Situationist Space

Transcription

Situationist Space

Situationist
Space*
THOMASF. McDONOUGH
Proletarian revolution is the critique of
human geography throughwhichindividuals and communitieshave to createplaces
and eventssuitablefor the appropriation,no
longerjust of theirlabor, but of theirtotal
history.
-Guy Debord, SocietyoftheSpectacle
I. The Naked City
In the summer of 1957 the MIBI ("Mouvement Internationale pour un
Bauhaus Imaginiste"),an avant-gardegroup composed of variousex-Cobraartists
and theirItalian counterparts,'published a singularlyodd map of Paris entitled
TheNakedCity,the creationof whichwas creditedto G [uy]-E[rnest]Debord. The
publication of this map was in fact one of the last actions taken by the MIBI,
since thisgroup had recentlydecided to join withthe French "Internationalelettriste"-of which Debord was the most importantmember-and the English
situa"Psychogeographical
Societyof London" in orderto formthe "Internationale
tionniste."2
However,the map acted both as a summaryof manyof the concerns
sharedbythe threeorganizations,particularly
around the questionof theconstrucThis paper was originallyconceived for a colloquium on European Art 1945-68, taughtby
*
RobertLubar at the Instituteof Fine Arts;earlyresearchwithmycolleague Maura Reillywas instrumental in formulatingits parameters.A year at the Independent Study Program of the Whitney
Museum of AmericanArtand the opportunityto workwithBenjamin Buchloh and RosalynDeutsche
were the greatestsources of inspirationand challenge in thisproject'srealization.Finally,I would like
to thankmyreaderson October's
editorialboard and especiallyHal Fosterfortheircriticalcomments
and assistance.
1.
On the MIBI, see Peter Wollen, "The SituationistInternational,"NewLeftReview174 (1989),
pp. 87-90.
The officialhistoryof the foundingis toldinJean-FranCois
2.
de l'Internationale
situMartos,Histoire
ationniste(Paris: Editions Gerard Lebovici, 1989), pp. 9-65. See Peter Wollen, "The Situationist
International,"
pp. 87-90.
OCTOBER 67, Winter
1994,pp. 59-77. ? 1994 ThomasF. McDonough.
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
GuyDebord.The Naked City.1957.
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OCTOBER
60
of thedirectionsto be
tionand perceptionof urbanspace, and as a demonstration
in
the
the
Internationale
situationniste
followingyears.Surprisingly
explored by
little attentionhas been accorded this document, despite the fact that it has
become an almosticonic image of the earlyyearsof the Internationalesituationin severalof themajorbooks
niste,appearingon dustjacketsand as an illustration
and articleson thegroup.
TheNakedCityis composed of nineteencut-outsectionsof a map of Paris,
printedin black ink,whichare linkedbydirectionalarrowsprintedin red. Its subof the hypothesisof psychogeographical
titledescribesthe map as an "illustration
whichusually
the
term"plaque tournante,"
turntables."
Debord,
Appropriatedby
denotes a railwayturntable(a circularrevolvingplatformwitha trackrunning
along its diameter,used forturninglocomotives),here describesthe functionof
the arrowslinkingthe segmentsof the psychogeographicalmap. Each segment
has a different
"unityof atmosphere."The arrowsdescribe"thespontaneousturns
in disregardof
of directiontakenbya subjectmovingthroughthesesurroundings
the usefulconnectionsthatordinarilygovernhis conduct."3Thus these "spontaneous inclinationsof orientation"thatlinkvarious "unitiesof atmosphere"and
dictate the path taken by the given subject correspond to the action of the
turntable,whichlinksvarioussegmentsof trackand dictatesthe orientationof the
locomotive.The implicationsof analogizingthe subject to a locomotiveare, of
the locomotive's
course,foundedon a certainambiguity:althoughself-propelled,
the
for
the
as
within
strict
is
determined
Situationists,
boundaries,
just
path
image of the
subject'sfreedomof movementis restrictedbythe instrumentalized
citypropagatedunder the reignof capital.4
It is immediatelyapparent that The Naked Citydid not functionlike an
ordinarymap. This observationis confirmedwhen itsantecedentsin the Cartedu
Tendreof Madeleine de Scuderyare examined.Cited in a 1959 articlein thejourthe Cartehad been created three hundred years
nal Internationale
situationniste,
earlierin 1653 byScuderyand the membersof her salon.5It uses the metaphorof
the spatialjourneyto tracepossiblehistoriesof a love affair.Keygeographicalfeamomentsor emotions (e.g., the
tures,throughpatheticfallacy,marksignificant
"lac d'indiff6rence").Positingthisaristocraticdiversionas an antecedentof The
NakedCityis another instanceof appropriation,but despite theirverydifferent
originsthe Cartedid illustratethe key principleof the psychogeographicmap.
Froma textprintedon the reverseside of TheNakedCity:AsgerJorn,"Quatriimeexperiencedu
3.
d la fondationde
de Guy Debord)," reprintedin Documents
MIBI (Plans psychogbographiques
relatifs
situationniste:
l'Internationale
1948-1957,ed. G6rardBerreby(Paris:EditionsAllia,1985), p. 535.
The term"plaque tournante"mayalso be an intendedor unintendedpun on "tableautournant,"
4.
whichrefersto magicalor seance-likeoperationsof trickery.
(I would like to thankBenjaminBuchloh
forpointingout thispossibility.)
romaine(Geneva: SlatkineReprints,1973).
The map was publishedin 1654 in her Cildie:histoire
5.
3 (December
situationniste
It is cited in "L'urbanismeunitaireA la fin des annbes50," Internationale
de la terre
(Paris:Centre
1959), pp. 11-16. On the map, see Claude Filteau,"Tendre,"in Cartesetfigures
GeorgesPompidou, 1980), pp. 205-7.
MadeleinedeScudry.Cartede
Tendre.1653.
Al
:::
IYA.:
44,:
That is, both maps are figuredas narrativesratherthan as tools of "universal
and to
knowledge."The usersof thesemaps were asked to choose a directionality
overcomeobstacles,althoughtherewas no "proper"reading.The readingchosen
was a performanceof one among manypossibilities(of the course of the love
affairin the Cartedu Tendre;of the crossingof the urban environmentin The
NakedCity)and would remaincontingent.The subject'sachievementof a position
of mastery,
thegoal of narrative'sresolution,was therebyproblematized.
The odd title,renderedin brightred capitals,was also an appropriationof
thename of an Americanfilmnoirof 1948. TheNakedCitywas a detectivestoryset
in New Yorkand filmedin a documentarystyle.Based on a storybyMalvinWald,
the screenplaywas a collaborationbetween the author and AlbertMaltz.6(The
titleof the film,however,is itselfan appropriation:originallyentitledHomicide,
the movie'sname was changed to matchthe titleof a book of crimephotographs
byWeegee, publishedin 1945.)7Althoughthe referenceto thisHollywoodfilmof
the previousdecade mayat firstseem arbitrary,
its purpose becomes clear when
one examinesthe structureof the movie.As ParkerTylerexplainsit in TheThree
Faces oftheFilm:
In NakedCityit is ManhattanIsland and its streetsand landmarksthat
are starred.The social body is thus,througharchitectural
symbol,laid
bare ("naked").... The factthatthevastlycomplexstructureof a great
6.
AlbertMaltz and MalvinWald, TheNakedCity(Carbondale and Edwardsville:SouthernIllinois
Press,1979). Maltz,born in Brooklynin 1908,was a mainstayof the Americanliteraryleft
University
throughoutthe 1930s;in 1941 he movedto Los Angeles,wherehe workedon severalmovies-generally
eitherdetectivefilms(e.g., This GunforHire,1942) or wartimepropaganda movies (e.g., Prideofthe
forhis
Marines,1945). In 1947 he was called beforethe House Committeeon Un-AmericanActivities
involvement
withthe Communistpartyin the 1930s;his refusalto testify
led to his being named one of
the "HollywoodTen." TheNakedCitywas his last filmbeforebeing committedto federaljail in 1950.
See JackSalzman,Albert
Maltz (Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1978) fora fullbiography,which,however,
slightsMaltz'syearsin Hollywood.
7.
ArthurFellig (Weegee), NakedCity(New York:Da Capo Press,1975).
62
OCTOBER
city,in one sense,is a supremeobstacleto the police detectivesat the
same time that it providestinyclues as importantas certainobscure
are to the trainedeyeof a doctor.8
physicalsymptoms
Justas the termturntableservesas a usefulanalogyforthe "spontaneousturnsof
direction"indicatedon the map, so the titleTheNakedCityservesas an analogy
forthe functionof the map as a whole. It is no longerthe streetsand landmarks
of Manhattan,but those of Paris thatare "starred":one quicklyrecognizes,in the
cut-outfragments,
partsof theJardindu Luxembourg,Les Halles, the Gare de
the
etc. The act of "layingbare" the social body throughthe
Pantheon,
Lyon,
of the map. Freed from
architectural
city's
symbolsis implicitin theverystructure
the "usefulconnections that ordinarilygovern theirconduct,"the users could
experience "the sudden change of atmospherein a street,the sharpdivisionof a
cityintoone of distinctpsychologicalclimates;thepath ofleastresistance-wholly
unrelatedto the unevennessof the terrain-to be followedby the casual stroller;
the character,attractiveor repellant,of certainplaces."9So wroteDebord in his
"Introductionto a Critiqueof Urban Geography"("Introduction'l une critique
de la geographieurbaine") of 1955, twoyearsbeforethe publicationof his version of TheNakedCity.For Debord the structureof Paris,like thatof New Yorkin
offered"tinyclues"the movie,was also a "greatobstacle" thatsimultaneously
of
a
but to a future
clues
to
the
solution
were
no
crime,
longer
only they
in
of
a
"sum
of
life
its
of
presentation
possibilities."
organization
Visually,TheNakedCityis a collage based on the appropriationof an alreadyexistingdocument, composed of nineteen fragmentsof a map of Paris. It is
significantin thislightthat Debord, in the 1955 "Introductionto a Critiqueof
"theproductionof
Urban Geography,"had discussed"a renovatedcartography":
of a sort that,
to
certain
movements
maps
may
help
clarify
psychogeographical
while surelynot gratuitous,are whollyinsubordinateto the usual directives."10
These influencesor attractionsdeterminethe habitual patternsthroughwhich
of such influencesis
residentsnegotiatethe city.The complete"insubordination"
of the mostpopular map of Paris,
realized in TheNakedCityby the fragmenting
the Plan deParis,intoa stateof illegibility.
TheNakedCitysubvertsthe structureof the Plan deParis.The latteris strucwhichacts
turedin a wayanalogous to the mode of discoursecalled "description,"
to "maskitssuccessivenatureand presentit as redundantrepetition,as ifall were
presentat the same time.It is as ifthe object [here,the cityof Paris] were always
8.
ParkerTyler,The ThreeFacesoftheFilm:TheArt,theDream,theCult,rev.ed. (South Brunswick,
N.J.:A. S. Barnes,1967), p. 97.
9.
Debord, "IntroductionA une critiquede la geographieurbaine,"Les LevresNues6
Guy-Ernest
(September 1955). Trans. as "Introductionto a Critique of Urban Geography,"in the Situationist
ed. and trans.Ken Knabb (Berkeley,Calif.: Bureau of Public Secrets,1981),
International
Anthology,
pp. 5-8.
10.
Ibid., p. 7.
63
SituationistSpace
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fromthe
Map ofthe5tharrondissement
Plan de Paris.
N
ARROND
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PA
I#1rftW
64
OCTOBER
The Parisof the Plan existsin
alreadyvisuallypresent,fullyofferedto fullview."11
a timelesspresent;thistimelessnessis imagedspatiallyin themap's (illusory)total
revelationof itsobject.That is, usersof the map see the entirecitylaid out before
theireyes.However,such an omnipresentviewis seen fromnowhere:"itis in fact
impossibleto occupythisspace. It is a pointof space whereno man can see: a no
place not outsidespace but nowhere,utopic."12This is the traditionalconditionof
the map; in linguisticterms,it is pure structure("langue") withoutindividuation
("parole").
If the Plan de Paris is structuredby description,which is predicated on a
model of seeing thatconstitutesan exhibitionof "the knowledgeof an order of
places,"13then a verydifferentmode of discourse structuresTheNakedCity.It
is predicated on a model of moving,on "spatializingactions," known to the
Situationistsas ditives;ratherthan presentingthe cityfroma totalizingpoint of
view,it organizes movementsmetaphoricallyaround psychogeographichubs.
These movementsconstitutenarrativesthatare openlydiachronic,unlikedescription'sfalse"timelessness."14
TheNakedCitymakesit clear,in itsfragmenting
of the
of urban space, thatthe cityis onlyexpeconventional,descriptiverepresentation
rienced in timeby a concrete,situatedsubject,as a passage fromone "unityof
atmosphere"to another,not as the objectof a totalizedperception.
II. TheNakedCityand SocialGeography
But the narrative mode does not fullyaccount for the appearance of
Debord's map. First,TheNakedCitydoes not cover all of Paris,as is expected of
any "good" map. Second, the fragmentshave no logical relationto one another;
or east-west
axes, and the
theyare not properlyorientedaccordingto north-south
distancebetweenthemdoes not correspondto the actual distanceseparatingthe
various locales. (Consider, for instance,the distance separatingtheJardindes
Plantesfromitsannex,whichare contiguousin thePlan deParis.)
Debord explains these features in his article of 1956, "Theory of the
Derive."The fragmentsonly representcertainareas of Paris because the map's
goal is "thediscoveryof unitiesof atmosphere,of theirmain componentsand of
theirspatial localization."15Presumablynot all areas in the citylend themselves
to such spatial localization; TheNakedCitynames partsof the city(certain "uni11.
Louis Marin, Utopics:Spatial Play, trans. Robert A. Vollrath (Atlantic Highlands, N.J.:
HumanitiesPress,1984), p. 202.
12.
Ibid., p. 207.
of
13.
Michel de Certeau, ThePracticeofEveryday
Life,trans.StevenRendall (Berkeley:University
CaliforniaPress,1984), p. 119.
Louis Marin,Utopics,
14.
maynot be the ideal termto describethe
pp. 201-2. Although"narrative"
structureof TheNakedCity,it does conveythe sense thatthe map is a representation
of an event-or
more properly,a sum of events,i.e., the spatializingactionsof the dirive.
15.
Debord, "Th(orie de la derive,"Les LevresNues9 (November1956). Translatedas
Guy-Ernest
International
"Theoryof the DIrive,"in the Situationist
Anthology,
p. 53.
65
Situationist
Space
ties of atmosphere") instead of the whole ("Paris") thatincludes them.Through
this synecdochic procedure, totalities like the Paris of the Plan de Paris are
replaced byfragmentslike the componentsof Debord's map.16
But beyond the "discovery"of such unities of atmosphere, the map also
describes"theirchiefaxes of passage, theirexitsand theirdefenses."The psychogeographicalturntablesof the map's subtitleallowone to assert"distancesthatmay
be quite out of scale withwhatone mightconclude froma map's approximations."'17
Such distancesbecome blankareas in TheNakedCity,gaps thatseparatethevarious
The suppressionof the linkagesbetweenvarious"unitiesof atmosphere,"
fragments.
for
schematic directional arrows,corresponds to the procedure called
except
"asyndeton":a process of "openinggaps in the spatialcontinuum"and "retaining
only selected parts of it."18
StructuringTheNakedCitythroughsynecdocheand asyndetondisruptsthe
falsecontinuityof the Plan de Paris.The citymap is revealedas a representation:
the productionof a discourseabout the city.This discourseis predicatedon the
appearance of optical coherence,on whatHenri Lefebvrecalled the reductionof
realm."19
This abstract
the cityto "theundifferentiated
stateof the visible-readable
terrain
of the
that
the
the
conflicts
space homogenizes
produce capitalistspace;
Plan de Parisis thatof HaussmannizedParis,wheremodernizationhad evictedthe
workingclass fromitstraditionalquartersin the centerof the cityand then segregated the cityalong class lines. But abstractspace is riddledwithcontradictions;
itsacts of divisionand exclusion
mostimportantly,
it not onlyconceals difference,
are not eradicated,they
are productiveof difference.Distinctionsand differences
are onlyhidden in the homogeneousspace of the Plan. TheNakedCitybringsthese
distinctionsand differencesout into the open, the violence of its fragmentation
the cityof the Plan.
suggestingthe real violenceinvolvedin constructing
In thismanner TheNakedCityengagesthe discourseof geography.In France,
academic geography (institutionalizedin the university)was a product of the
1870s; in the wake of the defeatsufferedin the Franco-Prussian
War,a numberof
historiansaround Paul Vidal de la Blanche foundedwhatmaybe called a "spatial
Vidalian geographyconsidereditselfa "scienceof landscape" whose goal
history."
was taxonomic description;but, as in the Plan de Paris,"description"cannot be
considered an ideologicallyneutralterm.By presumingan already"given"object
of study (country,region, city),this geographyhypostatizedconcepts as transhistorical that were actually the products of particular historical relations.
Moreover,the geographer's interestin descriptionprivilegesvisual criteriathat
depend on the illusionof an object "fullyofferedto fullview,"a viewthatis more16.
Michel de Certeau,PracticeofEveryday
Life,p. 101.
17.
International
Debord, "Thboriede la d6rive,"Situationist
Guy-Ernest
Anthology,
p. 53.
18.
Michel de Certeau,Practice
ofEveryday
Life,p. 101.
19.
Henri Lefebvre, The Productionof Space, trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith, (Oxford and
Cambridge,Mass.: Blackwell,1991), pp. 355-56.
66
OCTOBER
over gendered as masculine,fromwhich a feminizedspace is perceived. (Vidal
itselfup" to view.)20
spoke of the eye "embracing"the landscape,which"offers
But thereis a curious contradictionin Vidal's methodologyof description:
despite his reliance on the visual presence of the object of study,his landscapes
cannot actuallybe seen. That is, he is not so much concernedwithan observable,
concretespace, but witha typical,abstractspace thatis constructedfroma "syntheticand derivativemobilizationof cliche" in the formof various exoticisms,
and enumerationsof local floraand fauna.21The abstract
referencesto literature,
of
academic
space
geographyis the source of the homogeneous,abstractspace of
thePlan deParis.
In making The Naked City,however,Debord was not simplyrefutingan
traditionof academic geography; he was also, unconsciously,
eighty-year-old
the
reasserting
goals of a social geography."Social geography"was a termfirst
used byElisee Reclus,a communard,socialist,and geographerforwhomgeograin space."UnlikeVidal's "geographyof permanences,"
phywould become "history
forReclus geographywas "notan immutablething.It is made, it is remade every
day; at each instant,it is modifiedby men's actions."22Ratherthan explaining
spatial organization,like Vidal, as the consequence of inevitablesocial processes
of
or "personality"
(mediatedbydeterministic
metaphors,as in the "individuality"
a region),Reclus theorizedspace as a social productand thusas inseparablefrom
the functioningof society.Two dissimilarconcepts of societywere being proposed in these two geographies.On the one hand, Vidal desocializesthe social,
employingan "environmentaldeterminism"in which "formsof metropolitan
in which
social life"are the adaptationsof "human populationsto environments
certain processes tend to remain constantand invariable."On the other hand,
Reclus understood space as a sociallyproduced category-as an arena "where
social relationsare reproduced"and as a social relationitself.23
Debord,developing
of urban space and social
similarideas, would also comprehendthisindivisibility
This discussionof academic and social geographyis indebtedto the workof KristinRoss in The
20.
of MinnesotaPress,
(Minneapolis:University
Emergence
ofSocialSpace:Rimbaudand theParis Commune
1988), pp. 85-97. The space of narrative(e.g., of concealmentand discoveryin filmnoir) is also gendered; see Teresa de Lauretis, AliceDoesn't:Feminism,Semiotics,Cinema(Bloomington: Indiana
UniversityPress, 1984) and Laura Mulvey,"Visual Pleasure and NarrativeCinema," Screen16, no. 3
(1975), pp. 6-18. To the extentthatDebord's Naked Citymaybe comparedwiththe narrativeof film
noir (as the map's titleindicates),itspointofviewmustbe problematized;howeverthereare obviously
significantdifferencesin the subjects constructedby these respective"narratives."(Perhaps thisis
wherethe limitsof the usefulnessof thistermfordescribingDebord's map are reached.)
21.
Ross,Emergence
ofSocialSpace,pp. 86-87.
22.
Quoted in ibid.,p. 91. For more on ElisbeReclus,see GaryS. Dunbar,ElisieReclus,Historianof
Nature(Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1978) and Marie Fleming, The Geography
ofFreedom:The
Odyssey
ofElisieReclus(Montrealand NewYork:Black Rose Books, 1988).
47 (Winter
See RosalynDeutsche,"Uneven Development:Public Artin New YorkCity,"October
23.
trans.Alan Sheridan
1988), p. 24. See also Manuel Castells, The UrbanQuestion:A MarxistApproach,
and theUrbanQuestion(New
(Cambridge,Mass.: MIT Press,1977) and PeterR. Saunders,SocialTheory
York:Holmes & Meier,1981).
The residentialunits ofthe
districtin the12th
"Wattignies"
arrondissement
ofParis,from
Chombartde Lauwe, "Paris and the
Parisian Agglomeration."
.....ii:
...........
iiiiiiiii~!),i
.i::i.
..............
.........
'ii
:ri-iiiiiiiiii
ii'iii
'=:i
i
i :ii
relations;but withthe experience of psychogeographic
exploration,space could
also be the arena forthe contestationof theserelationsthroughan activeconstructionofnew "unitiesofatmosphere."
Debord neverwroteabout Elisee Reclus, but he did writeabout a French
sociologistwhose workof the early1950s was veryconcernedwith"social space"
and withurbanism:Paul-HenryChombartde Lauwe. Debord quotes Chombartde
Lauwe's "Paris and the Parisian Agglomeration"(1952) in his "Theory of the
Derive"of 1956.24Even more significant,
TheNakedCityadopts the formof a map
thatappears in Chombartde Lauwe's report.This map, made byLouis Couvreur
(a researcherworkingalong withChombartde Lauwe on the urban studiesthat
contributedto the 1952 report),depicts"the residentialunitsof the 'Wattignies'
of Paris."25
districtin the 12tharrondissement
In the 1952 reportChombartde Lauwe definesthe elementaryunit of the
the quarter.The quarter
cityas the residentialunitor, as called byitsinhabitants,
is "a group of streets,or even of houses,withmore or less clearlydefinedborders,
includinga commercialcenterofvariablesize and, usually,othersortsof pointsof
attraction.The borders of a neighborhood are usually marginal (dangerous)
frontierareas."26Its is importantthat these quarters are not "given" urban
districts,
clearlydefinedand logicallylinkedone to the other.Rather,Chombart
de Lauwe statesthatthey"revealthemselves... to the attentiveobserver"in "the
behaviorof the inhabitants,
theirturnof phrase."27
on
these ideas, Debord also alteredthemin the fabricaClearlydependent
tion of the psychogeographic
map. For example,the notion of the quarteras the
basic unit of urban structureis held in common by both Debord and Chombart
24.
Paul-HenryChombartde Lauwe, "Pariset I'agglomerationparisienne"(1952), in Paris:Essaisde
1952-1964 (Paris:Les editionsouvrieres,1965), pp. 19-101. For Debord, see "Theoryof the
sociologie,
International
Derive,"Situationist
Anthology,
p. 50. This dependence is noted in passingby Wollen in
"The Situationist
International,"
p. 80, n. 40.
Paul-HenryChombartde Lauwe, "Pariset l'agglomerationparisienne,"pp. 60-61.
25.
26.
Ibid.,p. 67.
Ibid.
27.
68
OCTOBER
de Lauwe; forboth it is the site of social lifeand possessesa distinctcharacter.
(Chombartde Lauwe, in a tellingnaturalizingmetaphor,writesthateach quarter
has itsown "physiognomy.")
However,Chombartde Lauwe definesthe quarteras
a "residentialunit,"givingit a preeminentlyfunctionalrole, whereas Debord
definesit as a "unityof atmosphere,"which provesto be a much less empirical
idea.
Chombart de Lauwe ultimatelyrelies on the notion that quarterscan be
"discovered,"theirexistence proven,throughmore or less traditionalresearch
methods.Space is thoughtof here as a contextor containerforsocial relationsan idea that hypostatizesboth space and the social. But space does not simply
reflectsocial relations;it is constitutive
of and is constitutedby them.That is, the
the spatialform
quarteris not onlythe expressionof the needs of itsinhabitants,
of theirsocial relations.As RosalynDeutschehas written,
urbanspace is ratheralso
"an arena forthe reproductionof social relationsand as itselfsuch a relation."28
Debord's psychogeography
and its graphicrepresentationin TheNakedCitytake
thisinto account,constructing"unitiesof atmosphere"ratherthan "discovering"
them like physical,geographicalphenomena thatexistin a spatial context.The
NakedCitydenies space as contextand insteadincorporatesspace as an elementof
social practice.Ratherthan a containersuitablefordescription,space becomes
enactedbysocialgroups.
partofa process:theprocessof "inhabiting"
In thisDebord takesup a positionsome distancefromChombartde Lauwe,
but one thatis quite close to certainideas developed by Henri Lefebvrelaterin
the 1960s.Lefebvrewas also interestedin the quarteras the essentialunitof social
life. Like Debord, he chose to study"not the ossified socio-ecological forms
(whichare, bydefinition,
inapprehensible),but the tendenciesof theurbanunits,
their inertia,their explosion, their reorganization,in a word, the practice of
'inhabiting,'ratherthan the ecologyof the habitat."29
AlthoughLefebvreis here
to the Chicago School of urban ecology,his distancefromChombartde
referring
Lauwe's functionalistmodel of urban sociologyis equally clear. Againstsuch a
called "experimodel he positsthe notion of "inhabiting"-whatthe Situationists
mentalbehavior"--apractice,as willbe seen, mapped in TheNakedCity.
III. TheNakedCityand Cognitive
Mapping
Debord's map images a fragmentedcitythatis both the resultof multiple
of a capitalistsocietyand the veryformof a radicalcritiqueof this
restructurings
relatedto and disIts
society. figurationof a typeof inhabitingis simultaneously
tinctfromFredricJameson's "aestheticof cognitivemapping," perhaps most
or the CulturalLogic
succinctlydescribedin his classicarticle,"Postmodernism,
ed. Brian
28.
byMarthaRosler,
RosalynDeutsche, "Alternative
Space," in If YouLivedHere:A Project
Wallis (Seattle:BayPress,1991), p. 55.
Henri Lefebvre,"Quartieret vie de quartier,Paris,"Cahiersdel'IAURP7 (1967).
29.
Situationist
Space
69
of Late Capitalism."Jameson concludes that the fragmentations
of urban space
and the social body create the need formaps thatwould "enable a situationalrepresentation on the part of the individual subject to that vaster and properly
whichis the ensembleof the city'sstructureas a whole."30
unrepresentabletotality
These maps would allow theirusers to "again begin to grasp our positioningas
individualand collectivesubjectsand regaina capacityto act and strugglewhichis
at presentneutralizedbyour spatialas well as our social confusion."31
CertainlyDebord also saw the "spatial confusion" of the modern cityas
of the violence inherentin capitalism'sconfigurationof the space of
symptomatic
the productionand reproductionof its social relations.TheNakedCity,however,
adamantlyrefusesthe statusof a regulativeideal, whichis the goal of the cognitive
theformeris a
map. If the latteris a means toward"a capacityto act and struggle,"
siteof struggleitself.In itsveryformit contestsa dominantconstructionof urban
space as homogeneous,appropriatingpieces of the Plan deParisand makingthem
and divisionsof the public realm.
speak of the radicaldiscontinuities
The cognitivemap's normativefunctionrelieson the productionof a spatial
imagabilitythatdesiresto assumewhatRosalynDeutsche has called "a commandThe danger in thisposition
ing positionon the battlegroundof representation."32
is thatthe positionality
of the viewerand relationsof representationare sacrificed
in order to obtain a "coherent,""logical"viewof the city.Debord's map, on the
other hand, foregroundsits contingencyby structuring
itselfas a narrativeopen
to numerous readings.It openly acknowledgesitselfas the trace of practicesof
inhabitingratherthan as an imaginaryresolutionof real contradictions.Likewise,
its representationof the cityonly existsas a series of relationships,as in those
between TheNakedCityand the Plan deParis,or betweenfragmentation
and unity,
or betweennarrativeand description.
IV. TheDeriveand SocialSpace
Debord wrote in Societyof theSpectaclethat under advanced capitalism
33As
"everythingthatwas directlylived has moved away into a representation."
formulatedbyLefebvre,the corollaryto thisin spatialdiscoursewas thatdirectly
lived space ("representationalspace") had moved awayinto the space of the conceived and the perceived ("representationsof space"). Social, concretespace had
been completelydenied in favorof mental,abstractspace: "thefreespaceofthecom30.
FredricJameson,"Postmodernism,or the CulturalLogic of Late Capitalism,"NewLeftReview
146 (1984), p. 90. See his more developed argumentin "CognitiveMapping," in Marxismand the
eds. CaryNelson and LawrenceGrossberg(Urbana and Chicago: University
of
Interpretation
ofCulture,
IllinoisPress,1988), pp. 347-57.
31. Jameson,"Postmodernism,
or the CulturalLogic of Late Capitalism,"p. 92.
32.
28, no. 6 (February1990), pp. 21-23. An expanded
RosalynDeutsche, "Men in Space," Artforum
versionof thisarticleappeared as "BoysTown,"Society
and Space9 (1991), pp. 5-30.
33.
(Detroit:Black & Red, 1977), p. 1.
GuyDebord, Society
oftheSpectacle
70
OCTOBER
However,thisthoroughlydominatedcapitalistspace was not seamless;
modity."34
in fact,it was full of contradictions,hidden only by a homogenizingideology.
These contradictionsmade possible the struggleformulatedby the Situationist
and the constructionof spaces that
project:the explorationof psychogeography
accommodateddifference.Situationist"experimentalbehavior,"theirpracticeof
were operationsin dominatedspace meant to contestthe retreatof
"inhabiting,"
the directlylived into the realm of representation,and therebyto contestthe
organizationof the societyof the spectacleitself.
The move fromabstractspace to social space can be seen in a condensed
formin the different
attitudestakentowardaerial photographsby Chombartde
In Chombartde Lauwe's 1952 reporthe reproduces
Lauwe and the Situationists.
an aerial photographof the citycenterof Parisalong withitsimmediatesuburbs.
He writesthatsuch photographspermita betterunderstandingof certainstructures and of the contrastsbetween "the differentkinds of urban textures."He
cites the differenttexturesof the bourgeois quarterson the one hand (the 7th
and 17th arrondissements),and on the other hand, the "popular" quarters
the latter
(Bellevilleand Menilmontant),the formercharacterizedby regularity,
by disorder. From these visual characteristicsone may deduce the respective
conditionsof lifeand social practicesof each quarter.35
Chombart de Lauwe's praise of the aerial photographas a research tool
raises the question asked by Michel de Certeau in ThePracticeofEveryday
Life:"Is
the immense texturologyspread out before one's eyes anythingmore than a
at
The elevationprovidedby "the overflight
representation,an optical artifact?"
high altitude" transformsthe sociologist into a voyeurof sorts,who not only
enjoysthe eroticsof seeing all fromhis hidden vantagepoint,butwho also enjoys
the eroticsof knowingall. The scopic and epistemophilicdrivesunitein mutually
of thecityas seen in the "vueverticale"of theaerial
seekingpleasurein the totality
a
photograph(or of the Plan deParisforthatmatter).But thiswhole is imaginary,
fiction,and "the voyeur-godcreated by thisfiction... mustdisentanglehimself
fromthemurkyintertwining
dailybehaviorsand makehimselfalien to them."36
It is preciselythis disentanglement,this alienation, that the Situationists
refusedby locatingculturalstrugglewithinthe city.In contrastto Chombartde
Lauwe's faithin the knowledgeprovidedbythe spectacularizedimage of the city
as seen in the aerial photograph,theyrefutedthisvoyeuristic
viewpoint.In the
firstissue of Internationale
situationniste,
accompanyingGilles Ivain's "Formulary
for a New Urbanism," there was an aerial photograph very similar to that
discussed by Chombart de Lauwe; however, this photograph was not used
for ascertaining the structureof the city. Instead it bore the caption "New
termindicatedthe refusalto take
Theater of Operationsin Culture."The military
34.
35.
36.
Ibid., p. 166.
Paul-HenryChombartde Lauwe, "Pariset l'agglomerationparisienne,"pp. 33-34.
ofEveryday
Life,pp. 92-93.
AerialPhotograph
ofParis,1950,from
deLauwe,"Parisand the
Chombart
ParisianAgglomeration."
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FromtheInternationalesituationniste
1,
June1958.
D'OPtAA
THWATRE
INOUVEAU
CULTUR
LA
DANS
VRAD
PAiA
VC
)LA
ISOSLUTON
MVS
ANCENWITPER&"4ANC(EN1,
D-S
-?,4
DISSLUTION
TE
SITIFATIlON
SituationistSpace
73
up the disengagedpositionimpliedin Chombartde Lauwe's interestin the aerial
photograph. Rejecting this viewpoint,the Situationistsopted for exactly the
behaviors"thatthe sociologistplaced at a distance.Withthe
"murkyintertwining
as
their
"theater
of operations" theirprimarytacticwas the drive (driftor
city
reflected
the pedestrian'sexperience,thatof the everydayuser of
which
drifting),
the city.
The derive
took place literallybelow the thresholdof visibility,
in the sense of
what
is
visible
to
the
As
Debord
describes
it,the drive
being beyond
voyeur'sgaze.
replaced the figureof the voyeurwiththatof the walker:"One or more persons
committedto the demive
abandon, for an undefinedperiod of time,the motives
generallyadmitted for action and movement,their relations, their labor and
leisure activities,abandoning themselvesto the attractionsof the terrainand the
encountersproperto it."37In allowingthemselves"to be drawnbythe solicitations
of the terrain,"personson the deive escaped the imaginarytotalizationsof the eye
and insteadchose a kindof blindness.38
Operatingin the realm of everydaylife,the deriveconstitutesan urban practice thatmustbe distinguished,first,from"classicnotionsof thejourney and the
walk,"as Debord noted in "Theoryof the Derive."The derivewas not simplyan
the Baudelairean strollingof the "man in
updatingof nineteenth-century
fldnerie,
the crowd."This is not to saythattheydo not share some characteristics:
both the
and the person on the derivemove among the crowdwithoutbeing one
fldneur
withit. They are both "alreadyout of place," neitherbourgeois nor proletariat.39
But whereasthefldneur's
ambiguousclass positionrepresentsa kindof aristocratic
holdover(a positionthatis ultimately
recuperatedbythe bourgeoisie),the person
on the driveconsciouslyattemptsto suspend class allegiancesforsome time.This
serves a dual purpose: it allows for a heightened receptivity
to the "psychogeoto the sense of "depaysement,"40
graphicalrelief"of the cityas well as contributing
a characteristic
of the ludic sphere.
For the Situationists,however,the derivewas distinguishedfromfldnerie
primarily
byitscriticalattitudetowardthe hegemonicscopic regimeof modernity.
37.
International
Debord, "Theoryof the D6rive,"trans.in Situationist
Guy-Ernest
Anthology,
p. 50.
38.
This use of the term"blindness"is to be distinguishedfromthe paradoxical blindnessof totalizationthatde Certeau discusses.Here it is meant to indicatethe Situationists'problematizationof the
scopic regimeof modernityas formulatedin the nineteenthcentury.
39.
See WalterBenjamin, "On Some Motifsin Baudelaire," in Illuminations,
ed. Hannah Arendt,
trans.HarryZohn (New York:Schocken Books, 1968), pp. 172-73.
40.
"Depays6ment"is a termoftenfound in early Situationistwritingson the d&rive.
Literally,it
means "takenout of one's element"or "misled."The Situationistuse of the termseems to be in the
same sense thatLevi-Strauss
calls anthropologya "technique
du depaysiment"
in his essay"The Concept of
Archaismin Anthropology"(in Structural
trans.ClaireJacobson and Brooke Grundfest
Anthropology,
Schoepf [New York:Basic Books, 1963], pp. 117 and 118, n. 23). As the translatorsof thisessaynote,
the termrefersto "theconscious cultivationby the anthropologistof an attitudeof marginality
toward
all cultures,includinghis [sic] own."The same attitudeis cultivatedbypersonson the derive.
74
OCTOBER
As GriseldaPollockdescribeshim (thefldneur,
unlikethe participants
of the derive,
was an exclusivelymasculine type), the flineuris characterizedby a detached,
observinggaze: "The fldneursymbolizesthe privilegeor freedomto move about
the public arenas of the cityobservingbut neverinteracting,
consumingthesights
...
The
a
but
flineurembodiesthe
through controlling rarelyacknowledgedgaze.
is
and
erotic."41
It
is
of
which
both
covetous
preciselytheseclassgaze modernity
in
its
of the controlthe
refusal
and gender-specific
that
privileges
dMivecritiques
as
no
conceived
of
The
and
its
are
"spontaneously
city
quarters
longer
ling gaze.
visibleobjects" but are posited as social constructionsthroughwhich the derive
them.
and disrupting
fragmenting
negotiateswhilesimultaneously
also located the drivein relationto surrealistexperiments
The Situationists
Debord cited "the celebratedaimlessstroll"
in space. In his articleon the dMrive
undertakenin May 1924 byAragon,Breton,Morise,and Vitrac;the course of this
journey was determinedby chance procedures. The surrealistshad embraced
chance as the encounterwiththe totallyheterogenous,an emblemof freedomin
an otherwisereifiedsociety.Clearly this type ofjourney was resonant for the
Situationists.For example, in 1955 Debord discusseda similartripthata friend
took "throughthe Hartz regionin Germany,withthe help of a map of the cityof
HoweverDebord would
London fromwhichhe blindlyfollowedthe directions."42
mistrustof
for
an
"insufficient
the
surrealist
on
to
critique
experiments
go
chance." Perhaps, paralleling Peter Bfirger'sargument,Debord feltthat these
diversions had degenerated from protestsagainst bourgeois society's instrumentalizationto protestsagainst means-end rationalityas such. Withoutsuch
rationality,however,no meaning can be derivedfromchance occurrencesand
Given
the individualis placed in a positionof a "passiveattitudeof expectation."43
were not interestedonlyin the discoveryof the uncanny,or
thatthe Situationists
of urban
the makingstrangeof familiarurban terrain,but in the transformation
is
chance
understandable.
mistrust
of
surrealist
their
space,
was a tacticalpractice,dependent
The blindnessof the people on the dmrive
of
the
neither
citynor upon factorsof chance.
consumption
spectacular
upon
of the everydayuser of the citywho confrontsthe
This blindness,characteristic
environmentas opaque, was consciouslyadopted in order to subvertthe rational
cityof pure visuality.The dirivewas a tacticin the classic militarysense of the
term:"a calculated action determinedby the absence of a properlocus."44Or, in
as a
thewordsof Clausewitz,a militarytheoristDebord greatlyadmired,the derive
GriseldaPollock,Vision&Difference
41.
(London and NewYork:Routledge,1988), p. 67.
42.
Guy-ErnestDebord, "Introductionto a Critique of Urban Geography,"trans.in Situationist
International
p. 7.
Anthology,
43.
Peter Bfirger,Theoryof theAvant-Garde,trans. Michael Shaw (Minneapolis: Universityof
MinnesotaPress,1984), p. 66.
Michelde Certeau,Practice
44.
Life,pp. 36-37.
ofEveryday
SituationistSpace
75
tacticwas an "artof theweak."45It is a game (Debord writesthatthe diriveentailed
"a ludic-constructive
behavior")46thattakesplace in the strategicspace of the city:
"... it mustplayon and witha terrainimposed on it and organizedbythe law of a
foreignpower.It does not have the means to keeptoitselfat a distance,in a position of withdrawal,foresight,and self-collection:it is a maneuver 'within the
The
enemy'sfield of vision,' as von Bulow put it, and withinenemyterritory."47
dfrive
thereforedoes not possessa space of itsown,but takesplace in a space that
is imposed bycapitalismin theformof urban planning.
The d*rive
appropriatesthisurban space in the contextofwhatmaybe called
a "pedestrianspeech act,"in that"theact ofwalkingis to theurban systemwhatthe
speech act is to language."48Through the conscious appropriationof the city,the
Situationistsforce it to speak of the divisions and fragmentationsmasked by
abstractspace, the contradictions
thatenable politicalstruggleoverthe production
of space to existat all. The fragmentedspace of the city,as actualizedin the derive,
is preciselywhatis imaged in TheNakedCity,withitsinventionof quarters,itsshifting about of spatialrelations,and itslargewhiteblanksof nonactualizedspace, the
whole segmentsof Paris that are made to disappear, or ratherthat never even
existedin the firstplace. The derive
as a pedestrianspeech act is a reinstatement
of
the "use value of space" in a society that privileges the "exchange value of
is a politicaluse
space"-that is, itsexistenceas property.In thismannerthe derive
of space, constructing
new social relationsthrough"ludic-constructive
behavior."
V. TheD'rive and Representations
ofPublic Space
This contestationover the significationof public space leaves unaddressed
the question of the verystatusof this space in the postwarperiod. It has been
argued that,withthe increasingly
rapid growththroughthe 1950s of mass media,
the formerly
contestedrealm of the streetswas evacuated.It was afterall precisely
technologiesof the home-first radio, then television-thatwere the conduitsfor
spectacularsociety'sattemptsto domesticatefantasy.In thisview,the derivewas
doomed to being an anachronism.Indeed, some textson the deriveand urban
in 1954 an
space seem curiouslysentimental.For example,in the bulletinPotlatch
45.
See Karl von Clausewitz,On War,trans.M. Howard and P. Paret (Princeton,N.J.:Princeton
Press,1976).
University
46.
International
Guy-ErnestDebord, "Theoryof the D1rive,"trans.in Situationist
p. 50.
Anthology,
The ludic natureof the diriveis indebted toJohan Huizinga's HomoLudens;a studyoftheplay-element
in
culture(Boston: Beacon Press,1950), a textoriginallypublishedin 1937 and translatedinto Frenchin
1951. Huizinga argued thathumansare definednot merelyby theirfunctionalor utilitarianbehavior,
but also by theirneed for play; his ideas were of great interestto NorthernEuropean Situationists
Constantand AsgerJorn,who were in close contactwithDebord. On Huizinga and the Situationists,
see Wollen,"The SituationistInternational,"
p. 89.
47.
ofEveryday
Life,p. 37.
48.
Ibid., pp. 97-99.
76
OCTOBER
articlemournsthe destructionof the rue Sauvage in the 13tharrondissement:
"we
lamentthe disappearanceof a thoroughfare
littleknown,and yetmore alivethan
the Champs-Elys6esand its lights."Despite the qualificationthat "we were not
it is easy to agree withBenjamin Buchloh
interestedin the charmsof ruins,"49
that,withthe riseof technologiesforcontrollingthe domesticinterior,the street
"would increasinglyqualify as an artisticattraction,in the manner that all
evacuated locations (ruins) and obsolete technologiesappearing to be exempt
of
fromor abandoned by the logic of the commodityand the instrumentality
fails
to
that
had
so
Such
a
desire
view,
however,
recognize
qualified."50
engineered
has come to
the cityhas notbeen fullyevacuated.Simplybecause spectacle-culture
in the home, the streetis not leftthereforeuncontamibe administeredprimarily
nated-quite theopposite.The "evacuated"citywas not so much "exemptfrom...
the logic of the commodity"as it was made into the site of mythicdiscourse,a
discourse whollycontingentupon spectacle-culture.It appeared as a divided
sign-division in the semiologicalsense of the emptyingof the sign of its meanIn thisoperationthe cityas sign-which
of myth.51
ing,an operationconstitutive
has "a fullness,a richness,a history"of itsown-is capturedbymythand is turned
able to be appropriatedfor
a floatingsignifier
into "an empty,parasiticalform,"52
variousideologicalends.
But its meaning does not disappear; ratherit is put at a distance,held in
or "filled"as it was
reserve.If the public realm is no longer "hypersignificant"53
it nonethelessmustbe acknowledgedthat
beforethe adventof spectacle-culture,
itsaestheticrole as "ruin"reproducespower.The "hyposignificant"
cityof mythis
appropriated to various ends: its historyis put back into play in harmlessform
as entertainmentin, for example, touristattractionswhere "public" space is
commodifiedforvery"private"consumption.(In his "Introductionto a Critique
of Urban Geography,"Debord citestourismas that"populardrugas repugnantas
of Parisis one obviousexamsportsor buyingon credit.")54The "museumization"
ple of this process. As stated earlier,these representationshave a verydefinite
ideological character: ".... the city is submitted to the norms of an abstract space
7 (3 August1954); reprintedin Documents
"On d6truitla rue Sauvage,"Potlatch
49.
i lafondarelatifs
176. This articlewas followedup in "La formed'une ville change
situationniste:
tionde l'Internationale
25 (26January1956); reprintedin Documents
relatifs,
pp. 234-35.
plus vite,"Potlatch
56 (Spring
October
50.
Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, "FromDetail to Fragment:D&collage Affichiste,"
1991), p. 100.
See the essay"MythToday" in Roland Barthes,Mythologies
51.
(New York:NoondayPress,1972), pp.
109-59. Note thatthe essayscollectedhere werewrittenbetween1954 and 1956,preciselycontemporaneouswiththe Situationists'theoreticalarticulationof the dirive.
52.
Ibid., pp. 117-18.
A term adopted from Francoise Choay; cf. her "S6miologie et urbanisme," L'Architecture
53.
132 (1967).
d'Aujourd'hui
54.
Guy-ErnestDebord, "Introductionto a Critique of Urban Geography,"trans.in Situationist
International
p. 7.
Anthology,
Situationist
Space
77
whichcorrespondsfairlypreciselyto the constitutionof a politicalorganizationthe State-external to the dailyactivityof the citizensand to theirattachmentto
the places theylivein."55
The Situationists'antipathytowardthe "charmsof ruins"was preciselyan
acknowledgmentthat these "normsof abstractspace" that constructthe public
domain as evacuated were not "charming"at all. But these representationswere
not imperviousto contestation;in fact,the coherence of the city'ssignification
was constantlythreateningto break down. This was due to the factthat,despite
the spectacle's hegemonic power, the production of the cityremained a social
practice,one thatcould not be fullyinstrumentalized.
Contraryto the projections
of spectacularsociety,whichposited the cityas a natural,timelessform,it existed
formedbythe interactionand the integrationof different
onlyas "an environment
The deriveas a practiceof the cityreappropriatedpublic space from
practices."56
the realm of myth,restoringit to its fullness,its richness,and its history.As an
importanttool in the Situationists'struggleoverwho would speak throughthe city
during the 1950s, the deive was an attemptto change the meaning of the city
throughchangingthewayitwas inhabited.And thisstrugglewas conducted,not in
the name of a new cognitivemap,but in orderto constructa moreconcretecollectivespace, a space whose potentialities
remainedopen-endedforall participantsin
the "ludic-constructive"
narrativeof a newurban terrain.
55.
RaymondLedrut,"Speech and the Silence of the City,"in TheCityand theSign:An Introduction
to UrbanSemiotics,
eds. M. Gottdienerand AlexandrosPh. Lagopoulos (New York:Columbia University
Press,1986), p. 125.
56.
Ibid., p. 122.

Situationist Space

Transcription

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