#MEMOIRES GUY DEBORD SERIES#

It reduces our lives into a daily series of commodity exchanges. Such technology is incredibly useful, but it also engineers our behavior. What do you do when you get lost in a foreign city? Do you ask a passer-by for directions, or consult Google Maps on your smartphone? Perhaps Siri can help. DebordвЂ™s notions can be appliedВ to our present-day reliance on technology. Photography and film collapses time and geographic distance - providing the illusion of universal connectivity. The media interprets (and reduces) the world for us with the use of simple narratives. Images influence our lives and beliefs on a daily basis advertising manufactures new desires and aspirations. The Spectacle is not a collection of images, but a social relation among people, mediated by images.Дebord observed that the spectacle actively alters human interactions and relationships. This concern is encapsulated by DebordвЂ™s fourth thesis (emphasis my own): The book essentially reworks the Marxist concepts of commodity fetishism and alienation for the film, advertising, and television age. Everything that was directly lived has moved away into representation.Д«y paraphrasing Marx, Debord immediately establishes a connection between the spectacle and the economy. Marx: The wealth of societies in which the capitalist mode of production prevails presents itself as an immense accumulation of commodities.Дebord: In societies where modern conditions of production prevail, all of life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. The first thesis reworks the opening line of Karl MarxвЂ™s Das Capital (1867): The Society of the Spectacle consists of 221 short theses divided across nine chapters. DebordвЂ™s insights however, were far more profound. If we were to judge The Society of the Spectacle by Black and RedвЂ™s cover, we might assume that the book is a straightforward critique of media-driven conformity. Although the image encapsulates DebordвЂ™s contempt for consumer culture, it reductively implies that his work was mediaphobic (Debord later adapted The Society of the Spectacle into his first feature-length film by utilizing footage from advertisements, newsreels, and other movies). EyermanвЂ™s photograph reduces the audience members to uniform rows of spectacled spectators. In the foreground, a besuited, heavy-set gentleman watches the screen intently, his mouth agape. Originally reproduced in LIFE magazine, the image captures the filmвЂ™s audience gazing passively at the screen with the use of anaglyph glasses. EyermanвЂ™s iconic photograph of the premiere of Bwana Devil (1952), the first 3D color film. The first English translation of DebordвЂ™s text was published in 1970 by Black and Red Books. For Debord, this constituted an unacceptable вЂњdegradationвЂќ of our lives.

It is the listicle telling you вЂњ10 things you need to know about вЂx.вЂ™вЂќ The spectacle reduces reality to an endless supply of commodifiable fragments, while encouraging us to focus on appearances. It is the advertisements plastered on the subway and the pop-up ads that appear in your browser. It can be found on every screen that you look at. The spectacle takes on many more forms today than it did during DebordвЂ™s lifetime. вЂњRather than talk of the spectacle, people often prefer to use the term вЂmedia,вЂ™вЂќ he writes, вЂњand by this they mean to describe a mere instrument, a kind of public service.вЂќ Instead, Debord describes the spectacle as capitalismвЂ™s instrument for distracting and pacifying the masses.

Guy DebordвЂ™s (1931вЂ“1994) best-known work, La sociГ©tГ© du spectacle ( The Society of the Spectacle) (1967), isВ a polemicalВ and prescientВ indictment of our image-saturated consumer culture.В The book examinesВ the вЂњSpectacle,вЂќ DebordвЂ™s term for the everyday manifestation of capitalist-driven phenomena advertising, television, film, and celebrity.Дebord defines the spectacle as the вЂњautocratic reign of the market economy.вЂќ Though the term вЂњmass mediaвЂќ is often used to describe the spectacleвЂ™s form, Debord derides its neutrality.

Memoires guy debord