Making the Most of a Spectacular Situation

How to beat the Machine? By throwing wrenches & pies, by illuminating lies.

Detournment

“… we have to defend ourselves against the poetry of the bard of conditioning – to jam their messages, to turn their songs inside out. - Raoul Vaneigem, the poet of the Situationist Internal.

Media manipulations are not directed to rational analysis but at unconscious association links. Break those chains and expose their occult existence. For example, do kids consciously notice Nintendo’s message that Mario gains extra lives by collecting coins?

Examples – Adbusters’ subvertisements. A Gap ad – “Hitler wore khakis”. The Barbie Liberation Organization switching the voiceboxes between Barbie, “Vengence is mine!” and G.I. Joe, “Let’s go shopping! and returning them to the stores. Billboard Liberation. WRITE ON $$$

Dérive

Explore a City outside of the ruts our schedules wear us into Take a trip, without acid in your veins.

"One of the basic situationist practices is the dérive [“drifting”], a technique of rapid passage through varied ambiances. Dérives involve playful-constructive behavior and awareness of psychogeographical effects, and are thus quite different from the classic notions of journey or stroll." - Guy Debord, strategist of S.I.

– parties of 2 or 3 are recommended with the ideal time being a “day” or the time between sleep periods.

Guerilla Protest

Imitate signs slightly changing them. Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea’s Illuminatus Trilogy’s minor character Markoff Cheney changing signs to “No Smoking. No Spitting. The MGT.” Have mock arguments in public on a cellphone. Spray an pungent alcohol solution of the essence of marijuana on City Hall & Stations. Have a vomit-in to show how you are feeling. Threaten to kill a puppy to protest war. Mail poop. In 60s Japan Sohyo unions and the Zengakuren hundreds of thousands strong went to the legislature and performed a mass urination forced President Eisenhower to cancel his visit. Put “I’m Changing the Climate! Ask me how!” bumper stickers on SUVs. Forge spam e-mail from prominent companies. Return pre-postage paid junk mail envelopes full of craft store sparkles that are awful to clean. For a grand example:

Between 1950 and 1952, a bored weatherman, stationed north of Hudson Bay, left a monument that neither government nor time can eradicate. Using a bulldozer abandoned by the Air Force, he spent two years and great effort pushing boulders into a single word. It can be seen from 10,000 feet, silhouetted against the snow. Government officials exchanged memos full of circumlocutions (no Latin equivalent exists) but failed to word an appropriation bill for the destruction of this cairn, that wouldn’t alert the press and embarrass both Parliament and Party. It stands today, a monument to human spirit. If life exists on other planets, this may be the first message received from us. -

- The Realist, November, 1964.

Modest Proposals

Hyperbolically propose extreme positions.

Examples - Jonathon Swift advocating eating Irish children. The Arm the Homeless program. The Organization of Corporations Against Cooperation staged a protest against small business is favor of giant corporations. Governmental advocation of barcode/tracker implementation in babies and schoolchildren.

Hoax Hooliganism

People who live in delusion can rarely discern what is really true. So lie and lie big. Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds. Learn from governmental disinformation procedures

Poetic terrorism

“I do my part behind the lines swabbing handles of cop cars with D.M.S.O. mixed with L.S.D.” – Jello Biafra

Best described by Hakim Bey, author of the highly recommended TAZ – Temporary Autonomous Zone:

Weird dancing in all-night computer-banking lobbies. Unauthorized pyrotechnic displays. Land-art, earth-works as bizarre alien artifacts strewn in State Parks. Burglarize houses but instead of stealing, leave Poetic-Terrorist objects. Kidnap someone & make them happy. Pick someone at random & convince them they're the heir to an enormous, useless & amazing fortune--say 5000 square miles of Antarctica, or an aging circus elephant, or an orphanage in Bombay, or a collection of alchemical manuscipts. Later they will come to realize that for a few moments they believed in something extraordinary, & will perhaps be driven as a result to seek out some more intense mode of existence….

The audience reaction or aesthetic-shock produced by PT ought to be at least as strong as the emotion of terror-- powerful disgust, sexual arousal, superstitious awe, sudden intuitive breakthrough, dada-esque angst--no matter whether the PT is aimed at one person or many, no matter whether it is "signed" or anonymous, if it does not change someone's life (aside from the artist) it fails.

Thanks to the Surrealists, Dadaists, Situationist International, Merry Pranksters, Lettrists, Yippies, Discordians, Cacophonists & many others for all the smiles.