In contrast, it implies that man himself is the creator of order in a world that is neither sympathetic nor hostile, and that the artist must play a central role in determining the type of order that is imposed. Intriguingly, the term 'situationism' also has a pedigree in the arts. There was an exhibition of situationist art held at the Centre Georges Pompidou and the Institute of Contemporary Arts in April 1989. The Situationists were an avant garde group of the 1950s and 1960s whose activities had a revival of interest in the late 1980s. The key features of their work were iconoclasm, a sense of purpose, an aura of radicality and by inference authenticity.
Theories are evanescent.
Like the medieval monks, they were doing what they could with the technologies of the time. I also do not believe that the foundations laid then will turn out to be completely irrelevant to the design of AI-ED systems to support the new pedagogy, whatever it turns out to be. This discussion of the recent history and context of AI-ED research unfortunately violates the very principles which we aim to advocate. It engages in a vague polemical debate about very general issues which do not necessarily impact directly on the design of systems. The purpose of the above discussion is not to denigrate alternative approaches, for that would be to join an unnecessarily confrontational debate setting up false dichotomies.