Utopia or Bust

Posts Tagged ‘Détournement

Key Concepts of the Situationist International [powerpoint]

Posted by: lettrist on: September 22, 2009

In case you missed it, available here is the powerpoint presentation presented at the Tacoma Anarchist Book Fair. (FYI Some slides in the presented are incomplete, some fonts re-sized incorrectly with Google.)
Key Concepts of the Situationist International (powerpoint)
The video clips shown in the presentation were from the following films:

Can Dialectics Break Bricks? [part 1] [part [...]

Typography is Civilization

Posted by: lettrist on: August 31, 2009

Some Readings on Hipsters

Posted by: lettrist on: July 3, 2009

This is a reading list I am putting together for a discussion on hipsterism.

Why Hipsters Aren’t All That Hip, Forrest Perry, Monthly Review, 2006
On the Poverty of Hip Life, Raoul Vaneigem, Situationist International, 1972
Fiorucci Made Them Hipster, Lettrist, Utopia or Bust, 2009.
Why Hipsters Suck, Kerry Da Silva, Hybrid Magazine, 2008
Hip Hop Legend KRS-One Seizes New [...]

Macy’s Fashionista Détournement

Posted by: lettrist on: May 10, 2008

Another picture set for the Détournement Gallery. These Macy’s ads were found by a friend of mine who was browsing through the fashion annual in the Seattle’s The Stranger. The issue featured articles about socially-conscious alternative clothing styles interspersed with full-page Macy’s détournements. Have a look see -

This is how Macy’s and the other big [...]

Exhibit G: Communist Cookie Cutters

Posted by: lettrist on: April 13, 2008

I bought these cutters when I was in Berlin last summer; they’re in the shape of the Ampelmännchen pedestrian traffic lights that adorn the city’s Eastern parts. “Traffic psychologist” Karl Peglau created them to encourage friendliness within the Deutsche-Soviet sphere. The Ampelmännchen is probably the most well-known “ostalgic” artifact from the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR) [...]

Funny Interviews with Pro-War Demonstrators

Posted by: lettrist on: March 16, 2008

Why is it that I can never get a conservative to call me a scruffy-haired moonbat to my face? Today I put together this video with a friend while at an anti-war demonstration yesterday which shut down a military recruiting center in Tacoma, WA. The conservatives scoured the anti-war webpages and [...]

Détournement Gallery

Posted by: lettrist on: February 23, 2008

Welcome to the Gallery of Détournement! Below you will find some links to radical or revolutionary and iconic favorites détourned into consumer artifacts. The gallery will be updated as I come across more cultural items of interest. After exhibit C I decided that all the artifacts had to be ones I came across myself instead [...]

Exhibit D: "Anarchy Perfume"

Posted by: lettrist on: February 20, 2008

I found this in a Tacoma sex shop. My friend and I both agree there is something musty about this iconic détournement. The tagline is “the rules have changed”.

Exhibit C: "Anarchist Action Figure"

Posted by: lettrist on: February 5, 2008

Oakland, CA shop-droppers tried to purchase this from a shopping center, but the store manager said, “It’s full of like, political polemics. I don’t think we sell this. I don’t think it’s a product that we sell … it actually looks like some anti-like, G-6, 7 activist would just put on our shelves.”
The NYTimes wrote [...]

Exhibit B: "Barbie Learns to Cook"

Posted by: lettrist on: February 4, 2008

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