We carry the spectacle around in our pockets, so that we may constantly refer to it and never feel as if we are disconnected from it. Human relations now occur on screens, in the spectacle, obliterating all time and distance in a perpetual here and now. Because, of course, there is no there here, there is no then, either.Continue Reading
Sanitizing the Spectacle and the End of Celebrity In the early 1960‘s news, entertainment and advertising images were already loaded with emotional and social importance. An ad for cognac featuring a group of well dressed young men gathering around a tufted leather sofa is not just and advertisement for cognac,Continue Reading
The Signifier and the Thing Signified The spectacle also represents choices, choices already made by the collective worldview of our age and materialized by our engines of production. The resulting collection of news, propaganda, entertainment and advertising presents these choices, along with their justification, as a whole. Crucial toContinue Reading
From the Ideal to the Mundane A phenomenon of the spectacle is the presentation of material and conceptual constructs in ideal environments. The phenomenon exists because, just as there is no space or distance in the spectacle, there is also no time. “Ours is a brand new world of allatonceness”,Continue Reading
In Closing Because such fingers need to knit That subtle knot, which makes us man… John Donne, The Ecstasy Creation of the spectacle is a necessary part of modern human existence. As we begin to interact in increasingly virtual, synthetic environments, our separation from nature and increased auto-referential cosmology becomes furtherContinue Reading