Detourn and Redress

Detournement is a technique that involves the combining of different preexisting or found elements into a single one. The success of the combination is dependent on the viewers’ memory of the original contexts in which the elements were first used. In joining them, a new meaning can be created. Any media can be utilized such as film, newspaper clippings, comic strips, famous phrases or poetry, photographs or audio recordings. Guy Debord stated,

"the main force of a detournement is directly related to the conscious or vague recollection of the original contexts of the elements"

There are many examples of the technique being used today such as the music sampling by hip hop performers or the subverting of corporate logos by artists working in the anti- globalization milieu. There is extensive literature from it’s originators on it’s use, here’s a link A User’s Guide to Détournement
Some of the techniques of detournement had involved collage but I was particularly intrigued when looking at comic strips that had been used with new slogans placed over the original dialogue balloons. I was interested in using the technique as a way to shake a finger at my own culture while using familiar material from my childhood in the U.S. such as toys and elements from television and movies. It had been some time since the Situationists had done the comic strips and posters so the techniques had been rather low-tech. I thought I would try an updated use of the strategy by use of computer scanning and photo retouching toy labels then changing them. I began to think of other methods to use the general idea of detournement. Looking back at images from my childhood, like the costumed characters that appeared on television shows that I loved to watch. I was thinking of these guys when I came up with Possum Pete. Their behavior on the programs were mostly acting out slapstick comedy and being silly most of the time. I thought changing the context in which a costumed character was used could be another way to use an image from media to address issues I felt were important. I didn’t explore the other Situationist techniques such as derive, but instead focused more on ways of communicating the idea of media spectacles. Once I went beyond the Situationist material, I found that I was cherry picking in a way from the various writings of other theorists to support the argument for media influence, Michel Foucault and Roland Barthes among some of them.

I think it boiled down to this, my belief was that anyone who indulged in television, film or magazines anywhere in the world were being lied to by those who controlled the production of that media, and I just wanted to yell "liar!"

Redressive

In the book, "In Other Los Angeleses" Meling Cheng states "By virtue of its goals, the redressive function places performance in between artistic invention and cultural intervention; it galvanizes performance to address both the meta-reality of art and the empirical reality of life"
Performance can be a medium where the artist may use himself or herself as the medium that is being manipulated along with time, space, and the audience with the end pursuit of making forms. Redressive performance is less concerned about creating a forms; its focus is to convey the issues contained within the performance to the audience. In this way, it can address conditions within the society at large wherever one is, to intervene, give testimony, or suggest alternatives.