Biographical Sketch
Seth David French is currently in his third year of doctoral studies in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Arkansas as a Distinguished Doctoral Fellow. Seth's primary research interests are Critical Media Literacy, New Literacies, and Teacher Education. His most recent publications are "Before You Click “Share”: Mindful Media Literacy as a Positive Civic Act" and "Fiction or Reality? The Reciprocity of School Film Literacy Representations and Educational Policy, 1955–2017."
Type of Presentation
Individual presentation
Brief Description of Presentation
This session introduces attendees to detournement as a critical media literacy art form, shares its applications for the classroom, demonstrates student-created examples, and provides practical strategies for creating detournement with students at the secondary level and beyond.
Abstract of Proposal
In the 1950s, a European collective known as the Situationist International “developed an increasingly incisive and coherent critique of modern society and of its bureaucratic pseudo-opposition” using previously unforeseen methods of subversion (Knabb, 1989). According to Trier (2013), detournement was “the main method that the situationists developed to critique and challenge the . . . socially controlling forces” that were circulating from those in power. Put simply, detournement is a compilation of images/videos with disparate claims that, when juxtaposed against one another, create a new message with a critical orientation toward one or several of the claims within. By interacting with detournement and practicing the art form themselves, students gain valuable experience analyzing and critiquing media messages--experience that is indispensable in today’s age of fake news and media illiteracy. This session introduces attendees to detournement as a critical media literacy art form, demonstrates its applications for the classroom, shares student-created examples (links available upon request), and provides practical strategies for creating detournement with students at the secondary level and beyond. After attending this session, attendees should have a better understanding of detournement as defined by Sussman (1989) and Trier (2014), and be able to envision practical means of creating detournement themselves to incorporate it into their pedagogy. While the session is primarily geared toward teachers at the secondary level and above, teachers at the middle school level would likely benefit from attending as well to potentially challenge their students to practice consuming and producing with the critical art form of detournement.
Knabb, K., (Ed.). (1989). Situationist International Anthology. Berkeley: Bureau of Public Secrets
Sussman, E. (Ed.). (1989). On the passage of a few people through a rather brief moment in time: The Situationist International, 1957–1972. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Trier, J. (2013). Challenging Waiting for Superman through detournement. Journal of Popular Film & Television, 41(2), 68-77.
Trier, J. (Ed.). (2014). Detournement as pedagogical praxis. The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.
Location
Session 1B (Summit, Double Tree)
Start Date
2-22-2019 10:30 AM
End Date
2-22-2019 12:00 PM
Recommended Citation
French, Seth, "Students as Critical Media Makers: Practical Strategies for Creating Detournement with Students" (2019). International Critical Media Literacy Conference (2016-2019). 5.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/criticalmedialiteracy/2019/2019/5
Students as Critical Media Makers: Practical Strategies for Creating Detournement with Students
Session 1B (Summit, Double Tree)
In the 1950s, a European collective known as the Situationist International “developed an increasingly incisive and coherent critique of modern society and of its bureaucratic pseudo-opposition” using previously unforeseen methods of subversion (Knabb, 1989). According to Trier (2013), detournement was “the main method that the situationists developed to critique and challenge the . . . socially controlling forces” that were circulating from those in power. Put simply, detournement is a compilation of images/videos with disparate claims that, when juxtaposed against one another, create a new message with a critical orientation toward one or several of the claims within. By interacting with detournement and practicing the art form themselves, students gain valuable experience analyzing and critiquing media messages--experience that is indispensable in today’s age of fake news and media illiteracy. This session introduces attendees to detournement as a critical media literacy art form, demonstrates its applications for the classroom, shares student-created examples (links available upon request), and provides practical strategies for creating detournement with students at the secondary level and beyond. After attending this session, attendees should have a better understanding of detournement as defined by Sussman (1989) and Trier (2014), and be able to envision practical means of creating detournement themselves to incorporate it into their pedagogy. While the session is primarily geared toward teachers at the secondary level and above, teachers at the middle school level would likely benefit from attending as well to potentially challenge their students to practice consuming and producing with the critical art form of detournement.
Knabb, K., (Ed.). (1989). Situationist International Anthology. Berkeley: Bureau of Public Secrets
Sussman, E. (Ed.). (1989). On the passage of a few people through a rather brief moment in time: The Situationist International, 1957–1972. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Trier, J. (2013). Challenging Waiting for Superman through detournement. Journal of Popular Film & Television, 41(2), 68-77.
Trier, J. (Ed.). (2014). Detournement as pedagogical praxis. The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.
