Situationist International vs Archigrama battle of the narrative

Week 8 AAHTS 3 / Architectural Coupling + 1

[excerpt] Towards a New Architecture, 1923 by Le Corbusier

“Without plan there can be neither grandeur of aim and expression, nor rhythm, nor mass, nor coherence. Without plan we have the sensation, so insupportable to man, of shapelessness, of poverty, of disorder, of wilfulness. A plan calls for the most active imagination. It calls for the most severe discipline also. The plan is what determines everything; it is the decisive moment.” [quote] Towards a New Architecture, 1923 by Le Corbusier[image] Plan Voisin, 1925 by Le Corbusier

[image] Plan Voisin detail, 1925 by Le Corbusier

[images] covers of L’Esprit Nouveau, 1919-24 by Le Corbusier

[image] Pavillion L’Esprit Nouveau, 1925 by Le Corbusier

[image] members of CIAM at CIAM I in La Sarraz, Switzerland, 1928

[image] members of CIAM at CIAM I “playing about”, 1928

[above] cover of Athens Charter, 1943 published by Le Corbusier

[above] Cafe Notre-Dame, where CoBrA was founded[right] founding members of CoBrA - Constant and Asger Jorn amongst others

“In this period of change, the role of the creative artist can only be that of the revolutionary: it is his duty to destroy the last remnants of an empty, irksome aesthetic, arousing the creative instincts still slumbering unconscious in the human mind.

The masses, brought up with aesthetic conventions imposed from without, are as yet unaware of their creative potential.

This will be stimulated by an art which does not define but suggests, by the arousal of associations and the speculations which come forth from them, creating a new and fantastic way of seeing.”

[above] Manifesto of the Dutch Experimental Group by Constant published 1948 in Reflex #1

[right] To Us, Liberty by Constant, 1949

[top] cover of Reflex[bottom] scan of CoBRa Journal cover

“...buildings must not be squalid or anonymous, neither should they be show pieces from a museum; rather they must commune with each other, integrate with the environment to create synthesised ‘cities’ for a new socialist world.”

[above] Except from Towards a Symbolic Architecture by Michel Colle published 1948 in CoBrA journal #1[image] drawings from Corbusier’s Radiant City

[above left] image from 1923 London edition by Harry Clarke[above right] a 1943 etching by Fritz Eichenberg

The Man of the Crowd, 1840 by Edgar Allen Poe

[above] Hackney, That Rose-red Empire: A Confidential Report, 2009 by Iain Sinclair

Looking for ... a symbiosis potentialities freedomEvoking ... wandering authenticity a new way of seeing desiresBy way of ... the individual (in the city)

[image] map of Paris, 1952 by Guy Debord

Letterist International - faction of Letterist Group

Letterist Group - formed by Isidore Isou in Paris in the 1940sLetterist Internationl - formed by Guy Debord in Paris in 1952

[image] a photograph taken by Isidore Isou of himself in Paris

“On the bases of this mobile civilization, architecture will, at least initially, be a means of experimenting with a thousand ways of modifying life, with a view to an ultimate [...] synthesis.”

[above] quote from Formulary for a New Urbanism, 1953, Ivan Chtcheglov[left] Prison or Death for the Young, 1950 by Ivan Chtcheglov[below] Ivan Chtcheglov

Psychogeography is“... the study of precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organised or not, on the emotions and behaviours of individuals”

[above] definition of psychogeography, 1955 by Guy Debord, developed from Ivan Ctcheglov’s wrting

[left] plotting of a student’s trajectories over one year in Paris by Paul-Henri Chombart de Lauwe

[left] Letterist Group

[right] CoBrA

[left] Letterist International

[right] International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus

[below] Situationist International (SI) [1957]

slide with all of the texts of SI

[image] graph of the texts of the SItuationist International

Theory of the Dérive by Guy Debord questioned how to remove ourselves from the rigidity of our daily lives, paths, behaviours and seeked how to enable the narratives of our daily lives to become flexible, authentic, with a sense of awareness

[above] published in 1958 in International Situationniste #2[image] a scene from Guy Debord’s 1961 film Society of the Spectacle

dérive (verb)to float, drift, drifting (from the French)

it is similiar to the Letterist term détourement (a subversive act) and is key in the construction of situations, or moments of rupture with everyday life

“a technique of rapid passage through various ambiances [...] involves playful-constructive behaviour and an awareness of psychogeographical effects...”

[quote] “Theory of the Derive” by Guy Debord published in 1958 in International Situationniste #2[image] Guy Debord long exposure, smoking

[image] Psychogeographic Map of Paris, 1955 by Guy Debord

It could be continuous like the poker game in Las Vegas, but only for a certain period, limited to a weekend for some people, to a week as a good average; a month is really pushing it. In 1953-1954 we dérived for three or four months straight. That’s the extreme limit. It’s a miracle it didn’t kill us.

[excerpt] from a letter from Ivan Chtcheglov to Guy Debord in 1963, reprinted in Internationale Situationniste #9

[image] The Naked City, 1958 by Guy Debord & Asger Jorn

“On the bases of this mobile civilization, architecture will, at least initially, be a means of experimenting with a thousand ways of modifying life, with a view to an ultimate [...] synthesis.”

[excerpt] Formulary for a New Urbanism, 1950 by Ivan Chtcheglov

Guy Debord & Asger Jorn interpreted as

meaning architecture that exists, ie the city

Constant interpreted as meaning architecture that can be constructed

Unitary urbanism – a synthesis of art and technology must be constructed

[above] called for Gil J. Wolman, 1957[image] collage by Gil J. Wolman, 1950s

Guy Debordfocused on content

via the dérive

Constant had a structural approach

vs

[image] Life Continues to be Free and Easy by Guy Debord, 1959 - gift to Constant

[image] Amsterdam Municipal Orphanage, 1955-1960 by Aldo van Eyck

[image] cover of Potlatch #3 with drawing of Alison and Peter Smithson’s Golden Lane Project, 1953 as it appeared for CIAM 9

[images] New Bablyon over parts of England by Constant

[image] Space Travel, 1957 by Constant

[images] Nebulous Machine wire constructions, 1958 by Constant

[image] New Babylon collaged over existing city by Constant

[image] New Babylon collaged over a region by Constant

[image] New Babylon - autonomous from ground by Constant

[images] New Babylon as a new map by Constant

[images] models of New Babylon by Constant

[image] New Babylon collage - view from the ground by Constant

[images] inside New Babylon being transformed by Constant

[images] Archigram in the 1960s - Peter Cook, David Greene, Mike Webb, Ron Herron, Warren Chalk, and Dennis Crompton - and again in the 1990s in the AA Library

[images] pages of Archigram 1 from 1961 - broadsheet published by Archigram

[image] Archigram 2 cover

[top] pages of Dream City project, 1963 by David Greene and Michael Webb[left] compared to New Babylon by Constant, the suspended city

[left] cover of Archigram 3 - Expendable Architecture[right] cover of Archigram 4 - Amazing Archigram Zoom

[above] Plug-in City 1962-64 developed by Peter Cook and Dennis Crompton

[above] Plug-in City 1962-64 developed by Peter Cook and Dennis Crompton - office and housing units for Charing Cross Road

“The term “city” is used as a collective, the project being a portmanteau for several ideas, and does not necessarily imply a replacement of known cities.”

[excerpt] from Peter Cook’s writing on Plug-in City, from Westminster’s Archigram Archival Project Online

Thank you. (Peter Cook at Thrilling Wonder Series in 2009 - 5 t-shirts in 30 min)