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A sexy book for a sexy movement… This is a beautifully written, exciting and broad study, one that may perhaps become a definitive introduction to the SI for many. --Christopher Collier, Mute Magazine
Wark's readable explanation of the movement's ideas [...] is the best I have read. --Edwin Heathcote, Financial Time
Fascinating. --Jonathan Derbyshire, Guardian
Wark's readable explanation of the movement's ideas [...] is the best I have read. --Edwin Heathcote, Financial Time
Fascinating. --Jonathan Derbyshire, Guardian
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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, Michele 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.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is another Verso classic: Wark presents a readable but still highly informative and original insight into the life and times of the Situationist International. What I found most interesting is that, unlike much of the other SI criticism out there, Wark does not dwell too predominantly on Guy Debord - instead, he considers other members like Lefebvre etc., which made this a refreshing take. Overall, a very enjoyable read - scholarly and fun - I definitely recommend it!
4 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Just arrived today and I have read 30 pages...
This is a sublime work of research, writing and creativity.
I can smell Paris reading it and am excited and inspired by the content.
This is a sublime work of research, writing and creativity.
I can smell Paris reading it and am excited and inspired by the content.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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4 reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
A fresh dérive through Situationism vital to transformative artists and thinkers alike
22 Sep 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
A remarkably well researched yet fresh dérive through and around the Situationists, Wark uncovers formerly found beaches that have been strangely re-covered and forgotten. The illumination of the remarkably contemporary works of Jorn, de Jong and Lefabvre, for instance, remind an awaiting generation of a remarkable unexplored place that awaits for us to throw off our shoes and come play in the sand.
Given Wark's opening preface and closing hopefulness, "Beach Beneath the Street" only leaves me encouraged that we will see further efforts from Wark moving forward from this connection, taking us into the potentiality and energy that awaits beyond these re-opened spaces. With an increasing recognition that critique is exhausted and the post-modern tradition empty of transformative potential, Wark's historical exploration of the radical aesthetic potentiality is a necessary reading for those artists and transformative thinkers who are looking for a vital, hopeful path forward.
Given Wark's opening preface and closing hopefulness, "Beach Beneath the Street" only leaves me encouraged that we will see further efforts from Wark moving forward from this connection, taking us into the potentiality and energy that awaits beyond these re-opened spaces. With an increasing recognition that critique is exhausted and the post-modern tradition empty of transformative potential, Wark's historical exploration of the radical aesthetic potentiality is a necessary reading for those artists and transformative thinkers who are looking for a vital, hopeful path forward.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Occupy WallStreet Heritage
12 Dec 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
The Occupy WallStreet movemnet did not spring up from thin air. There is a movement behind the movemnet, and it started in Paris, May 1968. In fact 1968 was a year of global protest just like 2011. There were protests in Mexico, where a number of students were shot and killed, there were protests in UC Berkley, the free speech movement, in Columbia University, New York, in Italy. The intellectual cutting edge of these protests were the Situationists International,guided by Guy Debord, author of THE SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE.
Well we still live in the society of the spectacle, especially with reality TV. So if you want to get a good backgound to today,s protests, you should read this book. McKenzie Wark does an excellent job of sorting out the Situationist, their ideas and practice, and it was not just Guy Debord who guided them. This book also makes you want to search out other source material, but to make it even better, it has a cool dust jacket that folds out into a poster that gives a great visual aid in sorting out this vanguard group.
Well we still live in the society of the spectacle, especially with reality TV. So if you want to get a good backgound to today,s protests, you should read this book. McKenzie Wark does an excellent job of sorting out the Situationist, their ideas and practice, and it was not just Guy Debord who guided them. This book also makes you want to search out other source material, but to make it even better, it has a cool dust jacket that folds out into a poster that gives a great visual aid in sorting out this vanguard group.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
The Single Best Secondary Resource on the Situationist International
21 Nov 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
McKenzie Wark's The Beach Beneath The Streets was an amazing resource for my research on the Situationists. As a history major at Humboldt State University, I found this book by chance during my research for my senior thesis on the S.I. Not only does Wark display a vast knowledge of the S.I. (and practically anything relating to them) he doesn't let Situationist ideas die on the page; rather, Wark shows how they are alive and well in the world today. My favorite part of the book is his thorough investigation into S.I. members OTHER than Debord and Vanegeim-New Babylon, Industrial Painting, Project Sigma- what a wonderful introduction for me. All of these ideas seem closer to the Zeitgeist Movement, than what I originally had associated with the S.I. Buy this book, open your mind, and change the world.
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