Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun sociology reuse of elements of mainstream media to produce a subversive message (antonym: recuperation)

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French détournement.

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Examples

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  • "détournement: Used as an abbreviation for the formula: détournement of prefabricated aesthetic elements. The integration of past or present artistic production into a superior environmental construction. In this sense, there cannot be situationist painting, or music, but a situationist use of these media. In a more primitive sense, détournement from within old cultural spheres is a form of propaganda, which lays witness to the depletion and waning importance of these spheres."

    - Internationale Situationiste #1, Definitions, June, 1958

    December 31, 2007

  • Détournement: a “turning around” or “turning upsidedown.” A form of subversive misappropriation in which images, texts, and objects are willfully misread or decontextualized. (See Adbusting, Subvertisement, Culture Jamming).

    The 1950s group, Situationist International argued that détournement “could disrupt the power of dominant culture, creating ‘situations’ that liberated people from capitalism and constraint.” (Source: "Representing Resistance: Media, Civil Disobedience, and the Global Justice Movement" Praeger, 2003. 19-20.).

    January 8, 2012