ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the impact of anglicised avant-garde practice on contemporary cultural activity. It introduces few spheres of contemporary British avant-garde activity, chosen for their relation to the two Situationist concepts that have had the most traction in Britain: detournement and psychogeography. The chapter focuses on Patrick Keiller's particular version of psychogeography. The phenomenon associated with the Situationist International (SI) in Britain is punk the whole subculture as much as the music. Punk has many origin myths, but its Situationist connection is generally agreed to begin with Malcolm McLaren, founder and manager of the Sex Pistols. In the 1969 announcement of the English Section's expulsion, the SI described Chris Gray's new project, 'a rag called King Mob', as 'slightly pro-situationist'. Part of the radical diffuseness of pro-situ activity is a result of British Situationism's lack of an authoritative manifesto. Martin Puchner describes how the manifestos of the historical avant-garde undertook an historiographical project alongside their more immediate declarative functions.
