THE REVOLUTION OF MODERN ART AND THE MODERN ART OF REVOLUTION

"It is not enough to burn the museums. They must also be sacked. Past creativity must be freed from the forms into which it has been ossified and brought back to life. Everything of value in art has always cried aloud to be made real and lived."

This previously unpublished document by the ill-fated English Section of the Situationist International is an exposition of the central tenets of situationist theory. Although much of the material covered is derivative, it is novel from the point of view of its pronounced Anglo-American orientation and its attempt to try and communicate basic situationist positions in a more 'hip', streetwise style (even if, regrettably, this sometimes leads to a certain amount of vulgarisation -- see for example, the crass eulogy of the violence of juvenile delinquints). As the text was produced in 1967, it is probable that it was originally intended to be included in a situationist journal the English Section were planning to publish. However, this project never came to fruition as in December of that year the English situationists (with the exception of Charles Radcliffe, who had resigned a couple of months earlier for personal reasons) were excluded from the S.I. over the Ben Morea affair (see Internationale Situationniste no. 12).

The rest, as they say, is history... Christopher Gray, after an abortive attempt to leave the 20th century, crash-landed into Bogwash Shree Rajneesh's sex 'n' drugs, orange zombie cult. Tim Clarke wound-up imprisoned in the ivory tower of academia, where he has spent fruitless years trying to unearth the historical origins of the society of the spectacle -- at the last count he had tracked it down to the late 19th century! Charles Radcliffe attempted to pre-empt current plans to legalise cannabis by a few years, and had the misfortune of being detained at Her Majesty's pleasure for his entrepreneurial foresight. Donald Nicholson-Smith was 'honoured' by a brief appearance in Guy Debord's film In Girum Imus Nocte et Consumimur Igni; unfortunately however, he appears just as the voice-over announces: "So many hasty journeys!" Although between travels he has found time to translate Raoul Vaneigem's The Revolution of Everyday Life and more recently, Debord's The Society of the Spectacle (which has the dubious merit of being approved by the author).