détournement is an artistic practice, first developed by the Letterist International and adopted by the Situationists, that utilizes preexisting cultural artifacts and repurposes them into something intended to draw attention to the contradictions of the original production’s milieu. it is a form of artistic propaganda that turns the language of bourgeois society against itself. to even contemplate détournement as a viable artistic project in 2023 is a little quaint: a common example mentioned as counterargument is how graphic designers at AdBusters often wound up working for the very advertising agencies they lampooned.
I’m not someone who wants to give up the game so easily. the oscillation between subversion and reification is just that: an oscillation. anyone who thinks that avenues of refusal, rebellion, and resistance have been permanently sealed by the coronation of neoliberal capitalism is only spinning Francis Fukuyama’s End of History into a scolding leftist critique.
that being said, I’m also not someone who believes art ought to be propaganda. this is the position held by Debord and Wolman in their essay “A User’s Guide to Détournement”. as I often like to say to myself, I’m not an activist, I’m an artist: think what you will of that. nonetheless, I reserve more disdain for nihilist aesthetes than I do for anyone who views art as a vehicle for ideology, so I’m interested in methods for artistic production that are engaged in some kind of political or moral struggle. but I reserve the right to leave you guessing what exactly I believe. my sympathies should be obvious enough.
anyway, revisiting the Debord/Wolman essay, I got some ideas for my own projects, but more interestingly, I was reminded of one of the few “content creators” I truly admire: jinx.
he repurposes clips from films, news footage, pop songs, wikipedia articles, and internet ephemera–the cultural material of networked capitalism–into provocative political education of an alternate history, with the intention of estranging the viewer from preconceived notions. he’s also very funny, if sometimes offensive.
my original thought was to talk more about this, but I’m not that interested in doing, idk, critical theory or art analysis or whatever. then I wanted to post the Tim Russert edit but trying to find specific jinx edits is nearly impossible.
Détournement is less effective the more it approaches a rational reply
Guy Debord & Gil J Wolman
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