The Beach Beneath the Street The Everyday Life and Glorious Times of the Situationist International

by Wark, McKenzie

• ISBN13: 9781844677207
• ISBN10: 1844677206
• Edition: 00
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-06-20
• Publisher: VERSO

Summary

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, Mich#xE8;le 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.

Author Biography

McKenzie Wark 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. He teaches at the New School for Social Research and Eugene Lang College in New York City.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. vii
Leaving the Twenty-First Century	p. 1
Street Ethnography	p. 7
No More Temples of the Sun	p. 19
The Torrent of History	p. 33
Extreme Aesthetics	p. 45
A Provisional Micro-Society	p. 61
Permanent Play	p. 75
Tin Can Philosophy	p. 83
The Thing of Things	p. 93
Divided We Stand	p. 109
An Athlete of Duration	p. 125
New Babylon	p. 135
The Beach Beneath the Street	p. 147
Notes	p. 161
Index	p. 191
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