London Psychogeographical Association – Newsletter [1995-2000]

London Psychogeographical Association. London Psychogeographical Association Newsletter. London, UK: East London Section of the London Psychogeographical Society, 1995-2000. 21 x 29.5 cm.; B&W ill.; plain white paper with text printed in black.

The London Psychogeographical Association (LPA) was originally founded by Ralph Rumney in 1957, but never disbanded. In the 1990s, Fabian Tompsett (under the pseudonym of Richard Essex), resurrected the long-dormant group as the LPA East London Section. Like Transgressions and the Manchester Psychogeographical Association – which were also active around the same time – the LPA rejected the orthodox Situationist vision of psychogeography, engaging instead in “Magico-marxism” and similar approaches. Beyond its publications, the LPA sponsored psychogeographical trips, which were advertised in its newsletter. Although it has been inactive since 2000, the LPA maintains a website at http://www.unpopular.demon.co.uk/lpa/organisations/lpa.html. A few issues from the newsletter can be found there.

LPA newsletters are rare, with only 3 OCLC full sets (National Library of Scotland, British Library, Oxford) and one partial set (NYU – issues 1,2,7). We have in our possession issues 9,11,13 and 14. No known issues in the trade.

Situationistisk Revolution 1-3 [2013 Reprint]

[Situationistisk International] Situationistisk Revolution. Copenhagen: After Hand Archive, 2003. 24 x 16 cm; B&W illustrations throughout; brown covers with text printed in black

The Scandinavian section of the S.I. published 3 issues of their review from 1962 to 1970: Situationistisk Revolution 1, NY-Irrealisme – Operation Playtime (originally intended as a supplement to Situationistisk Revolution 2, but which ended up serving as the actual issue), and Situationistisk Revolution 3.

Martin was the editor of all three issues, with contributions from Michele Bernstein, Guy Debord, Attila Kotanya, Uwe Lausen, Raoul Vaneigem, Alexander Trocchi and Rene Vienet. Texts published were a mix of translations from Internationale Situationniste and originals.

Earlier posts on this blog reproduce the covers (and some content) from all three issues. However, the originals have become extremely scarce. After Hand has done researchers (and Situ-philes) a great favor by releasing this high-quality fac-simile edition of Situationistisk Revolution. More details can be found at http://afterhand.blogspot.dk/2013/06/situationistisk-internationale.html

The Situationist International – Syllabus (Jean Marie Apostolides)

 

[Apostolides, Jean-Marie] The Situationist International: Syllabus. n.p. [Palo Alto CA, USA]: self-published, n.d. [2001]. 10 p.; 21 x 29.5 cm.; stapled white sheets with text in black

Syllabus of a course on the Situationist International taught by Jean-Marie Apostolides at Stanford University in Winter 2001-2002. “The purpose of this class is to introduce students to the history of the Situationist movement and to permit them to read the major texts…This class will not speak for or against the situationists themselves; it will rather bring to the students an objective knowledge and a clear understanding of their social, political, artistic and philosophical positions” (p.1)

The syllabus is divided into five parts: I) Introduction to the course; II) Reading List (includes texts by Debord, Vaneigem and Greil Marcus); III) Course’s Plan; IV) Evaluation; and V) Selected Bibliography. This last part is sub-divided into three sections: A. Pre, pro, post-SI and Situationist texts; B. Secondary Sources on the Situationists (includes texts by Agamben, Blanchard, Bourseiller, Bracken,Guegan, Jappe, Marcus, Martos, Plant, Voyer…); and C. Around the Situationist Movement (with texts by Bounan, Clark, Moinet, Wolman…)

Currently a Professor at Stanford University, Jean-Marie Apostolides is both a friend of Debord and a scholar of the SI. He is the author of Les Tombeaux de Guy Debord and the play Il faut construire l’hacienda. Apostolides has also undertaken a study of “minor” figures of the Situationist and Lettrist movement. As such, he is the author of the first biography of the Lettrist Ivan Chtcheglov (Ivan Chtcheglov, profil perdu) and edited his texts (Chtcheglovm Ecrits Retrouves). He also edited several books on Patrick Straram (also known as Le Bison Ravi): Les bouteilles se couchent, la veuve blanche et noire un peu détournée; and  Lettre à Guy Debord. Several of Apostolides’ self-published writings on the SI have been published under a pseudonym.

 

 

NY-Irrealisme – Specialudgave Situationistisk Revolution 2 [1967]

[Situationistisk International] NY-Irrealisme (det fjerde riges undergang og fald). Specialudgave Situationistisk Revolution 2. Øster Tørslev (Denmark) : Situationistisk International, March 1967. Pamphlet. 16 p.; ill.; 22 x 15 cm; gold-colored metallic cover with text printed in black.

The Scandinavian section of the S.I. published 3 issues of their review from 1962 to 1970. Martin was the editor of all three issues, with contributions from Michele Bernstein, Guy Debord, Attila Kotanya, Uwe Lausen, Raoul Vaneigem, Alexander Trocchi and Rene Vienet. Texts published were a mix of translations from Internationale Situationniste and originals.

NY-Irrealisme (Operation “Playtime”)  is a rare special supplement to Situationistisk Revolution 2. It serves as a catalogue for a second ‘manifestation of the Situationist International‘ held at Gallery Vestergade and featuring the works of Guy Debord, J.V.Martin (the Golden Ships series), Michele Bernstein (The Victory of the Spanish Republicans), and Rene Vienet (five Nothing Boxes). The content of this brochure is later reprinted in Situationistisk Revolution 2 in 1968.

There are no known copies in the trade, and only a handful through OCLC.

La Verdad de Los Paises Subdesarrollados en la Revolucion Internacional [1973]

Khayati, Mustafa. La Verdad de Los Paises Subdesarrollados en la Revolucion Internacional Brooklyn: Diversion, [Spring 1973]. 4 p.; 21 x 29.5 cm. Illustrated front wrapper with B&W picture of a reclining topless woman with a speech balloon proclaiming “¡La emancipación de los trabajadores será la obra de ellos mismos!” 

Spanish translation by Julian Cordero of Khayati’s text, which had been originally published in Internationale Situationniste 11 as “Contribution servant à rectifier l’opinion du public sur la révolution dans les pays sous-développés” (1967). In Diversion 1 (1973), we find a notice about this text’s publication as well as about its circulation “in particular in the Dominican Republic as well as in New York”. The article was also translated into English (and widely distributed in the United States) the same year.

With the exception of the anouncement in Diversion, this translation is not accounted for. This is one of a few documents that attests to the spread of Situationist theses in Central America in the 1970s.

There are no other known copies in the trade or on OCLC.

The Dictionary of Unhappiness [2014]

Cronin, Isaac and Spangler, Tyler. The Dictionary of Unhapiness. Berkeley CA: Little Black Cart (Cruel Hospice), 2014. 80 p.; profusely ill.;  25.5 x 20 cm. Illustrated blue cover with text in black. Introduction by Cronin.

The result of a collaboration between Isaac Cronin – one of early pro-Situationists the late 1960s and the co-creator of the Council for the Eruption of the Marvelous – and contemporary visual artist Tyler Spangler (http://tylerspangler.com/), this book superposes digital collages with Situationist-influenced writing. Sample entries of this dictionary include:

AIR: Widely prevalent gas, soon to be the subject of an extensive marketing campaign

BULIMIA: Metaphor for the state of mind of the consumer that allows maximum growth of the market system

CHILD: Proof of disposable income

HUMAN RESOURCE: Concentration camp inmate who gets to take a shower with soap so long as he doesn’t complain about the lack of hot water

…and so forth.

La Societe du Spectacle [VIETNAMESE, 1st edition] [2014]

Debord, Guy. Xã Hội Diễn Cảnh  La Société du Spectacle. Hanoi: Nhà xuất bản Tri Thức, 2014. 295 p.; 20 x 12 cm. Illustrated white cover (similar to Gallimard’s) with text in black, publisher’s white band with text in black

First Vietnamese edition of Guy Debord’s masterpiece, translated by Nguyen Tong. Annotated and introduced by Nguyen Tong. Includes an extensive bibliography and an index in the postface.

La Societe du Spectacle [JAPANESE, First Edition] [1993]

Debord, Guy. スペクタクルの社会  La Société du Spectacle. Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1993. 288 p.; 20 x 15 cm. Illustrated white cover with text in black, publisher’s white band with text in black

First Japanese edition of Guy Debord’s masterpiece, translated by Kinoshita Makoto. Includes a postface by the translator on “History of the Situationist International” and “Notes on the translation”. The paperback edition was published 10 years later.