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Adétournement (French:[detuʁnəmɑ̃]), meaning "rerouting, hijacking" inFrench, is a technique developed in the 1950s by theLetterist International,[1] and later adapted by theSituationist International (SI),[2][3] that was defined in the SI's inaugural 1958 journal as "[t]he integration of present or past artistic productions into a superior construction of a milieu. In this sense there can be no situationist painting or music, but only a situationist use of those means. In a more elementary sense,détournement within the old cultural spheres is a method of propaganda, a method which reveals the wearing out and loss of importance of those spheres."[3][4]
The brand marketing specialist Douglas B. Holt defined it as "turning expressions of the capitalist system and itsmedia culture against itself".[5]
Détournement was prominently used to set up subversive political pranks, an influential tactic calledsituationist prank that was reprised by thepunk movement in the late 1970s[6] and inspired theculture jamming movement in the late 1980s.[5]
Its opposite isrecuperation, in which radical ideas or the social image of people who are viewed negatively are twisted, commodified, and absorbed in a more socially acceptable context.
In general it can be defined as a variation on previous work, in which the newly created work has a meaning that is antagonistic or antithetical to the original. The original media work that isdétourned must be somewhat familiar to the target audience, so that it can appreciate the opposition of the new message. The artist or commentator making the variation can reuse only some of the characteristic elements of the originating work.
Détournement is similar tosatiricalparody, but employs more direct reuse or faithfulmimicry of the original works rather than constructing a new work which merely alludes strongly to the original. It may be contrasted withrecuperation, in which originally subversive works and ideas are themselves appropriated by mainstream media. Détournement, on the other hand, makes it possible for the images produced by the spectacle get altered and subverted so that rather than supporting thestatus quo, their meaning becomes changed in order to put across a more radical or oppositional message.
Guy Debord andGil J. Wolman categorized détourned elements into two types:minor détournements anddeceptive détournements. Minor détournements are détournements of elements that in themselves are of no real importance such as a snapshot, a press clipping, an everyday object which draw all their meaning from being placed in a new context. Deceptive détournements are when already significant elements such as a major political or philosophical text, great artwork or work of literature take on new meanings or scope by being placed in a new context.[7] For Debord, a détournement is a way to expose explicitly the inner workings of the objective reality of the Spectacle, thus creating a window for criticism.[8]
In the United States,Frank Discussion is widely known for his use of détournement in his works dating from the late 1970s through the present, particularly with theFeederz. The use of détournement byBarbara Kruger familiarised many with the technique, and it was extensively and effectively used as part of the earlyHIV/AIDS activism of the late 1980s and early 1990s.[9] Examples of contemporary detournement includeAdbusters' "subvertisements" and other instances ofculture jamming, as well as poems composed collaboratively byMarlene Mountain,Paul Conneally, and others, in which quotations from such famous sources as theTen Commandments and quotations byUnited States PresidentGeorge W. Bush are combined with haiku-like phrases to produce a larger work intended to subvert the original source. The comic artistBrad Neely's reinterpretation ofHarry Potter,Wizard People, tookWarner Bros.' first Harry Potter film,The Sorcerer's Stone, and substituted the original soundtrack with a narration that casts the hero as aNietzscheansuperman.
The concept of detournement has had a popular influence amongst contemporary radicals, and the technique can be seen in action in the present day when looking at the work ofCulture Jammers including theCacophony Society,Billboard Liberation Front,monochrom, Occupy Movements[10] andAdbusters, whose "subvertisements" "detourn"Nike adverts, for example. In this case, the original advertisement's imagery is altered in order to draw attention to said company's policy of shifting their production base to cheap-labour third-world "free trade zones". From the late 1970s to the early 1990s health campaigners operating under the name of BUGA-UP (Billboard Utilising Graffitists Against Unhealthy Promotions) revised hundreds of tobacco and alcohol industry billboards around Australia to include satirical and condemnatory messages.[11] However, the line between "recuperation" and "détournement" can become thin (or at least very fuzzy) at times, asNaomi Klein points out in her bookNo Logo. Here she details howcorporations such as Nike,Pepsi or Diesel have approached Culture Jammers and Adbusters and offered them lucrative contracts in return for partaking in "ironic" promotional campaigns. She points out further irony by drawing attention to merchandising produced in order to promote Adbusters'Buy Nothing Day, an example of the recuperation of détournement if ever there was one.
Klein's arguments about ironyreifying rather than breaking down power structures are echoed bySlavoj Žižek. Žižek argues that the kind of distance opened up by détournement is the condition of possibility for ideology to operate: by attacking and distancing oneself from the sign-systems of capital, the subject creates a fantasy of transgression that "covers up" their actual complicity with capitalism as an overarching system. In contrast, scholars are very fond of pointing out the differences betweenhypergraphics, "detournement", thepostmodern idea ofappropriation and theNeoist use ofplagiarism as the use of different and similar techniques used for different and similar means, effects and causes.
TheNeue Slowenische Kunst has a long history of aggressive détournement of extreme political ideologies, as do severalindustrial music groups, such asDie Krupps,Nitzer Ebb,KMFDM, andFront 242.
Chris Morris uses détournement andculture jamming extensively in his work, particularly in the British television seriesThe Day Today andBrass Eye.
In advertising, a détournement (détournement publicitaire in French) is almost likesubvertising, except that the goal of a détournement is to promote a product by mocking the way another one is promoted. In October 2023,Netflix used the advertising visual style of luxury jewelry brands but with models that were obviously missing those jewels, a trick to promote the seriesLupin.[12][13] In 2012,Sixt made a détournement ofFrançois Hollande's presidential campaign for a billboard ad.[14]
Naomi Klein describes this as a récuperation of détournement. In Debord's words, in the case of advertising, the détournement reverses the Spectacle, and in doing so becomes the Spectacle. Examples includeSprite'sImage is nothing, Nike's 1997 campaign slogan 'I am not/A target market/I am an athlete', andColin Kaepernick'sTaking the knee Nike campaign.[8]
Intégration de productions actuelles ou passées des arts dans une construction supérieure du milieu. Dans ce sens il ne peut y avoir de peinture ou de musique situationniste, mais un usage situationniste de ces moyens. Dans un sens plus primitif, le détournement à l'intérieur des sphères culturelles anciennes est une méthode de propagande, qui témoigne de l'usure et de la perte d'importance de ces sphères.
...gioco al complotto, alla manipolazione dei media, alla beffa, alla "grande truffa," o aldetournement – inventato dai situazionisti e ripreso dai punk – che appunto del situazionismo sono talvolta concreti continuatori. Pensiamo in questo senso al fin troppo noto caso, esagerato dai media, ma paradigmatico, del manager dei Sex Pistols,Malcolm McLaren, a partire dal quale, nell'estate del 1977, si scatenò, con grande scandalo, il lancio del gruppo dei Pistols in pieno Giubileo della regina, e l'interesse della stampa per la nascente scena punk. Tuttavia, anche in questo caso non si tratta, come invece è stato spesso sostenuto, di freddo "gioco a tavolino", di cinismo, di furbo lancio di un prodotto da parte di chi aveva studiato i media e lavorava sulla guerriglia semiologica (cfr. Fabbri P. 2002, p.40), di una tattica che sarebbe poi stata facilmente sfruttata e fatta propria da quel momento in avanti dall'industria culturalemainstream.
Détournement of Bronzed Historical Icons adorns imaginary John Harvard with a Guy Fawkes mask
The dictionary definition ofdétournement at Wiktionary
Media related toDétournement at Wikimedia Commons
