"There is finally no ordinary argument at all, only an unstoppable
recontextualization of anything an argument might touch. The
analysis is irrefutable not because it is true, any more than it is
refutable because it is false, but because it so happily use
private language to distort a public world."
- G.M. on the S.I.
"Don't need a cure / Need a final solution"
- Pere Ubu
PRECEDENCES
The Situationist International dismissed former member Alexander
Trocchi because he instigated Project Sigma and in so doing wound up
rubbing elbows with Allen Ginsberg, Colin Wilson, Timothy Leary, and
other "mystical cretins" (Debord's term).
CONCEPT
Detournement as practiced by the SI was never didactic. Its goal was
not to advocate the "right side" of the spectacle by ridiculing the
"wrong side" of the spectacle. Detournement was a means of
collapsing the entire spectacular society. To the SI, playing golf
at the club and marchin' in the peace rally were simply two sides of
the same spectacular coin.
In 2005, we are offered a watered-down, liberal guerilla media remix
culture with a formalistic sheen of detournement but none of its
underlying radicalism. Michael Moore, OutFoxed, flash mobs in
Wal-Mart, and of course The Guerilla News Network (
http://gnn.tv/videos/ ). GNN's "radicalism" is characterized by
Berkeley academicians propounding conspiracy theories over hip hop
breakbeats cheezily silhouetted in front of newsreel footage altered
by rave-ish, off-the-shelf After Effects filters. To Debord, these
kind of guerilla news scoops would be equivalent to blowing the
whistle on someone stealing from the cookie jar, when the real story
is that all the cookies have been poisoned. To me, the cheeky
didacticism of most GNN "media recontextualizations" – loops of Bush
stammering Bushisms set to a soundtrack of "Dueling Banjos" – makes
Adbusters seem subtle. Compared to Bruce Connor's film "Report" – a
simultaneously sympathetic, humorous, subtle, and profound
remix/collage/cut-up/deconstruction of the JFK assassination footage
–, GNN is simply part of the spectacle.
The following excerpt from the GNN FAQ is deliciously telling.
"GNN was co-founded by Stephen Marshall and Josh Shore in the summer
of 2000. The partners first joined forces at MTV (Josh had brought
Stephen in to consult on some radical television ideas for the
station) when they finally realized that the mainstream networks
would never allow their hi-impact brand of television content and
design to reach prime-time."
"Radical," "hi-impact brand" indeed! Read "Detournement Lite (TM) –
twice the taste at half the calories!" But Detournement Lite is no
detournement at all.
INSTRUCTIONS
Remix and reappropriate the videos at http://gnn.tv/videos/ in a way
that truly makes them disruptive. Shake them loose from their
didacticism, their preachiness, their morality, their context, their
sense, until they are turned in on themselves and glimpses of the
spectacle are revealed. In other words, detourn them. Put your
remixes on the web at a site called "The Godzilla News Network." Use
reamweaver ( http://www.reamweaver.com )to appropriate the design of
the GNN site and recontextualize it as you have the videos. Titling
is crucial.
+++++++
Hints:
1. Remix in footage from "Gorrilaz" videos ( http://www.gorillaz.com
) , because, you know, gorilla - guerilla.
2. Remix in footage of "King Kong vs. Godzilla," because Godzilla
rhymes with guerilla and gorilla, and King Kong is an ape. Also, the
monsters will be crushing the whole city, tearing it up. Focus more
on the collateral damage than on either King Kong or Godzilla. It's
not about the liberals vs. the conservatives, it's not about the
democrats/republicans vs. Noam Chomsky, it's not even about your new
Godzilla News Network vs. their old Guerilla News Network. It's
about the ashes from whence a phoenix may rise and begin its
spiralling slouch toward Bethlehem.
3. Move in the opposite spirit. To detourn a "hi-impact brand," you
need a slow impact pace. Leave in 5-minute-long periods of silence
and blankness (a la Debord's "Hurlements en faveur de Sade"). Eschew
hip-hop. Incorporate doo-wop. I'm partial to the Platter's "Only
You," but "Earth Angel" is perfectly acceptable.
4. Don't fall into the easy dis Bush trap. Draw your horns on the
head of Warhol soup cans; paint your pitchfork into the hands of
Ozzie Nelson. Bush is the quintessential iconic bogey, luring
millions of potentially disruptive heads into an almost involuntary,
hypnotic, knee-jerk vilification of himself. He is the polarizing
agent that coaxes "radical artists" into the spectacle. We become
that upon which we gaze. To oppose Bush above all else is not to
oppose the spectacle. It is to participate in the spectacle at a
most ramped-up, self-deluded level. (If even now you feel disdain
rising up in you and an irresistable desire to write a scathingly
indignant response to this post, it's probably too late for you.) He
who has ears, let him hear.
5. If your piece reads like a didactic critique of the GNN, you've
failed. If your piece reads like a holiday in the leopard cage
(replete with a ransom note from Leopold of Austria), your compass
begins to point Northwest.
+++++++
bon voyage,
curt