Editing Détournement

{{short description|Artistic style}}
[[File:Its a bore.jpg|thumb|A cigarette advertisement on a billboard turned into a ''détournement'' by the group BUGUP, by defacing the cowboy image and modifying the text, probably including "Marlboro", to read "It's a bore."]]
{{Situationists|expanded=Concepts}}
A '''détournement''' ({{IPA|fr|detuʁnəmɑ̃|lang}}), meaning "rerouting, hijacking" in [[French language|French]], is a technique developed in the 1950s by the [[Letterist International]],<ref name="nues8">{{cite web|last1=Debord|first1=Guy-Ernest|last2=Wolman|first2=Gil J.|date=May 1956|title=A User's Guide to Détournement|url=http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/detourn.htm|url-status=live|access-date=March 16, 2021|website=Bureau of Public Secrets|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010306110004/http://bopsecrets.org:80/SI/detourn.htm |archive-date=2001-03-06 }}</ref> and later adapted by the [[Situationist International]] (SI),<ref name="ReportManifesto57">''[[Report on the Construction of Situations]]'' (1957)</ref><ref name="SI58">{{cite journal |url=http://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline///si/is1.html |journal=Situationist International |number=1 |title=Definitions |date=June 1958 |access-date=June 2, 2013}}</ref> that was defined in the SI's inaugural 1958 journal as "[t]he integration of present or past artistic productions into a superior construction of a milieu. In this sense there can be no situationist painting or music, but only a situationist use of those means. In a more elementary sense, ''détournement'' within the old cultural spheres is a method of propaganda, a method which reveals the wearing out and loss of importance of those spheres."<ref name="SI58" /><ref name="si58french">{{cite journal |url=http://ubumexico.centro.org.mx/text/si/Internationale_situationniste_1.pdf |journal=Internationale Situationniste |title=Définitions |language=fr |quote=Intégration de productions actuelles ou passées des arts dans une construction supérieure du milieu. Dans ce sens il ne peut y avoir de peinture ou de musique situationniste, mais un usage situationniste de ces moyens. Dans un sens plus primitif, le détournement à l'intérieur des sphères culturelles anciennes est une méthode de propagande, qui témoigne de l'usure et de la perte d'importance de ces sphères. |page=13 |number=1 |date=June 1958 |access-date=June 2, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170417010846/http://ubumexico.centro.org.mx/text/si/Internationale_situationniste_1.pdf |archive-date=April 17, 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref>  

The brand marketing specialist Douglas B. Holt defined it as "turning expressions of the capitalist system and its [[media culture]] against itself".<ref name="Holt2010p252">{{cite book |author=Douglas B. Holt |title=Cultural Strategy Using Innovative Ideologies to Build Breakthrough Brands |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2010 |page=252}}</ref> 

Détournement was prominently used to set up subversive political pranks, an influential tactic called [[situationist prank]] that was reprised by the [[punk movement]] in the late 1970s<ref name="Marrone05">{{cite book|last=Marrone|first=Gianfranco|title=Sensi alterati: droghe, musica, immagini|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0jluoyGktKsC&pg=PT43|year=2005|publisher=Meltemi Editore|language=it|isbn=978-88-8353-420-1|pages=43–45|quote=...gioco al complotto, alla manipolazione dei media, alla beffa, alla "grande truffa," o al ''detournement'' – inventato dai situazionisti e ripreso dai punk – che appunto del situazionismo sono talvolta concreti continuatori. Pensiamo in questo senso al fin troppo noto caso, esagerato dai media, ma paradigmatico, del manager dei Sex Pistols, [[Malcolm McLaren]], a partire dal quale, nell'estate del 1977, si scatenò, con grande scandalo, il lancio del gruppo dei Pistols in pieno Giubileo della regina, e l'interesse della stampa per la nascente scena punk. Tuttavia, anche in questo caso non si tratta, come invece è stato spesso sostenuto, di freddo "gioco a tavolino", di cinismo, di furbo lancio di un prodotto da parte di chi aveva studiato i media e lavorava sulla guerriglia semiologica (cfr. Fabbri P. 2002, p.40), di una tattica che sarebbe poi stata facilmente sfruttata e fatta propria da quel momento in avanti dall'industria culturale ''mainstream''.}}</ref> and inspired the [[culture jamming]] movement in the late 1980s.<ref name="Holt2010p252"/>

Its opposite is [[recuperation (politics)|recuperation]], in which radical ideas or the social image of people who are viewed negatively are twisted, commodified, and absorbed in a more socially acceptable context.

== Definition ==
In general it can be defined as a variation on previous work, in which the newly created work has a meaning that is antagonistic or antithetical to the original. The original media work that is ''détourned''<!-- must check if détourned is syntactically correct --> must be somewhat familiar to the target audience, so that it can appreciate the opposition of the new message. The artist or commentator making the variation can reuse only some of the characteristic elements of the originating work.

Détournement is similar to [[satire|satirical]] [[parody]], but employs more direct reuse or faithful [[mimicry]] of the original works rather than constructing a new work which merely alludes strongly to the original.  It may be contrasted with [[recuperation (sociology)|recuperation]], in which originally subversive works and ideas are themselves appropriated by mainstream media. Détournement, on the other hand, makes it possible for the images produced by the spectacle get altered and subverted so that rather than supporting the ''status quo'', their meaning becomes changed in order to put across a more radical or oppositional message.

[[Guy Debord]] and [[Gil J. Wolman]] categorized détourned elements into two types: ''minor détournements'' and ''deceptive détournements''. Minor détournements are détournements of elements that in themselves are of no real importance such as a snapshot, a press clipping, an everyday object which draw all their meaning from being placed in a new context. Deceptive détournements are when already significant elements such as a major political or philosophical text, great artwork or work of literature take on new meanings or scope by being placed in a new context.<ref>{{cite web |first1=Guy |last1=Debord | last2=Wolman | first2=Gil J. | title=A User's Guide to Detournement | website=Bureau of Public Secrets | url=http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/detourn.htm | date=May 1956}}</ref> For Debord, a détournement is a way to expose explicitly the inner workings of the objective reality of the Spectacle, thus creating a window for criticism.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Stacey |first=Jack |date=2020-07-31 |title=A Spectacular Theory of Today's Woke Advertising |url=https://areomagazine.com/2020/07/31/a-spectacular-theory-of-todays-woke-advertising/ |access-date=2024-05-22 |website=Areo |language=en-US}}</ref>

== Examples after the Situationist International ==
In the United States, [[Frank Discussion]] is widely known for his use of détournement in his works dating from the late 1970s through the present, particularly with the [[Feederz]]. The use of détournement by [[Barbara Kruger]] familiarised many with the technique, and it was extensively and effectively used as part of the early [[AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power|HIV/AIDS activism]] of the late 1980s and early 1990s.<ref>{{cite book |last=Crimp |first=Douglas |title=AIDS Demographics |publisher=Bay Press |year=1990}}</ref> Examples of contemporary detournement include [[Adbusters]]' "[[subvertising|subvertisements]]" and other instances of [[culture jamming]], as well as poems composed collaboratively by [[Marlene Mountain]], [[Paul Conneally]], and others, in which quotations from such famous sources as the [[Ten Commandments]] and quotations by [[United States]] President [[George W. Bush]] are combined with haiku-like phrases to produce a larger work intended to subvert the original source.  The comic artist [[Brad Neely]]'s reinterpretation of [[Harry Potter]], ''[[Wizard People, Dear Reader|Wizard People]],'' took [[Warner Bros.]]' first Harry Potter film, ''[[Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (film)|The Sorcerer's Stone]],'' and substituted the original soundtrack with a narration that casts the hero as a [[Nietzschean]] [[Übermensch|superman]].

The concept of detournement has had a popular influence amongst contemporary radicals, and the technique can be seen in action in the present day when looking at the work of [[Culture Jammer]]s including the [[Cacophony Society]], [[Billboard Liberation Front]], [[monochrom]], Occupy Movements<ref>{{cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JD8jNCQ2gw  |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/4JD8jNCQ2gw| archive-date=2021-12-11 |url-status=live|title=John Fawkes Occupied by DoBHi - Stop SOPA |quote=Détournement of Bronzed Historical Icons adorns imaginary John Harvard with a Guy Fawkes mask |date=Jan 15, 2012 |website=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}</ref> and [[Adbusters]], whose "subvertisements" "detourn" [[Nike, Inc.|Nike]] adverts, for example. In this case, the original advertisement's imagery is altered in order to draw attention to said company's policy of shifting their production base to cheap-labour third-world "[[free trade zone]]s". From the late 1970s to the early 1990s health campaigners operating under the name of BUGA-UP (Billboard Utilising Graffitists Against Unhealthy Promotions) revised hundreds of tobacco and alcohol industry billboards around Australia to include satirical and condemnatory messages.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cadambi |first=Anjali |date=2021-09-30 |title=Billboard Utilising Graffitists Against Unhealthy Promotions (BUGA UP) campaigns against tobacco advertising, Australia, 1978-1994 |url=https://commonslibrary.org/billboard-utilising-graffitists-against-unhealthy-promotions-buga-up-campaigns-against-tobacco-advertising-australia-1978-1994/ |access-date=2025-01-29 |website=The Commons Social Change Library |language=en-AU}}</ref>  However, the line between "recuperation" and "détournement" can become thin (or at least very fuzzy) at times, as [[Naomi Klein]] points out in her book ''[[No Logo]]''. Here she details how [[corporation]]s such as Nike, [[Pepsi]] or Diesel have approached Culture Jammers and Adbusters and offered them lucrative contracts in return for partaking in "ironic" promotional campaigns. She points out further irony by drawing attention to merchandising produced in order to promote Adbusters' [[Buy Nothing Day]], an example of the recuperation of détournement if ever there was one.

Klein's arguments about irony [[wikt:reify|reifying]] rather than breaking down power structures are echoed by [[Slavoj Žižek]]. Žižek argues that the kind of distance opened up by détournement is the condition of possibility for ideology to operate: by attacking and distancing oneself from the sign-systems of capital, the subject creates a fantasy of transgression that "covers up" their actual complicity with capitalism as an overarching system. In contrast, scholars are very fond of pointing out the differences between [[hypergraphics]], "detournement", the [[postmodern]] idea of [[cultural appropriation|appropriation]] and the [[Neoist]] use of [[plagiarism]] as the use of different and similar techniques used for different and similar means, effects and causes.

The [[Neue Slowenische Kunst]] has a long history of aggressive détournement of extreme political ideologies, as do several [[industrial music|industrial music groups]], such as [[Die Krupps]], [[Nitzer Ebb]], [[KMFDM]], and [[Front 242]].

[[Chris Morris (satirist)|Chris Morris]] uses détournement and [[culture jamming]] extensively in his work, particularly in the British television series ''[[The Day Today]]'' and ''[[Brass Eye]]''.

== Détournement in advertising ==
In advertising, a détournement (''détournement publicitaire'' in French) is almost like [[subvertising]], except that the goal of a détournement is to promote a product by mocking the way another one is promoted. In October 2023, [[Netflix]] used the advertising visual style of luxury jewelry brands but with models that were obviously missing those jewels, a trick to promote the series [[Lupin (French TV series)|Lupin]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Fear |first=Natalie |date=2023-10-05 |title=Netflix 'steals' from luxury brands in clever ad campaign |url=https://www.creativebloq.com/news/netflix-lupin-adverts |access-date=2024-05-22 |website=Creative Bloq |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Quand Lupin rencontre Rolex : Netflix joue la carte du détournement publicitaire |url=https://lareclame.fr/netflix-lupin-partie-3-luxe-286716 |access-date=2024-05-22 |website=la Réclame |language=en}}</ref> In 2012, [[Sixt]] made a détournement of [[2012 François Hollande presidential campaign|François Hollande's presidential campaign]] for a billboard ad.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2012-05-21 |title=Pub Sixt : le détournement, c'est maintenant. |url=https://www.nouvelobs.com/societe/20120518.OBS5848/pub-sixt-le-detournement-c-est-maintenant.html |access-date=2024-05-22 |website=Le Nouvel Obs |language=fr}}</ref>

Naomi Klein describes this as a récuperation of détournement. In Debord's words, in the case of advertising, the détournement reverses the Spectacle, and in doing so becomes the Spectacle. Examples include [[Sprite (drink)|Sprite]]'s ''Image is nothing'', Nike's 1997 campaign slogan '''I am not/A target market/I am an athlete''<nowiki/>', and [[Colin Kaepernick]]'s ''Taking the knee'' Nike campaign.<ref name=":0" />

== See also ==
* [[Anti-art]]
* [[Culture jamming]]
* [[Comic strip switcheroo]]
* [[Doppelgänger brand image]]
* [[Dumb Starbucks]]
* [[Recuperation (politics)]]
* [[Scratch video]]
* [[Subvertising]]
* [[YouTube Poop]]
* [[Brandalism]]

== References ==
{{reflist|2}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book|first=Tom|last=McDonough|title=The Beautiful Language of My Century|year=2007|publisher=[[The MIT Press]]|isbn=978-0-262-13477-4}}

== Footnotes ==

* [https://commonslibrary.org/buga-up/ BUGA-UP – Billboard Utilising Graffitists Against Unhealthy Promotions] 10 April 2019.  Retrieved 29 January 2025

== External links ==
*{{Wiktionary-inline}}
*{{Commons category-inline}}

{{Culture jamming}}
{{Appropriation in the Arts}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Detournement}}
[[Category:Protest tactics]]
[[Category:Anti-corporate activism]]
[[Category:Humour]]
[[Category:Psychogeography]]
[[Category:Situationist International]]
[[Category:Culture jamming techniques]]
[[Category:Literary terminology]]
[[Category:Derivative works]]