hand (the 7thand 17th arrondissements),and on the other hand, the "popular" quarters(Belleville nd Menilmontant),he former haracterized yregularity,helatterbydisorder.From these visual characteristics ne maydeduce the respectiveconditions f ife nd socialpractices feach quarter.35Chombart de Lauwe's praise of the aerial photographas a research toolraisesthequestionaskedbyMichelde Certeau n ThePracticef verydayife: Isthe immensetexturologypread out before one's eyes anythingmore than arepresentation,n opticalartifact?"he elevationprovidedby"theoverflightthigh altitude" transformshe sociologist nto a voyeurof sorts,who not onlyenjoys he erotics fseeingall fromhishiddenvantagepoint,butwho also enjoysthe erotics fknowing ll.The scopicand epistemophilicrives nite nmutuallyseekingpleasure nthetotalityf thecity s seeninthe"vueverticale"f the aerialphotographor ofthePlandeParisfor hatmatter). utthiswhole s imaginary,fiction,nd "thevoyeur-godreatedbythisfiction.. mustdisentanglehimselffrom hemurkyntertwiningaily ehaviors ndmake himselflientothem."36

It is precisely hisdisentanglement,hisalienation,thatthe Situationistsrefusedby ocatingcultural trugglewithin hecity. n contrast o ChombartdeLauwe's faithn theknowledge rovidedbythespectacularized mageof thecityas seen in the aerial photograph, heyrefuted hisvoyeuristiciewpoint.n thefirst ssue of Internationaleituationniste,ccompanyingGilles Ivain's "Formularyfor a New Urbanism," there was an aerial photograph verysimilar to thatdiscussed by Chombart de Lauwe; however,this photographwas not usedfor ascertainingthe structureof the city. nstead it bore the caption "NewTheater ofOperations n Culture." he militaryerm ndicated he refusal o take34. Ibid.,p. 166.35. Paul-Henry hombart e Lauwe,"Paris t 'agglomeration arisienne," p. 33-34.36. Michelde Certeau,Practicef verydayife, p. 92-93.




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Fromhenternationale ituationniste,June 958.

INOUVEAUHWATR'OPtADANSAULTU

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As GriseldaPollockdescribeshim thefldneur,nlike heparticipantsf thederive,was an exclusivelymasculinetype),theflineur s characterizedbya detached,observing aze: "Thefldneurymbolizesheprivilege r freedom o moveaboutthepublicarenas of thecity bserving ut never nteracting,onsuming hesightsthrough controlling utrarely cknowledged aze. ... Theflineurmbodiesthegaze ofmodernity hich s both covetous nd erotic."41t is preciselyhese class-and gender-specificrivilegeshat hedMiveritiquesn itsrefusal f the control-ling gaze. The city nd itsquarters re no longerconceivedofas "spontaneouslyvisibleobjects"but are positedas social constructionshroughwhichthe derivenegotiateswhile imultaneouslyragmentingnddisruptinghem.The Situationistslso located thedrive n relation o surrealistxperimentsin space. In his articleon the dMriveebord cited "the celebrated imlessstroll"undertakennMay1924byAragon,Breton,Morise, ndVitrac; he courseof thisjourneywas determinedbychance procedures.The surrealists ad embracedchance as the encounterwith hetotally eterogenous,n emblemoffreedomnan otherwisereifiedsociety.Clearlythistypeof ourneywas resonant fortheSituationists.or example, n 1955 Debord discussed similar ripthat friendtook"throughhe Hartzregion nGermany, ith hehelpof a mapofthecity fLondon fromwhichhe blindly ollowed he directions."42oweverDebord wouldgo on to critique the surrealistexperimentsfor an "insufficientmistrust fchance." Perhaps, parallelingPeterBfirger's rgument,Debord feltthatthesediversionshad degenerated fromprotests gainstbourgeois society's nstru-mentalization o protests gainstmeans-endrationalitys such. Without uchrationality,owever,no meaningcan be derivedfrom hance occurrences ndthe ndividualsplaced ina position f a "passive ttitude fexpectation."43iventhat he Situationists erenotinterestednly n thediscoveryftheuncanny, rthemaking trange ffamiliar rbanterrain, utin thetransformationf urbanspace,theirmistrustf surrealisthanceisunderstandable.The blindness f thepeople on thedmriveasa tactical ractice, ependentupon neither pectacularconsumptionof the citynor upon factors f chance.This blindness, haracteristicf theeveryday ser of thecitywho confrontsheenvironments opaque, wasconsciously dopted in order to subverthe rationalcityof pure visuality. he dirivewas a tactic n the classicmilitaryense of theterm: a calculatedactiondetermined ythe absence ofa proper ocus."44 r, inthewordsofClausewitz, militaryheorist ebordgreatlydmired, hederives a

41. GriseldaPollock,Vision DifferenceLondon and NewYork:Routledge, 988),p. 67.42. Guy-Ernest ebord, "Introduction o a Critiqueof Urban Geography," rans. n SituationistInternationalnthology,. 7.43. Peter Bfirger,Theory ftheAvant-Garde,rans.Michael Shaw (Minneapolis: University fMinnesotaPress, 984),p. 66.44. Michel de Certeau,Practicef verydayife, p. 36-37.




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articlemourns he destruction f the rueSauvage n the 13th rrondissement:welamentthedisappearanceofa thoroughfareittle nown, ndyetmore alive hanthe Champs-Elys6esnd itslights."Despite the qualification hat"wewerenotinterestedn the charmsofruins,"49t is easyto agreewithBenjaminBuchlohthat,with he riseoftechnologies orcontrollinghedomesticnterior,hestreet"would increasingly qualifyas an artisticattraction, n the manner that allevacuated locations (ruins) and obsolete technologies ppearingto be exemptfromor abandoned bythe logic of the commodity nd the instrumentalityfengineereddesirehad so qualified."50uch a view,however, ails orecognize hatthecityhas not een fullyvacuated. imply ecausespectacle-cultureas come tobe administered rimarilyn thehome,thestreet s not eft herefore ncontami-nated-quite theopposite.The "evacuated" itywasnot so much"exempt rom..the logic of the commodity"s itwasmade into the site ofmythic iscourse,discoursewhollycontingentupon spectacle-culture.t appeared as a dividedsign-divisionin thesemiological enseof theemptyingf thesignofits mean-ing,an operationconstitutivefmyth.51n thisoperation hecity s sign-whichhas "a fullness, richness, history"f tsown-is capturedbymythnd is turnedinto "anempty, arasitical orm,"52floating ignifierble tobe appropriated orvarious deologicalends.But itsmeaningdoes not disappear;rather t is put at a distance,held inreserve. f the public realm s no longer "hypersignificant"53r "filled" s it wasbeforetheadventofspectacle-culture,t nonethelessmustbe acknowledged hatits esthetic ole as "ruin" eproducespower.The "hyposignificant"ity fmythsappropriatedto variousends: itshistorys putback intoplay n harmlessformas entertainmentn, forexample, tourist ttractionswhere "public" space iscommodified orvery private"onsumption. In his "Introductiono a CritiqueofUrbanGeography," ebord citestourisms that populardrugas repugnant ssports rbuying n credit.")54he "museumization"f Paris s one obvious xam-ple of thisprocess.As statedearlier,theserepresentations ave a verydefiniteideological character: ".... the city s submitted to the norms of an abstract space

49. "On d6truita rueSauvage," otlatch (3 August1954); reprintednDocumentselatifslafonda-tion e l'Internationaleituationniste:76. This articlewas followed p in "La formed'une villechangeplusvite," otlatch5 (26January 956); reprintednDocumentselatifs,p. 234-35.50. BenjaminH. D. Buchloh,"FromDetail to Fragment: &collageAffichiste,"ctober6 (Spring1991),p. 100.51. See theessay Myth oday" n RolandBarthes,MythologiesNewYork:NoondayPress, 972),pp.109-59. Note that heessays ollectedhere werewritten etween1954 and 1956,preciselyontempo-raneouswith heSituationists'heoreticalrticulationfthedirive.52. Ibid.,pp. 117-18.53. A termadopted fromFrancoise Choay; cf. her "S6miologie et urbanisme,"L'Architectured'Aujourd'hui32 (1967).54. Guy-Ernest ebord, "Introduction o a Critiqueof Urban Geography," rans. n SituationistInternationalnthology,. 7.




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