The 1975 are using détournement to hijack billboard ads in the UK.
The 1975 are using détournement to hijack billboard ads in the UK.
It might be the weekend, but that doesn't mean that The 1975 are just sitting at home playing with Allen Ginsberg (the dog) and not planning more hijinks to ensure that we never ever get any sleep (shout-out to the NZ vs. UK timezone difference), nope, they've (of course) been busy introducing yet another link in their 'Music For Cars' album campaign to the situationist movement - this time using détournement ("the reuse of preexisting artistic elements in a new ensemble") to hijack existing billboard advertisements with the band's symbolic black rectangle, but pasting over the ad underneath so that the bottom ad still shows through the cut-out rectangle.
Like this:
The Situationist International's inaugural 1958 journal defined détournement as: "Short for 'détournement of preexisting aesthetic elements.' The integration of present or past artistic productions into a superior construction of a milieu. In this sense there can be no situationist painting or music, but only a situationist use of those means. In a more elementary sense, détournement within the old cultural spheres is a method of propaganda, a method which reveals the wearing out and loss of importance of those spheres."
Are the band working up to a big Situationist Prank?
This fan @avery_rose_k has it all worked out:
Seem familiar?? pic.twitter.com/38ESZQMA1C
— Avery (@avery_rose_k) May 5, 2018
It's important to note that these new détournement posters have the catalogue number DH00327. But what does this mean? We don't know, but this fan has some ideas:
(someone may have said this before but if not...) WOAH WOAH WOAH HOLD UP. The first blank poster that went up was DH00327 and says ‘The 1975 - Music For Cars’. That’s the only time we have seen that number until the new billboard coverings today. pic.twitter.com/5q7RLNw7c0
— MFC325MFC (@MusicOfThe1975) May 5, 2018
All the other posters we have seen have all been online and have all been DH00325 and are ‘The 1975 - A brief inquiry into online relationships’. Are they advertising TWO THINGS AT ONCE?! pic.twitter.com/fVzRznZFAe
— MFC325MFC (@MusicOfThe1975) May 5, 2018
The website is mainly just black which fits with DH00327 and goes with the billboard coverings found today well - black with cut outs. However the website is DH00325. Is the website advertising both parts of MFC - 2018 & 2019 pic.twitter.com/YVd0rTXeh4
— MFC325MFC (@MusicOfThe1975) May 5, 2018
So conclusion (for now). WHITE IS DH00325 and BLACK IS DH00327 and will come out this year and next year. Together they are MFC. They come together to make MFC and that why they share so much, like format of the posters but are ultimately different. pic.twitter.com/RcSJ7e0q3g
— MFC325MFC (@MusicOfThe1975) May 5, 2018
Compare and contrast. Same poster but the one which came out second after the link changed had a black border. Black is taking over. pic.twitter.com/4TAew9tDyy
— MFC325MFC (@MusicOfThe1975) May 5, 2018
We are being told that we are getting DH00325 first. The ‘white’ album in this context. I’ve attached the profile photos and cover photos of all relevant people in the band and in dirty hit pic.twitter.com/rlypQH0hqR
— MFC325MFC (@MusicOfThe1975) May 5, 2018
When I talk about the ‘white album’ it may be a long EP/short album maybe 4 tracks. Maybe 8. Anywhere in between
— MFC325MFC (@MusicOfThe1975) May 5, 2018
@undograce points out that this doesn't explain what DH00326 is, but the theory of a double album does explain this tweet by the band's manager Jamie Oborne (explaining why The 1975 haven't delivered their promised new EP):
Also, note that there are some phrases on this original poster that are enclosed within quotation marks, so may potentially be the titles of some songs:
Tweet us your own theories @coupdemain!
