Product Description

"It is a pleasure to see a work that situates the Situationists. Sadler has performed a necessary and welcome corrective to our understanding of this strange but endearing crew." -- Adam Sweeting, American Book Review

"This concise and clearly written work shines light on. . . this intriguing and increasingly influential `hidden' avant-garde." -- John Held, Jr., San Francisco Bay Guardian

From 1957 to 1972, the artistic and political movement known as the Situationist International (SI) worked aggressively to subvert the conservative ideology of the Western world. The movement's broadside attack on "establishment" institutions and values left its mark upon the libertarian left, the counterculture, the revolutionary events of 1968, and more recent phenomena from punk to postmodernism. In this book Simon Sadler investigates the artistic, architectural, and cultural theories that were once the foundations of Situationist thought, particularly as they applied to the form of the modern city.

Simon Sadler searches for the Situationist City among the detritus of tracts, manifestoes, and works of art that the SI left behind. The book is divided into three parts. The first, "The Naked City," outlines the Situationist critique of the urban environment as it then existed. The second, "Formulary for a New Urbanism," examines Situationist principles for the city and for city living. The third, "A New Babylon," describes actual designs proposed for the Situationist City.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #561598 in Books
• Published on: 1999-07-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 245 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780262692250
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Review
"It is a pleasure to see a work that situates the Situationists. Sadler has performed a necessary and welcome corrective to our understanding of this strange but endearing crew."
— Adam Sweeting, American Book Review

"This concise and clearly written work shines light on. . . this intriguing and increasingly influential 'hidden' avant-garde."
— John Held, Jr., San Francisco Bay Guardian

About the Author
Simon Sadler is a lecturer in the Department of the History of Art, Trinity College, Dublin.

Customer Reviews

Longing for the ludic
An excellent book, within the constraints the author sets for himself, to deal primarily with what could ahistorically, but reasonably be called "situationist" architecture and architectural theory. There is no doubt the book makes bored, sensitive fellows like myself want to go out and do something to keep these insane transformational ideas alive and working in culture. I'd love to have a list of all the other bored people, we could have a big party.

the worst
You could hardly find a greater betrayal of the Situationist movement in all of its aspects, than this book, which translates a chaotic, exciting and iconoclastic movement into a boring and platitudinous addition to the obligatory academic discourse about everything.

Throw this thing in the trash, don't even resell it, certainly don't donate it to any charities or libraries. Go right now instead and find "The Situationist International: A User's Guide" by Simon Ford, you won't regret it. I swear to God I am not lying and I have no institutional or other affiliation that would conflict with this judgment.

...
I can't say I enjoyed this at all. Unles you're heavily into aesthetics and understand most of the avante-garde terms, you're not going to make any sense of this. The book was overly pretentious and I couldn't burden myself to finish it. It's not at all what you'd expect, and the synopsis is misleading.

Get the book Guy Debord and the Situationist International instead. Guy Debord was part of the Lettrist International, which founded alot of the psycho-geographical ideas. I guarantee it'll be a more interesting read than this.