Guy Debord: A User's Guide to Detournement

As a barely educated designer/artist I love learning how many techniques are not just happenstance, but are techniques that have been studies and defined.

I have always found it mesmerizing when art, advertisements, and cinema reference works or events in pop culture, not to justify their work but to enhance it by adding extra levels of meaning. Little did I know that this is called detournement. Guy Debord encourages artist to take elements from anywhere to make new works. He is not encouraging plagiarism or mere remixing but to use the borrowed material in a new way to elevate your designs.

In the reading it seems as detournment was a popular tool for propaganda.  In modern times I witness detournment in music cinema, television and printed materials. In a sense it could be viewed as propaganda as detournment is a way for the artist to propel their message further.  Personally, as I learn the definitions of detournment, I see it as a subjective tool as well.  For example, with deceptive detournment we are relying on the viewer to  know the work we are referencing, and we are relying that their  interpretation of the referenced work is the same as ours.  That subjective ambiguity allows for viewer to ponder the meaning of the work at hand thus making it more interesting.

A User’s Guide to Détournement - Samuel Gallardo

Ok so my understanding of this topic isn't to great if i'm completely honest. In my opinion it is OK to take something already made and continue to add on it in order to achieve a goal. The goal should be to either make the piece better or to make alterations to make it have a different meaning / story.
Simply taking someones work and not giving credit isn't just wrong but can lead to big negative actions taken against you. And if you are inspired by a piece than justify where your intentions came from and not just say here's my work now take it.

Rich but poor. my sec project.

rich but poor

Detournement

Detournement which is a french word means, avoiding, changing ways, or something like, running away from something. for example, while filming, something that we didn't plan comes on and what to do is to try to avoid. we call it detourner.  what i understand from the reading is, sometimes while making detournement, we come across interesting things.

Narrative

To me, it's most interesting story. old or new.  i love my narrative stories. and i always think of making a movie using them. in africa for example; people live according to narrative stories. through them, they learn from old one's mistakes and on...

Metaphor of vision

The reading is to make filmmakers understand how to think and view in a new way. what i really liked was the way stan explains explains a way of how to become inspired just by modifying another one's idea. which is somehow plagiarism lol

kino eye

The camera plays a huge role here. it's like a mechanical eye. it's showing and records things that a human eye can not. using tech, it's can be positioned in different angles to show the scene. 

Détournement as a philosophy and artistic style

By Nancy C. Harris

Based on the four basic principles of détournement, as proposed by Guy Debord & Gil Wolman in their text “A User’s Guide to Détournement” (originally published in the Belgian surrealist journal Les Lèvres Nues #8. May, 1956), this style could represent the most meaningful vehicle of proletarian artistic education thanks to its applications and the wide range of elements of which it can make use.

Translated from French, détournement means deflection, diversion, rerouting, distortion, misuse, misappropriation, hijacking or otherwise turning something aside from its normal cause or purpose. This connotation roughly explains this artistic style that doubles as a philosophy that pursues a change of paradigms in a primarily capitalist world.  

In order to produce a piece through détournement, “it is necessary to eliminate all remnants of the notion of personal property,” which allows the use of materials or elements from other authors to create new combinations that “alter the meaning of those fragments in any appropriate way.”

According to Debord & Wolman,” there are two types of détournement elements: Minor détournement and Deceptive détournement.

Minor détournement is the manipulation of an object that by itself has no relevance and, therefore, draws a whole different meaning based on the new context in which it has been placed, for instance, a picture of a politician on a toilet lid cover.

Deceptive détournement is the use of an “intrinsically significant element”, which derives a completely diverse connotation drawn from the new context, for example, when you employ St. Francis of Assisi’s Prayer as a background for a film that reenacts the crusades from the 13^th century.

“A User’s Guide to Détournement” also identifies the following four basic principles:

1)      It is the most distant détournement element which contributes to most sharply to the overall impression, and not the elements that directly determine the nature of this impression.

2)      The distortions introduced in the detourned elements must be as simplified as possible, since the main impact of a détournement is directly related to the conscious or semiconscious recollection of the original contexts of the elements.

3)      Détournement is less effective the more it approaches a rational reply.

4)      Détournement by simply reversal is always the most direct and the least effective.

It is worth mentioning that the authors of this text had a very passionate pursuit for equality, and their philosophical efforts were inclined towards the strengthening of communism, or socialism. It was their belief that the spread of détournement would have propagandistic benefits and eventually would develop into an enlightened society where art, intellectualism, and philosophy were all part of a dialogue in which all individuals are engaged.

Debord & Wolman also think that, from all forms of art, cinema is the discipline that would profit better from détournement and achieve its greatest beauty, due to the endless possibilities that the combination of its elements has to offer. In my opinion, these thinkers were strongly ahead of their time when they came to that conclusion, considering that the introduction of digital video added a whole new layer of complexity to détournement in films.

* “A User’s Guide to Détournement.” Translation by Ken Knabb from the Situationist International Anthology (Revised and Expanded Edition, 2006) No copyright.

User's guide to detournement

Detournement, while slightly avoid the direct meaning, can lead to new discovery. However, detournement should not be vaguely used.