Week 4: Reading 01 - Politics and The Situationist International

The reading ‘Politics and The Situationist International’ by Edward Winters, analyses the approach in which architects and artists take to create objects of aesthetic value in a world dominated by consumerism; a world advertisements define what is beautiful and urban society is blindlessly brainwashed by the mass media.

One of the terms specifically discussed in the reading is Dérive.

Dérive;

In psychogeography, a dérive is an unplanned journey through a landscape, usually urban, on which the subtle aesthetic contours of the surrounding architecture and geography subconsciously direct the travellers, with the ultimate goal of encountering an entirely new and authentic experience.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9rive

The theory is that our urban landscape has changed in such a way that the process of “Dérive” no longer occurs. I interpreted this as meaning the natural process in which humans move through the urban landscape, discovering it unconsciously by aspects that draw us through an experimental experiential journey can no longer occur involuntarily with the pollution of urban society by the mass media to blame.

Considering the reading, I think the question “How can artists and designers create work in a world dominated by consumerism?” is a valid question worth asking. What happens when we are told what we need and what we want, which then begins to affect our values and behaviour? Our actions are no longer intuitive; our needs are no longer intrinsic.

I believe aesthetics, values, needs and wants are subjective and constantly changing as we move through life but this natural process of change and evolution is disrupted by the pollution of our minds by the media. So what happens when society is told what they need and what is beautiful?

Our current research for our proposed future for Paddington is rather idealistic. We are focusing on a sustainable, zero carbon, self-sufficient community but in retrospect, following reading of this article, is this future possible? In order for the scenario that we will be proposing to become a reality, it must be one absent of media brainwashing and consumerist dominance. I believe this future is possible, however, the question now is, how do we eradicate these pitfalls from society now? This is something that should be researched further and included in our timeline.