Situationist

Space*

THOMASF. McDONOUGH

Proletarian revolution is the critique of

human geography throughwhichindividu-
als and communitieshave to createplaces
and eventssuitablefor the appropriation,no
longerjust of theirlabor, but of theirtotal
history.
-Guy Debord, SocietyoftheSpectacle

I. The Naked City

In the summer of 1957 the MIBI ("Mouvement Internationale pour un
Bauhaus Imaginiste"),an avant-gardegroup composed of variousex-Cobraartists
and theirItalian counterparts,'published a singularlyodd map of Paris entitled
TheNakedCity,the creationof whichwas creditedto G [uy]-E[rnest]Debord. The
publication of this map was in fact one of the last actions taken by the MIBI,
since thisgroup had recentlydecided to join withthe French "Internationalelet-
triste"-of which Debord was the most importantmember-and the English
"Psychogeographical Societyof London" in orderto formthe "Internationale situa-
tionniste."2
However,the map acted both as a summaryof manyof the concerns
sharedbythe threeorganizations,particularly around the questionof theconstruc-

* This paper was originallyconceived for a colloquium on European Art 1945-68, taughtby
RobertLubar at the Instituteof Fine Arts;earlyresearchwithmycolleague Maura Reillywas instru-
mental in formulatingits parameters.A year at the Independent Study Program of the Whitney
Museum of AmericanArtand the opportunityto workwithBenjamin Buchloh and RosalynDeutsche
were the greatestsources of inspirationand challenge in thisproject'srealization.Finally,I would like
to thankmyreaderson October's editorialboard and especiallyHal Fosterfortheircriticalcomments
and assistance.
1. On the MIBI, see Peter Wollen, "The SituationistInternational,"NewLeftReview174 (1989),
pp. 87-90.
2. The officialhistoryof the foundingis toldinJean-FranCois Martos,Histoire de l'Internationale
situ-
ationniste(Paris: Editions Gerard Lebovici, 1989), pp. 9-65. See Peter Wollen, "The Situationist
International,"pp. 87-90.

OCTOBER 67, Winter

1994,pp. 59-77. ? 1994 ThomasF. McDonough.

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GuyDebord.The Naked City.1957.

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60 OCTOBER

tionand perceptionof urbanspace, and as a demonstration of thedirectionsto be

explored by the Internationalesituationnistein the followingyears.Surprisingly
little attentionhas been accorded this document, despite the fact that it has
become an almosticonic image of the earlyyearsof the Internationalesituation-
niste,appearingon dustjacketsand as an illustration in severalof themajorbooks
and articleson thegroup.
TheNakedCityis composed of nineteencut-outsectionsof a map of Paris,
printedin black ink,whichare linkedbydirectionalarrowsprintedin red. Its sub-
titledescribesthe map as an "illustration of the hypothesisof psychogeographical
turntables." Appropriatedby Debord, the term"plaque tournante," whichusually
denotes a railwayturntable(a circularrevolvingplatformwitha trackrunning
along its diameter,used forturninglocomotives),here describesthe functionof
the arrowslinkingthe segmentsof the psychogeographicalmap. Each segment
has a different "unityof atmosphere."The arrowsdescribe"thespontaneousturns
of directiontakenbya subjectmovingthroughthesesurroundings in disregardof
the usefulconnectionsthatordinarilygovernhis conduct."3Thus these "sponta-
neous inclinationsof orientation"thatlinkvarious "unitiesof atmosphere"and
dictate the path taken by the given subject correspond to the action of the
turntable,whichlinksvarioussegmentsof trackand dictatesthe orientationof the
locomotive.The implicationsof analogizingthe subject to a locomotiveare, of
course,foundedon a certainambiguity:althoughself-propelled, the locomotive's
path is determined within strictboundaries, just as for the Situationists,the
subject'sfreedomof movementis restrictedbythe instrumentalized image of the
citypropagatedunder the reignof capital.4
It is immediatelyapparent that The Naked Citydid not functionlike an
ordinarymap. This observationis confirmedwhen itsantecedentsin the Cartedu
Tendreof Madeleine de Scuderyare examined.Cited in a 1959 articlein thejour-
nal Internationale the Cartehad been created three hundred years
situationniste,
earlierin 1653 byScuderyand the membersof her salon.5It uses the metaphorof
the spatialjourneyto tracepossiblehistoriesof a love affair.Keygeographicalfea-
tures,throughpatheticfallacy,marksignificant momentsor emotions (e.g., the
"lac d'indiff6rence").Positingthisaristocraticdiversionas an antecedentof The
NakedCityis another instanceof appropriation,but despite theirverydifferent
originsthe Cartedid illustratethe key principleof the psychogeographicmap.

3. Froma textprintedon the reverseside of TheNakedCity:AsgerJorn,"Quatriimeexperiencedu

MIBI (Plans psychogbographiques de Guy Debord)," reprintedin Documents relatifsd la fondationde
l'Internationale 1948-1957,ed. G6rardBerreby(Paris:EditionsAllia,1985), p. 535.
situationniste:
4. The term"plaque tournante"mayalso be an intendedor unintendedpun on "tableautournant,"
whichrefersto magicalor seance-likeoperationsof trickery. (I would like to thankBenjaminBuchloh
forpointingout thispossibility.)
5. romaine(Geneva: SlatkineReprints,1973).
The map was publishedin 1654 in her Cildie:histoire
It is cited in "L'urbanismeunitaireA la fin des annbes50," Internationale situationniste 3 (December
1959), pp. 11-16. On the map, see Claude Filteau,"Tendre,"in Cartesetfigures de la terre(Paris:Centre
GeorgesPompidou, 1980), pp. 205-7.

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MadeleinedeScudry.Cartede
Tendre.1653.

IYA.:
Al :::
44,:

That is, both maps are figuredas narrativesratherthan as tools of "universal

knowledge."The usersof thesemaps were asked to choose a directionality and to
overcomeobstacles,althoughtherewas no "proper"reading.The readingchosen
was a performanceof one among manypossibilities(of the course of the love
affairin the Cartedu Tendre;of the crossingof the urban environmentin The
NakedCity)and would remaincontingent.The subject'sachievementof a position
of mastery,thegoal of narrative'sresolution,was therebyproblematized.
The odd title,renderedin brightred capitals,was also an appropriationof
thename of an Americanfilmnoirof 1948. TheNakedCitywas a detectivestoryset
in New Yorkand filmedin a documentarystyle.Based on a storybyMalvinWald,
the screenplaywas a collaborationbetween the author and AlbertMaltz.6(The
titleof the film,however,is itselfan appropriation:originallyentitledHomicide,
the movie'sname was changed to matchthe titleof a book of crimephotographs
byWeegee, publishedin 1945.)7Althoughthe referenceto thisHollywoodfilmof
the previousdecade mayat firstseem arbitrary, its purpose becomes clear when
one examinesthe structureof the movie.As ParkerTylerexplainsit in TheThree
Faces oftheFilm:
In NakedCityit is ManhattanIsland and its streetsand landmarksthat
are starred.The social body is thus,througharchitecturalsymbol,laid
bare ("naked").... The factthatthevastlycomplexstructureof a great

6. AlbertMaltz and MalvinWald, TheNakedCity(Carbondale and Edwardsville:SouthernIllinois

UniversityPress,1979). Maltz,born in Brooklynin 1908,was a mainstayof the Americanliteraryleft
throughoutthe 1930s;in 1941 he movedto Los Angeles,wherehe workedon severalmovies-generally
eitherdetectivefilms(e.g., This GunforHire,1942) or wartimepropaganda movies (e.g., Prideofthe
Marines,1945). In 1947 he was called beforethe House Committeeon Un-AmericanActivities forhis
involvement withthe Communistpartyin the 1930s;his refusalto testify led to his being named one of
the "HollywoodTen." TheNakedCitywas his last filmbeforebeing committedto federaljail in 1950.
See JackSalzman,Albert Maltz (Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1978) fora fullbiography,which,however,
slightsMaltz'syearsin Hollywood.
7. ArthurFellig (Weegee), NakedCity(New York:Da Capo Press,1975).

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62 OCTOBER

city,in one sense,is a supremeobstacleto the police detectivesat the

same time that it providestinyclues as importantas certainobscure
physicalsymptoms are to the trainedeyeof a doctor.8

Justas the termturntableservesas a usefulanalogyforthe "spontaneousturnsof

direction"indicatedon the map, so the titleTheNakedCityservesas an analogy
forthe functionof the map as a whole. It is no longerthe streetsand landmarks
of Manhattan,but those of Paris thatare "starred":one quicklyrecognizes,in the
cut-outfragments, partsof theJardindu Luxembourg,Les Halles, the Gare de
Lyon, the Pantheon, etc. The act of "layingbare" the social body throughthe
city'sarchitecturalsymbolsis implicitin theverystructure of the map. Freed from
the "usefulconnections that ordinarilygovern theirconduct,"the users could
experience "the sudden change of atmospherein a street,the sharpdivisionof a
cityintoone of distinctpsychologicalclimates;thepath ofleastresistance-wholly
unrelatedto the unevennessof the terrain-to be followedby the casual stroller;
the character,attractiveor repellant,of certainplaces."9So wroteDebord in his
"Introductionto a Critiqueof Urban Geography"("Introduction'l une critique
de la geographieurbaine") of 1955, twoyearsbeforethe publicationof his ver-
sion of TheNakedCity.For Debord the structureof Paris,like thatof New Yorkin
the movie,was also a "greatobstacle" thatsimultaneously offered"tinyclues"-
only they were no longer clues to the solution of a crime, but to a future
organization of lifein itspresentation of a "sum ofpossibilities."
Visually,TheNakedCityis a collage based on the appropriationof an already-
existingdocument, composed of nineteen fragmentsof a map of Paris. It is
significantin thislightthat Debord, in the 1955 "Introductionto a Critiqueof
Urban Geography,"had discussed"a renovatedcartography": "theproductionof
psychogeographical maps may help to clarifycertain movements of a sort that,
while surelynot gratuitous,are whollyinsubordinateto the usual directives."10
These influencesor attractionsdeterminethe habitual patternsthroughwhich
residentsnegotiatethe city.The complete"insubordination" of such influencesis
realized in TheNakedCityby the fragmenting of the mostpopular map of Paris,
the Plan deParis,intoa stateof illegibility.
TheNakedCitysubvertsthe structureof the Plan deParis.The latteris struc-
turedin a wayanalogous to the mode of discoursecalled "description," whichacts
to "maskitssuccessivenatureand presentit as redundantrepetition,as ifall were
presentat the same time.It is as ifthe object [here,the cityof Paris] were always

8. ParkerTyler,The ThreeFacesoftheFilm:TheArt,theDream,theCult,rev.ed. (South Brunswick,

N.J.:A. S. Barnes,1967), p. 97.
9. Guy-Ernest Debord, "IntroductionA une critiquede la geographieurbaine,"Les LevresNues6
(September 1955). Trans. as "Introductionto a Critique of Urban Geography,"in the Situationist
International Anthology,ed. and trans.Ken Knabb (Berkeley,Calif.: Bureau of Public Secrets,1981),
pp. 5-8.
10. Ibid., p. 7.

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SituationistSpace 63

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Plan de Paris.

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64 OCTOBER

alreadyvisuallypresent,fullyofferedto fullview."11 The Parisof the Plan existsin

a timelesspresent;thistimelessnessis imagedspatiallyin themap's (illusory)total
revelationof itsobject.That is, usersof the map see the entirecitylaid out before
theireyes.However,such an omnipresentviewis seen fromnowhere:"itis in fact
impossibleto occupythisspace. It is a pointof space whereno man can see: a no
place not outsidespace but nowhere,utopic."12This is the traditionalconditionof
the map; in linguisticterms,it is pure structure("langue") withoutindividuation
("parole").
If the Plan de Paris is structuredby description,which is predicated on a
model of seeing thatconstitutesan exhibitionof "the knowledgeof an order of
places,"13then a verydifferentmode of discourse structuresTheNakedCity.It
is predicated on a model of moving,on "spatializingactions," known to the
Situationistsas ditives;ratherthan presentingthe cityfroma totalizingpoint of
view,it organizes movementsmetaphoricallyaround psychogeographichubs.
These movementsconstitutenarrativesthatare openlydiachronic,unlikedescrip-
tion'sfalse"timelessness."14TheNakedCitymakesit clear,in itsfragmenting of the
conventional,descriptiverepresentation of urban space, thatthe cityis onlyexpe-
rienced in timeby a concrete,situatedsubject,as a passage fromone "unityof
atmosphere"to another,not as the objectof a totalizedperception.

II. TheNakedCityand SocialGeography

But the narrative mode does not fullyaccount for the appearance of
Debord's map. First,TheNakedCitydoes not cover all of Paris,as is expected of
any "good" map. Second, the fragmentshave no logical relationto one another;
theyare not properlyorientedaccordingto north-south or east-westaxes, and the
distancebetweenthemdoes not correspondto the actual distanceseparatingthe
various locales. (Consider, for instance,the distance separatingtheJardindes
Plantesfromitsannex,whichare contiguousin thePlan deParis.)
Debord explains these features in his article of 1956, "Theory of the
Derive."The fragmentsonly representcertainareas of Paris because the map's
goal is "thediscoveryof unitiesof atmosphere,of theirmain componentsand of
theirspatial localization."15Presumablynot all areas in the citylend themselves
to such spatial localization; TheNakedCitynames partsof the city(certain "uni-

11. Louis Marin, Utopics:Spatial Play, trans. Robert A. Vollrath (Atlantic Highlands, N.J.:
HumanitiesPress,1984), p. 202.
12. Ibid., p. 207.
13. Michel de Certeau, ThePracticeofEveryday Life,trans.StevenRendall (Berkeley:Universityof
CaliforniaPress,1984), p. 119.
14. Louis Marin,Utopics, pp. 201-2. Although"narrative" maynot be the ideal termto describethe
structureof TheNakedCity,it does conveythe sense thatthe map is a representation of an event-or
more properly,a sum of events,i.e., the spatializingactionsof the dirive.
15. Guy-Ernest Debord, "Th(orie de la derive,"Les LevresNues9 (November1956). Translatedas
"Theoryof the DIrive,"in the SituationistInternationalAnthology,p. 53.

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Situationist
Space 65

ties of atmosphere") instead of the whole ("Paris") thatincludes them.Through

this synecdochic procedure, totalities like the Paris of the Plan de Paris are
replaced byfragmentslike the componentsof Debord's map.16
But beyond the "discovery"of such unities of atmosphere, the map also
describes"theirchiefaxes of passage, theirexitsand theirdefenses."The psycho-
geographicalturntablesof the map's subtitleallowone to assert"distancesthatmay
be quite out of scale withwhatone mightconclude froma map's approximations."'17
Such distancesbecome blankareas in TheNakedCity,gaps thatseparatethevarious
fragments. The suppressionof the linkagesbetweenvarious"unitiesof atmosphere,"
except for schematic directional arrows,corresponds to the procedure called
"asyndeton":a process of "openinggaps in the spatialcontinuum"and "retaining
only selected parts of it."18
StructuringTheNakedCitythroughsynecdocheand asyndetondisruptsthe
falsecontinuityof the Plan de Paris.The citymap is revealedas a representation:
the productionof a discourseabout the city.This discourseis predicatedon the
appearance of optical coherence,on whatHenri Lefebvrecalled the reductionof
the cityto "theundifferentiated stateof the visible-readable realm."19This abstract
space homogenizes the that
conflicts produce capitalistspace; the terrainof the
Plan de Parisis thatof HaussmannizedParis,wheremodernizationhad evictedthe
workingclass fromitstraditionalquartersin the centerof the cityand then segre-
gated the cityalong class lines. But abstractspace is riddledwithcontradictions;
mostimportantly, it not onlyconceals difference, itsacts of divisionand exclusion
are productiveof difference.Distinctionsand differences are not eradicated,they
are onlyhidden in the homogeneousspace of the Plan. TheNakedCitybringsthese
distinctionsand differencesout into the open, the violence of its fragmentation
suggestingthe real violenceinvolvedin constructing the cityof the Plan.
In thismanner TheNakedCityengagesthe discourseof geography.In France,
academic geography (institutionalizedin the university)was a product of the
1870s; in the wake of the defeatsufferedin the Franco-Prussian War,a numberof
historiansaround Paul Vidal de la Blanche foundedwhatmaybe called a "spatial
history."Vidalian geographyconsidereditselfa "scienceof landscape" whose goal
was taxonomic description;but, as in the Plan de Paris,"description"cannot be
considered an ideologicallyneutralterm.By presumingan already"given"object
of study (country,region, city),this geographyhypostatizedconcepts as trans-
historical that were actually the products of particular historical relations.
Moreover,the geographer's interestin descriptionprivilegesvisual criteriathat
depend on the illusionof an object "fullyofferedto fullview,"a viewthatis more-

16. Michel de Certeau,PracticeofEveryday Life,p. 101.

17. Guy-Ernest Debord, "Thboriede la d6rive,"Situationist
International p. 53.
Anthology,
18. Michel de Certeau,PracticeofEveryday Life,p. 101.
19. Henri Lefebvre, The Productionof Space, trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith, (Oxford and
Cambridge,Mass.: Blackwell,1991), pp. 355-56.

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66 OCTOBER

over gendered as masculine,fromwhich a feminizedspace is perceived. (Vidal

spoke of the eye "embracing"the landscape,which"offers itselfup" to view.)20
But thereis a curious contradictionin Vidal's methodologyof description:
despite his reliance on the visual presence of the object of study,his landscapes
cannot actuallybe seen. That is, he is not so much concernedwithan observable,
concretespace, but witha typical,abstractspace thatis constructedfroma "syn-
theticand derivativemobilizationof cliche" in the formof various exoticisms,
referencesto literature, and enumerationsof local floraand fauna.21The abstract
space of academic geographyis the source of the homogeneous,abstractspace of
thePlan deParis.
In making The Naked City,however,Debord was not simplyrefutingan
eighty-year-old traditionof academic geography; he was also, unconsciously,
reasserting the goals of a social geography."Social geography"was a termfirst
used byElisee Reclus,a communard,socialist,and geographerforwhomgeogra-
phywould become "history in space."UnlikeVidal's "geographyof permanences,"
forReclus geographywas "notan immutablething.It is made, it is remade every
day; at each instant,it is modifiedby men's actions."22Ratherthan explaining
spatial organization,like Vidal, as the consequence of inevitablesocial processes
(mediatedbydeterministic metaphors,as in the "individuality"or "personality"of
a region),Reclus theorizedspace as a social productand thusas inseparablefrom
the functioningof society.Two dissimilarconcepts of societywere being pro-
posed in these two geographies.On the one hand, Vidal desocializesthe social,
employingan "environmentaldeterminism"in which "formsof metropolitan
social life"are the adaptationsof "human populationsto environments in which
certain processes tend to remain constantand invariable."On the other hand,
Reclus understood space as a sociallyproduced category-as an arena "where
social relationsare reproduced"and as a social relationitself.23
Debord,developing
similarideas, would also comprehendthisindivisibility of urban space and social

20. This discussionof academic and social geographyis indebtedto the workof KristinRoss in The
Emergence ofSocialSpace:Rimbaudand theParis Commune (Minneapolis:Universityof MinnesotaPress,
1988), pp. 85-97. The space of narrative(e.g., of concealmentand discoveryin filmnoir) is also gen-
dered; see Teresa de Lauretis, AliceDoesn't:Feminism,Semiotics,Cinema(Bloomington: Indiana
UniversityPress, 1984) and Laura Mulvey,"Visual Pleasure and NarrativeCinema," Screen16, no. 3
(1975), pp. 6-18. To the extentthatDebord's Naked Citymaybe comparedwiththe narrativeof film
noir (as the map's titleindicates),itspointofviewmustbe problematized;howeverthereare obviously
significantdifferencesin the subjects constructedby these respective"narratives."(Perhaps thisis
wherethe limitsof the usefulnessof thistermfordescribingDebord's map are reached.)
21. Ross,Emergence ofSocialSpace,pp. 86-87.
22. Quoted in ibid.,p. 91. For more on ElisbeReclus,see GaryS. Dunbar,ElisieReclus,Historianof
Nature(Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1978) and Marie Fleming, The Geography ofFreedom:The
Odyssey ofElisieReclus(Montrealand NewYork:Black Rose Books, 1988).
23. See RosalynDeutsche,"Uneven Development:Public Artin New YorkCity,"October 47 (Winter
1988), p. 24. See also Manuel Castells, The UrbanQuestion:A MarxistApproach, trans.Alan Sheridan
(Cambridge,Mass.: MIT Press,1977) and PeterR. Saunders,SocialTheory and theUrbanQuestion(New
York:Holmes & Meier,1981).

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The residentialunits ofthe
"Wattignies"districtin the12th
arrondissement ofParis,from
Chombartde Lauwe, "Paris and the
Parisian Agglomeration."

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relations;but withthe experience of psychogeographic exploration,space could

also be the arena forthe contestationof theserelationsthroughan activeconstruc-
tionofnew "unitiesofatmosphere."
Debord neverwroteabout Elisee Reclus, but he did writeabout a French
sociologistwhose workof the early1950s was veryconcernedwith"social space"
and withurbanism:Paul-HenryChombartde Lauwe. Debord quotes Chombartde
Lauwe's "Paris and the Parisian Agglomeration"(1952) in his "Theory of the
Derive"of 1956.24Even more significant, TheNakedCityadopts the formof a map
thatappears in Chombartde Lauwe's report.This map, made byLouis Couvreur
(a researcherworkingalong withChombartde Lauwe on the urban studiesthat
contributedto the 1952 report),depicts"the residentialunitsof the 'Wattignies'
districtin the 12tharrondissement of Paris."25
In the 1952 reportChombartde Lauwe definesthe elementaryunit of the
cityas the residentialunitor, as called byitsinhabitants,the quarter.The quarter
is "a group of streets,or even of houses,withmore or less clearlydefinedborders,
includinga commercialcenterofvariablesize and, usually,othersortsof pointsof
attraction.The borders of a neighborhood are usually marginal (dangerous)
frontierareas."26Its is importantthat these quarters are not "given" urban
districts, clearlydefinedand logicallylinkedone to the other.Rather,Chombart
de Lauwe statesthatthey"revealthemselves... to the attentiveobserver"in "the
behaviorof the inhabitants, theirturnof phrase."27
Clearlydependent on these ideas, Debord also alteredthemin the fabrica-
tion of the psychogeographic map. For example,the notion of the quarteras the
basic unit of urban structureis held in common by both Debord and Chombart

24. Paul-HenryChombartde Lauwe, "Pariset I'agglomerationparisienne"(1952), in Paris:Essaisde

1952-1964 (Paris:Les editionsouvrieres,1965), pp. 19-101. For Debord, see "Theoryof the
sociologie,
Derive,"SituationistInternational
Anthology, p. 50. This dependence is noted in passingby Wollen in
"The Situationist p. 80, n. 40.
International,"
25. Paul-HenryChombartde Lauwe, "Pariset l'agglomerationparisienne,"pp. 60-61.
26. Ibid.,p. 67.
27. Ibid.

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68 OCTOBER

de Lauwe; forboth it is the site of social lifeand possessesa distinctcharacter.

(Chombartde Lauwe, in a tellingnaturalizingmetaphor,writesthateach quarter
has itsown "physiognomy.") However,Chombartde Lauwe definesthe quarteras
a "residentialunit,"givingit a preeminentlyfunctionalrole, whereas Debord
definesit as a "unityof atmosphere,"which provesto be a much less empirical
idea.
Chombart de Lauwe ultimatelyrelies on the notion that quarterscan be
"discovered,"theirexistence proven,throughmore or less traditionalresearch
methods.Space is thoughtof here as a contextor containerforsocial relations-
an idea that hypostatizesboth space and the social. But space does not simply
reflectsocial relations;it is constitutive
of and is constitutedby them.That is, the
quarteris not onlythe expressionof the needs of itsinhabitants, the spatialform
of theirsocial relations.As RosalynDeutschehas written, urbanspace is ratheralso
"an arena forthe reproductionof social relationsand as itselfsuch a relation."28
Debord's psychogeography and its graphicrepresentationin TheNakedCitytake
thisinto account,constructing"unitiesof atmosphere"ratherthan "discovering"
them like physical,geographicalphenomena thatexistin a spatial context.The
NakedCitydenies space as contextand insteadincorporatesspace as an elementof
social practice.Ratherthan a containersuitablefordescription,space becomes
partofa process:theprocessof "inhabiting" enactedbysocialgroups.
In thisDebord takesup a positionsome distancefromChombartde Lauwe,
but one thatis quite close to certainideas developed by Henri Lefebvrelaterin
the 1960s.Lefebvrewas also interestedin the quarteras the essentialunitof social
life. Like Debord, he chose to study"not the ossified socio-ecological forms
(whichare, bydefinition, inapprehensible),but the tendenciesof theurbanunits,
their inertia,their explosion, their reorganization,in a word, the practice of
'inhabiting,'ratherthan the ecologyof the habitat."29 AlthoughLefebvreis here
referring to the Chicago School of urban ecology,his distancefromChombartde
Lauwe's functionalistmodel of urban sociologyis equally clear. Againstsuch a
model he positsthe notion of "inhabiting"-whatthe Situationists called "experi-
mentalbehavior"--apractice,as willbe seen, mapped in TheNakedCity.

III. TheNakedCityand Cognitive

Mapping
Debord's map images a fragmentedcitythatis both the resultof multiple
restructuringsof a capitalistsocietyand the veryformof a radicalcritiqueof this
society. figurationof a typeof inhabitingis simultaneously
Its relatedto and dis-
tinctfromFredricJameson's "aestheticof cognitivemapping," perhaps most
succinctlydescribedin his classicarticle,"Postmodernism, or the CulturalLogic

28. RosalynDeutsche, "Alternative Space," in If YouLivedHere:A Project ed. Brian

byMarthaRosler,
Wallis (Seattle:BayPress,1991), p. 55.
29. Henri Lefebvre,"Quartieret vie de quartier,Paris,"Cahiersdel'IAURP7 (1967).

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Situationist
Space 69

of Late Capitalism."Jameson concludes that the fragmentations of urban space

and the social body create the need formaps thatwould "enable a situationalrep-
resentation on the part of the individual subject to that vaster and properly
unrepresentabletotality whichis the ensembleof the city'sstructureas a whole."30
These maps would allow theirusers to "again begin to grasp our positioningas
individualand collectivesubjectsand regaina capacityto act and strugglewhichis
at presentneutralizedbyour spatialas well as our social confusion."31
CertainlyDebord also saw the "spatial confusion" of the modern cityas
symptomatic of the violence inherentin capitalism'sconfigurationof the space of
the productionand reproductionof its social relations.TheNakedCity,however,
adamantlyrefusesthe statusof a regulativeideal, whichis the goal of the cognitive
map. If the latteris a means toward"a capacityto act and struggle," theformeris a
siteof struggleitself.In itsveryformit contestsa dominantconstructionof urban
space as homogeneous,appropriatingpieces of the Plan deParisand makingthem
speak of the radicaldiscontinuities and divisionsof the public realm.
The cognitivemap's normativefunctionrelieson the productionof a spatial
imagabilitythatdesiresto assumewhatRosalynDeutsche has called "a command-
ing positionon the battlegroundof representation."32 The danger in thisposition
is thatthe positionality of the viewerand relationsof representationare sacrificed
in order to obtain a "coherent,""logical"viewof the city.Debord's map, on the
other hand, foregroundsits contingencyby structuring itselfas a narrativeopen
to numerous readings.It openly acknowledgesitselfas the trace of practicesof
inhabitingratherthan as an imaginaryresolutionof real contradictions.Likewise,
its representationof the cityonly existsas a series of relationships,as in those
between TheNakedCityand the Plan deParis,or betweenfragmentation and unity,
or betweennarrativeand description.

IV. TheDeriveand SocialSpace

Debord wrote in Societyof theSpectaclethat under advanced capitalism
"everythingthatwas directlylived has moved away into a representation." 33As
formulatedbyLefebvre,the corollaryto thisin spatialdiscoursewas thatdirectly
lived space ("representationalspace") had moved awayinto the space of the con-
ceived and the perceived ("representationsof space"). Social, concretespace had
been completelydenied in favorof mental,abstractspace: "thefreespaceofthecom-

30. FredricJameson,"Postmodernism,or the CulturalLogic of Late Capitalism,"NewLeftReview

146 (1984), p. 90. See his more developed argumentin "CognitiveMapping," in Marxismand the
ofCulture,
Interpretation eds. CaryNelson and LawrenceGrossberg(Urbana and Chicago: University of
IllinoisPress,1988), pp. 347-57.
31. Jameson,"Postmodernism, or the CulturalLogic of Late Capitalism,"p. 92.
32. RosalynDeutsche, "Men in Space," Artforum 28, no. 6 (February1990), pp. 21-23. An expanded
versionof thisarticleappeared as "BoysTown,"Society and Space9 (1991), pp. 5-30.
33. GuyDebord, Society oftheSpectacle
(Detroit:Black & Red, 1977), p. 1.

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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
70 OCTOBER

modity."34 However,thisthoroughlydominatedcapitalistspace was not seamless;

in fact,it was full of contradictions,hidden only by a homogenizingideology.
These contradictionsmade possible the struggleformulatedby the Situationist
project:the explorationof psychogeography and the constructionof spaces that
accommodateddifference.Situationist"experimentalbehavior,"theirpracticeof
"inhabiting," were operationsin dominatedspace meant to contestthe retreatof
the directlylived into the realm of representation,and therebyto contestthe
organizationof the societyof the spectacleitself.
The move fromabstractspace to social space can be seen in a condensed
formin the different attitudestakentowardaerial photographsby Chombartde
Lauwe and the Situationists. In Chombartde Lauwe's 1952 reporthe reproduces
an aerial photographof the citycenterof Parisalong withitsimmediatesuburbs.
He writesthatsuch photographspermita betterunderstandingof certainstruc-
tures and of the contrastsbetween "the differentkinds of urban textures."He
cites the differenttexturesof the bourgeois quarterson the one hand (the 7th
and 17th arrondissements),and on the other hand, the "popular" quarters
(Bellevilleand Menilmontant),the formercharacterizedby regularity, the latter
by disorder. From these visual characteristicsone may deduce the respective
conditionsof lifeand social practicesof each quarter.35
Chombart de Lauwe's praise of the aerial photographas a research tool
raises the question asked by Michel de Certeau in ThePracticeofEveryday Life:"Is
the immense texturologyspread out before one's eyes anythingmore than a
representation,an optical artifact?" The elevationprovidedby "the overflight at
high altitude" transformsthe sociologist into a voyeurof sorts,who not only
enjoysthe eroticsof seeing all fromhis hidden vantagepoint,butwho also enjoys
the eroticsof knowingall. The scopic and epistemophilicdrivesunitein mutually
seekingpleasurein the totality of thecityas seen in the "vueverticale"of theaerial
photograph(or of the Plan deParisforthatmatter).But thiswhole is imaginary, a
fiction,and "the voyeur-godcreated by thisfiction... mustdisentanglehimself
fromthemurkyintertwining dailybehaviorsand makehimselfalien to them."36
It is preciselythis disentanglement,this alienation, that the Situationists
refusedby locatingculturalstrugglewithinthe city.In contrastto Chombartde
Lauwe's faithin the knowledgeprovidedbythe spectacularizedimage of the city
as seen in the aerial photograph,theyrefutedthisvoyeuristic viewpoint.In the
firstissue of Internationale accompanyingGilles Ivain's "Formulary
situationniste,
for a New Urbanism," there was an aerial photograph very similar to that
discussed by Chombart de Lauwe; however, this photograph was not used
for ascertaining the structureof the city. Instead it bore the caption "New
Theater of Operationsin Culture."The military termindicatedthe refusalto take

34. Ibid., p. 166.

35. Paul-HenryChombartde Lauwe, "Pariset l'agglomerationparisienne,"pp. 33-34.
36. Michel de Certeau,Practice Life,pp. 92-93.
ofEveryday

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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
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FromtheInternationalesituationniste
1,

D'OPtAA
THWATRE
INOUVEAU
June1958.

CULTUR
LA
DANS

-?,4 D-S PAiA

VRAD
DISSLUTION VC
)LA MVS
ANCENW-
ISOSLUTON
ITPER&"4ANC(EN1,

TE
SITIFATIlON
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SituationistSpace 73

up the disengagedpositionimpliedin Chombartde Lauwe's interestin the aerial

photograph. Rejecting this viewpoint,the Situationistsopted for exactly the
"murkyintertwining behaviors"thatthe sociologistplaced at a distance.Withthe
city as their "theater of operations" theirprimarytacticwas the drive (driftor
drifting),which reflected the pedestrian'sexperience,thatof the everydayuser of
the city.
The derive took place literallybelow the thresholdof visibility,in the sense of
being beyond what is visibleto the voyeur'sgaze. As Debord describes it,the drive
replaced the figureof the voyeurwiththatof the walker:"One or more persons
committedto the demive abandon, for an undefinedperiod of time,the motives
generallyadmitted for action and movement,their relations, their labor and
leisure activities,abandoning themselvesto the attractionsof the terrainand the
encountersproperto it."37In allowingthemselves"to be drawnbythe solicitations
of the terrain,"personson the deive escaped the imaginarytotalizationsof the eye
and insteadchose a kindof blindness.38
Operatingin the realm of everydaylife,the deriveconstitutesan urban prac-
tice thatmustbe distinguished,first,from"classicnotionsof thejourney and the
walk,"as Debord noted in "Theoryof the Derive."The derivewas not simplyan
updatingof nineteenth-century the Baudelairean strollingof the "man in
fldnerie,
the crowd."This is not to saythattheydo not share some characteristics: both the
and the person on the derivemove among the crowdwithoutbeing one
fldneur
withit. They are both "alreadyout of place," neitherbourgeois nor proletariat.39
But whereasthefldneur's ambiguousclass positionrepresentsa kindof aristocratic
holdover(a positionthatis ultimately recuperatedbythe bourgeoisie),the person
on the driveconsciouslyattemptsto suspend class allegiancesforsome time.This
serves a dual purpose: it allows for a heightened receptivity to the "psychogeo-
graphicalrelief"of the cityas well as contributing to the sense of "depaysement,"40
a characteristicof the ludic sphere.
For the Situationists,however,the derivewas distinguishedfromfldnerie
primarily byitscriticalattitudetowardthe hegemonicscopic regimeof modernity.

37. Guy-Ernest Debord, "Theoryof the D6rive,"trans.in Situationist

International p. 50.
Anthology,
38. This use of the term"blindness"is to be distinguishedfromthe paradoxical blindnessof total-
izationthatde Certeau discusses.Here it is meant to indicatethe Situationists'problematizationof the
scopic regimeof modernityas formulatedin the nineteenthcentury.
39. See WalterBenjamin, "On Some Motifsin Baudelaire," in Illuminations, ed. Hannah Arendt,
trans.HarryZohn (New York:Schocken Books, 1968), pp. 172-73.
40. "Depays6ment"is a termoftenfound in early Situationistwritingson the d&rive. Literally,it
means "takenout of one's element"or "misled."The Situationistuse of the termseems to be in the
same sense thatLevi-Strauss calls anthropologya "technique
du depaysiment"
in his essay"The Concept of
Archaismin Anthropology"(in Structural trans.ClaireJacobson and Brooke Grundfest
Anthropology,
Schoepf [New York:Basic Books, 1963], pp. 117 and 118, n. 23). As the translatorsof thisessaynote,
the termrefersto "theconscious cultivationby the anthropologistof an attitudeof marginality toward
all cultures,includinghis [sic] own."The same attitudeis cultivatedbypersonson the derive.

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74 OCTOBER

As GriseldaPollockdescribeshim (thefldneur, unlikethe participants of the derive,

was an exclusivelymasculine type), the flineuris characterizedby a detached,
observinggaze: "The fldneursymbolizesthe privilegeor freedomto move about
the public arenas of the cityobservingbut neverinteracting, consumingthesights
a but
through controlling rarelyacknowledgedgaze. ... The flineurembodiesthe
of
gaze modernity which is both covetous and erotic."41It is preciselytheseclass-
and gender-specific privileges thatthe dMivecritiques in its refusal of the control-
ling gaze. The cityand its quartersare no longer conceived of as "spontaneously
visibleobjects" but are posited as social constructionsthroughwhich the derive
negotiateswhilesimultaneously fragmenting and disrupting them.
The Situationistsalso located the drivein relationto surrealistexperiments
in space. In his articleon the dMrive Debord cited "the celebratedaimlessstroll"
undertakenin May 1924 byAragon,Breton,Morise,and Vitrac;the course of this
journey was determinedby chance procedures. The surrealistshad embraced
chance as the encounterwiththe totallyheterogenous,an emblemof freedomin
an otherwisereifiedsociety.Clearly this type ofjourney was resonant for the
Situationists.For example, in 1955 Debord discusseda similartripthata friend
took "throughthe Hartz regionin Germany,withthe help of a map of the cityof
London fromwhichhe blindlyfollowedthe directions."42 HoweverDebord would
go on to critique the surrealist experiments for an "insufficient mistrustof
chance." Perhaps, paralleling Peter Bfirger'sargument,Debord feltthat these
diversions had degenerated from protestsagainst bourgeois society's instru-
mentalizationto protestsagainst means-end rationalityas such. Withoutsuch
rationality,however,no meaning can be derivedfromchance occurrencesand
the individualis placed in a positionof a "passiveattitudeof expectation."43 Given
thatthe Situationists were not interestedonlyin the discoveryof the uncanny,or
the makingstrangeof familiarurban terrain,but in the transformation of urban
space, their mistrustof surrealistchance is understandable.
The blindnessof the people on the dmrive was a tacticalpractice,dependent
upon neither spectacular consumption of the citynor upon factorsof chance.
This blindness,characteristic of the everydayuser of the citywho confrontsthe
environmentas opaque, was consciouslyadopted in order to subvertthe rational
cityof pure visuality.The dirivewas a tacticin the classic militarysense of the
term:"a calculated action determinedby the absence of a properlocus."44Or, in
thewordsof Clausewitz,a militarytheoristDebord greatlyadmired,the derive as a

41. (London and NewYork:Routledge,1988), p. 67.

GriseldaPollock,Vision&Difference
42. Guy-ErnestDebord, "Introductionto a Critique of Urban Geography,"trans.in Situationist
International p. 7.
Anthology,
43. Peter Bfirger,Theoryof theAvant-Garde,trans. Michael Shaw (Minneapolis: Universityof
MinnesotaPress,1984), p. 66.
44. Michelde Certeau,Practice
ofEverydayLife,pp. 36-37.

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SituationistSpace 75

tacticwas an "artof theweak."45It is a game (Debord writesthatthe diriveentailed

"a ludic-constructive behavior")46thattakesplace in the strategicspace of the city:
"... it mustplayon and witha terrainimposed on it and organizedbythe law of a
foreignpower.It does not have the means to keeptoitselfat a distance,in a posi-
tion of withdrawal,foresight,and self-collection:it is a maneuver 'within the
enemy'sfield of vision,' as von Bulow put it, and withinenemyterritory."47 The
dfrive thereforedoes not possessa space of itsown,but takesplace in a space that
is imposed bycapitalismin theformof urban planning.
The d*riveappropriatesthisurban space in the contextofwhatmaybe called
a "pedestrianspeech act,"in that"theact ofwalkingis to theurban systemwhatthe
speech act is to language."48Through the conscious appropriationof the city,the
Situationistsforce it to speak of the divisions and fragmentationsmasked by
abstractspace, the contradictions thatenable politicalstruggleoverthe production
of space to existat all. The fragmentedspace of the city,as actualizedin the derive,
is preciselywhatis imaged in TheNakedCity,withitsinventionof quarters,itsshift-
ing about of spatialrelations,and itslargewhiteblanksof nonactualizedspace, the
whole segmentsof Paris that are made to disappear, or ratherthat never even
existedin the firstplace. The derive as a pedestrianspeech act is a reinstatement of
the "use value of space" in a society that privileges the "exchange value of
space"-that is, itsexistenceas property.In thismannerthe derive is a politicaluse
of space, constructing new social relationsthrough"ludic-constructive behavior."

V. TheD'rive and Representations

ofPublic Space
This contestationover the significationof public space leaves unaddressed
the question of the verystatusof this space in the postwarperiod. It has been
argued that,withthe increasinglyrapid growththroughthe 1950s of mass media,
the formerlycontestedrealm of the streetswas evacuated.It was afterall precisely
technologiesof the home-first radio, then television-thatwere the conduitsfor
spectacularsociety'sattemptsto domesticatefantasy.In thisview,the derivewas
doomed to being an anachronism.Indeed, some textson the deriveand urban
space seem curiouslysentimental.For example,in the bulletinPotlatch in 1954 an

45. See Karl von Clausewitz,On War,trans.M. Howard and P. Paret (Princeton,N.J.:Princeton
University Press,1976).
46. Guy-ErnestDebord, "Theoryof the D1rive,"trans.in Situationist International
Anthology,p. 50.
The ludic natureof the diriveis indebted toJohan Huizinga's HomoLudens;a studyoftheplay-elementin
culture(Boston: Beacon Press,1950), a textoriginallypublishedin 1937 and translatedinto Frenchin
1951. Huizinga argued thathumansare definednot merelyby theirfunctionalor utilitarianbehavior,
but also by theirneed for play; his ideas were of great interestto NorthernEuropean Situationists
Constantand AsgerJorn,who were in close contactwithDebord. On Huizinga and the Situationists,
see Wollen,"The SituationistInternational,"p. 89.
47. Michel de Certeau,Practice Life,p. 37.
ofEveryday
48. Ibid., pp. 97-99.

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76 OCTOBER

articlemournsthe destructionof the rue Sauvage in the 13tharrondissement: "we

lamentthe disappearanceof a thoroughfare littleknown,and yetmore alivethan
the Champs-Elys6esand its lights."Despite the qualificationthat "we were not
interestedin the charmsof ruins,"49 it is easy to agree withBenjamin Buchloh
that,withthe riseof technologiesforcontrollingthe domesticinterior,the street
"would increasinglyqualify as an artisticattraction,in the manner that all
evacuated locations (ruins) and obsolete technologiesappearing to be exempt
fromor abandoned by the logic of the commodityand the instrumentality of
engineered desire had so qualified."50Such a view, however, failsto recognize that
the cityhas notbeen fullyevacuated.Simplybecause spectacle-culture has come to
be administeredprimarily in the home, the streetis not leftthereforeuncontami-
nated-quite theopposite.The "evacuated"citywas not so much "exemptfrom...
the logic of the commodity"as it was made into the site of mythicdiscourse,a
discourse whollycontingentupon spectacle-culture.It appeared as a divided
sign-division in the semiologicalsense of the emptyingof the sign of its mean-
ing,an operationconstitutive of myth.51 In thisoperationthe cityas sign-which
has "a fullness,a richness,a history"of itsown-is capturedbymythand is turned
into "an empty,parasiticalform,"52 a floatingsignifier able to be appropriatedfor
variousideologicalends.
But its meaning does not disappear; ratherit is put at a distance,held in
reserve.If the public realm is no longer "hypersignificant"53 or "filled"as it was
beforethe adventof spectacle-culture, it nonethelessmustbe acknowledgedthat
itsaestheticrole as "ruin"reproducespower.The "hyposignificant" cityof mythis
appropriated to various ends: its historyis put back into play in harmlessform
as entertainmentin, for example, touristattractionswhere "public" space is
commodifiedforvery"private"consumption.(In his "Introductionto a Critique
of Urban Geography,"Debord citestourismas that"populardrugas repugnantas
sportsor buyingon credit.")54The "museumization" of Parisis one obviousexam-
ple of this process. As stated earlier,these representationshave a verydefinite
ideological character: ".... the city is submitted to the norms of an abstract space

49. "On d6truitla rue Sauvage,"Potlatch7 (3 August1954); reprintedin Documents i lafonda-

relatifs
tionde l'Internationale 176. This articlewas followedup in "La formed'une ville change
situationniste:
plus vite,"Potlatch25 (26January1956); reprintedin Documents pp. 234-35.
relatifs,
50. Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, "FromDetail to Fragment:D&collage Affichiste," 56 (Spring
October
1991), p. 100.
51. See the essay"MythToday" in Roland Barthes,Mythologies (New York:NoondayPress,1972), pp.
109-59. Note thatthe essayscollectedhere werewrittenbetween1954 and 1956,preciselycontempo-
raneouswiththe Situationists'theoreticalarticulationof the dirive.
52. Ibid., pp. 117-18.
53. A term adopted from Francoise Choay; cf. her "S6miologie et urbanisme," L'Architecture
d'Aujourd'hui 132 (1967).
54. Guy-ErnestDebord, "Introductionto a Critique of Urban Geography,"trans.in Situationist
InternationalAnthology, p. 7.

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Situationist
Space 77

whichcorrespondsfairlypreciselyto the constitutionof a politicalorganization-

the State-external to the dailyactivityof the citizensand to theirattachmentto
the places theylivein."55
The Situationists'antipathytowardthe "charmsof ruins"was preciselyan
acknowledgmentthat these "normsof abstractspace" that constructthe public
domain as evacuated were not "charming"at all. But these representationswere
not imperviousto contestation;in fact,the coherence of the city'ssignification
was constantlythreateningto break down. This was due to the factthat,despite
the spectacle's hegemonic power, the production of the cityremained a social
practice,one thatcould not be fullyinstrumentalized. Contraryto the projections
of spectacularsociety,whichposited the cityas a natural,timelessform,it existed
onlyas "an environment formedbythe interactionand the integrationof different
practices."56The deriveas a practiceof the cityreappropriatedpublic space from
the realm of myth,restoringit to its fullness,its richness,and its history.As an
importanttool in the Situationists'struggleoverwho would speak throughthe city
during the 1950s, the deive was an attemptto change the meaning of the city
throughchangingthewayitwas inhabited.And thisstrugglewas conducted,not in
the name of a new cognitivemap,but in orderto constructa moreconcretecollec-
tivespace, a space whose potentialities
remainedopen-endedforall participantsin
the "ludic-constructive"
narrativeof a newurban terrain.

55. RaymondLedrut,"Speech and the Silence of the City,"in TheCityand theSign:An Introduction
to UrbanSemiotics,eds. M. Gottdienerand AlexandrosPh. Lagopoulos (New York:Columbia University
Press,1986), p. 125.
56. Ibid., p. 122.

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