Detouring the New City

Détournement -- to turn aside, turn against, to go without going somewhere -- was a key element of the practices of the Situationist International under the guidance of Guy Debord. He and his minions would branch out and wander the streets of Paris, deliberately going about their routeless routes, leaving only footprints in the dust and the occasional graffito "Ne Travaillez Jamais!" (Never Work!).

Latter-day theorists of the quotidian -- the imperceptible action of behavior that, because it was so ordinary, had not previously been thought to count for much -- such as Michel de Certeau took the Situationists' idea one step further: rather than claiming a practice for the intellectual few who consciously chose the path of diversion, De Certeau regarded all walking, all movement, as a performative act, within with the purposeful ("I am leaving the factory to head home"), the purposeless ("I will stop and gawk at this building") and even the perverse ("After petting the cat, I will drop it in the wheelie bin") as all, fundamentally, acts. Such seemingly non-productive acts, however small and"capillary" in their action, constitute another kind of work, work diverted from the production and consumption of capitalism, a anti-work or sorts that de Certau called "bricolage." Alongside the detoured walk, there could be detoured objects: the paper clip twisted into a sculpture, the office xerox machine used to xerox one's own face, or poetry, or shaped into music such as that of the "Xerophonics." Even the pigeons are getting in on the game.

So how might one view -- or apply -- these concepts in one's own life? Being conscious of the effort is not a disqualification; neither is it a requirement. Here are some potential instructions, which of course themselves might be further detoured:

1. Drive in circles for ten minutes on the way home. Then, don't go home.

2. Wear an unnecessary item of clothing (a scuba mask, party hat, clown shoes) to work.

3. Throw you cell phone into the ocean.

4. Tear out a page from a book you love, insert it into a sandwich, and eat it.

5. Learn to speak backwards (here are instructions).

6. Acquire a dead language, such as Old English or ancient Greek, and speak to everyone in it.

7. Wear only clothing manufactured prior to December 31, 1985.

8. The next time you see an advertisement, buy the product immediately.

9. Spent 10 hours clipping coupons, then put them through a shredder.

10. Send a child to work in your place, and spend the day in a sandbox, or reading children's books.