Detournement

Detournement is an interesting concept.  It relates to satire, but appropriates or hijacks an original source to subvert the original meaning within a new context, whereas satire is less direct using allusion to its source without re-purposing the actual source. The reading was a little difficult to piece through, because it used a lot of examples from sources that I am unfamiliar with. This is a little ironic because the point of understanding detournement relies on the fact that the audience is familiar with the original source material. An easy example to understand is the image of Mona Lisa being appropriated and altered (the text gives the example of Duchamp painting a moustache on Mona Lisa). The reading supports the notion that the possibilities of detournement are limitless; it's not merely an opposite game, where the meaning of something is changed to its antithesis. Instead, meanings are endless, resulting from every new context or juxtaposition that is formed around the source.

This notion led me to consider the use of internet memes. Although internet memes may be a low or novel example of illustrating detournement, I think that they still apply to the concept. With internet memes, the appropriated image becomes the context, which changes meaning according to the text overlaid. Oftentimes the use of the meme is subverted to the point where the nature of the meme is attacked for the way in which it operates.