The Beach Beneath the Street: The Everyday Life and Glorious Times of the Situationist International [Hardcover]

McKenzie Wark (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 20, 2011

A fresh history of the Situationist International by the author of A Hacker Manifesto.

Over fifty years after the Situationist International appeared, they continue to influence activists, artists and theorists. From the Invisible Committee's bestselling The Coming Insurrection to Iain Sinclair's psychogeographic explorations, their work is still found to be rich with possibilities, yet its breadth and diversity is still unexplored. In the first account since Greil Marcus's Lipstick Traces (1989), McKenzie Wark traces the Situationist International's beginnings in 1950s bohemian Paris up to the explosive days of May 1968. This account puts the legendary figure of Guy Debord back into the context of the other fascinating figures who made up the movement, including Constant, Asger Jorn, Michèle Bernstein and Jacqueline De Jong. It treats them as an international movement of conflicting passions rather than as a Paris coterie. Accessible to those who have only just discovered the Situationists and filled with new insights, Wark reconnects their work to new practices in communication, built form, and everyday life.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Wark is a marvellous guide to the micro-society of the Situationists ... He brings to the task a necessary sympathy, an encyclopedic knowledge, and a certain stylistic irrepressibility. "

- Alex Danchev, Times Literary Supplement

"[A] smart overview of the situationist movement."

- Hari Kunzru, New Statesman, Books of the Year

"A sexy book for a sexy movement... This is a beautifully written, exciting and broad study, one that may perhaps become a definitive introduction to the SI for many. "

- Christopher Collier, Mute Magazine

"A playful, smart and occasionally epigrammatic study of the Situationists ... this brilliant account ... is not only an essential work for our own times; it also comes with a cover that, with the minimum of manual dexterity, folds out into a collaborative graphic essay."

- John Burnside, Times Literary Supplement, Books of the Year

"The book I read three times back to back was McKenzie Wark's brilliant study of the Situationists, The Beach Beneath the Street."

- John Burnside, Scotsman, Books of the Year

"Wark is a fine aphorist ... Playful, angry, depressed, celebratory, this is a book for anyone not convinced that there is no alternative to the way we live now" - Christopher Bray, Observer "Wark's readable explanation of the movement's ideas[...] is the best I have read. " - Edwin Heathcote, Financial Times "A sexy book for a sexy movement - This is a beautifully written, exciting and broad study, one that may perhaps become a definitive introduction to the SI for many. " - Christopher Collier, Mute Magazine "Fascinating." - Jonathan Derbyshire, Guardian "This is no ordinary history. Instead, "it's a question of retrieving a past specific to the demands of the present." The Beach Beneath the Street rereads that past in a way that prefers not to smooth out its messier edges, refuses to reify (to pick up the jargon) what made it radical, what still makes it relevant. " - David Winters, Bookslut Praise for The Hacker Manifesto "This is a perceptive, provocative study, packed to the seams with acute analysis." Terry Eagleton, Nation "Wark's book challenges the new regime of property relations with all the epigrammatic vitality, conceptual innovation, and revolutionary enthusiasm of the great manifestos." Michael Hardt, co-author of Empire "Infuriating and inspiring in turn, A Hacker Manifesto will spawn a thousand theses, and just maybe spawn change." Mike Holderness, New Scientist "A Hacker Manifesto will yield some provocative ideas and real challenges to a world in which everything is commodified." - Eric J. Iannelli, Times Literary Supplement

From the Author

"Wark is a fine aphorist ... Playful, angry, depressed, celebratory, this is a book for anyone not convinced that there is no alternative to the way we live now"

- Christopher Bray, Observer

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Verso (June 20, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1844677206
• ISBN-13: 978-1844677207
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.9 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #354,832 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

McKenzie Wark is originally from Newcastle, Australia, but moved to New York City in 2000.

He is Professor of Media and Culture at Eugene Lang College the New School for the Liberal Arts and Professor of Liberal Studies at the New School for Social Research.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Single Best Secondary Resource on the Situationist International November 21, 2011

By Phrase Bouquet

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

McKenzie Wark's The Beach Beneath The Streets was an amazing resource for my research on the Situationists. As a history major at Humboldt State University, I found this book by chance during my research for my senior thesis on the S.I. Not only does Wark display a vast knowledge of the S.I. (and practically anything relating to them) he doesn't let Situationist ideas die on the page; rather, Wark shows how they are alive and well in the world today. My favorite part of the book is his thorough investigation into S.I. members OTHER than Debord and Vanegeim-New Babylon, Industrial Painting, Project Sigma- what a wonderful introduction for me. All of these ideas seem closer to the Zeitgeist Movement, than what I originally had associated with the S.I. Buy this book, open your mind, and change the world.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A fresh dérive through Situationism vital to transformative artists and thinkers alike September 22, 2011

By James R. Saker

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

A remarkably well researched yet fresh dérive through and around the Situationists, Wark uncovers formerly found beaches that have been strangely re-covered and forgotten. The illumination of the remarkably contemporary works of Jorn, de Jong and Lefabvre, for instance, remind an awaiting generation of a remarkable unexplored place that awaits for us to throw off our shoes and come play in the sand.

Given Wark's opening preface and closing hopefulness, "Beach Beneath the Street" only leaves me encouraged that we will see further efforts from Wark moving forward from this connection, taking us into the potentiality and energy that awaits beyond these re-opened spaces. With an increasing recognition that critique is exhausted and the post-modern tradition empty of transformative potential, Wark's historical exploration of the radical aesthetic potentiality is a necessary reading for those artists and transformative thinkers who are looking for a vital, hopeful path forward.

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Occupy WallStreet Heritage December 12, 2011

By Danilo

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

The Occupy WallStreet movemnet did not spring up from thin air. There is a movement behind the movemnet, and it started in Paris, May 1968. In fact 1968 was a year of global protest just like 2011. There were protests in Mexico, where a number of students were shot and killed, there were protests in UC Berkley, the free speech movement, in Columbia University, New York, in Italy. The intellectual cutting edge of these protests were the Situationists International,guided by Guy Debord, author of THE SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE.
Well we still live in the society of the spectacle, especially with reality TV. So if you want to get a good backgound to today,s protests, you should read this book. McKenzie Wark does an excellent job of sorting out the Situationist, their ideas and practice, and it was not just Guy Debord who guided them. This book also makes you want to search out other source material, but to make it even better, it has a cool dust jacket that folds out into a poster that gives a great visual aid in sorting out this vanguard group.

3 of 55 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Stopped reading after the first couple chapters October 9, 2011

By Boring

Format:Hardcover

If you enjoy reading about a group of people who think they are important because they have an overdeveloped vocabulary yet unfortunately have an underdeveloped sense of the fact that nothing they say or do is of any value, this is for you. Otherwise do not read, the movement this book chronicles is as much a piece of s**** as the book itself.