The Situationist Argument Essay

As William Henry Davies (1871-1940) a welsh poet and writer, expresses so eloquently, the biggest problem of modern day life. Each and every individual is so occupied and busy with their day to day work, accumulating time to spend time, to achieve the larger pre determined objectives of society (house, family, material mass), that they lack the ability to admire, wonder, even dream. The principal themes in his work illuminate the observations about the ways in which the human condition is affected by its surroundings. In the 1950s this idea of our psychological involvement to our environment was brought into focus by the Situationists, made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals and political theorists, their main theories represented an

The increasing regeneration and changes that many UK cities are undergoing places some urgency on Artists, Designers and Writers to help unravel and reveal the changing urban scenes to us. Architects and Urban planners have historically adopted the belief that the right environment could facilitate a better society. (Elina Linina, Self-published Essay, p.4) This ethos reveals a connection that influences the way in which design and art are engaged with in the outside environment. Its an undeniable truth that our surroundings directly impact our daily meanderings whether we are privy to it or not. The visual canvas of our city streets can be used to reflect the diverse cultural disciplines that occur, keeping current and historical affairs in public view as well as controlling the way in which space is used. Urban (or street) Artists in particular have emerged as a progressive valuable art form whose vast history, socially relevant content and aesthetically infused value, illuminate our streets with a strong current of activism and subversion that communicates to and links people regardless of oppositional views. Or simply, they see urban space as an untapped format for personal artwork and expression, Street

Walking is the best way to explore and exploit the city; the changes, shifts, movement of light on the water. Drifting purposefully is the recommended mode, tramping ashfelt in alert reverie, allowing the friction of an underlying pattern to reveal itself. (Iain Sinclair: Lights out for the Territory (London: Granta, 1997)