Space of Conveyance
The momentary operation of all Subject/Object transmissions
wherein the Subject observes the Object WHILE being acted upon by the Object
Utterance
An Object-mediated Conveyance between Author & Spectator
Guy Debord - Society of the Spectacle
1
In societies where modern conditions of production prevail,
all of life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles.
Everything that was directly lived has moved away into a representation.
2
The images detached from every aspect of life fuse in a common stream
in which the unity of this life can no longer be reestablished.
Reality considered partially unfolds, in its own general unity,
as a pseudo-world apart, an object of mere contemplation.
The specialization of images of the world
is completed in the world of the autonomous image,
where the liar has lied to himself.
The spectacle in general, as the concrete inversion of life,
is the autonomous movement of the non-living.
3
The spectacle presents itself simultaneously as all of society,
as part of society, and as instrument of unification.
As a part of society
it is specifically the sector which concentrates
all gazing and all consciousness.
Due to the very fact that this sector is separate,
it is the common ground of the deceived gaze and of false consciousness,
and the unification it achieves
is nothing but an official language of generalized separation.
4
The spectacle is not a collection of images,
but a social relation among people,
mediated by images.
5
The spectacle cannot be understood as an abuse of the world of vision,
as a product of the techniques of mass dissemination of images.
It is, rather, a Weltanschauung which has become actual, materially translated.
It is a world vision which has become objectified.
***
Weltanschauung: Worldview
Worldview can be expressed as the fundamental
cognitive, affective, and evaluative presuppositions
a group of people make about the nature of things,
and which they use to order their lives.
Due to the primacy of the Aesthetic Object in postmodern society,
all individuals stand in relation to the Aesthetic Object,
the Spectacle is the Object’s multiplicitous manifestation
propagating itself through production culture
Let us be clear,
The Spectacle is the byproduct of Utterance, not merely Conveyance
The postmodern Object is commodified, as postmodernity is a culture of Commodity,
This commodification is the imposition of Value on the Object:
Value expresses a relation between Subject and Object
(the Object’s Value to the Subject)
Because this Value is a Subjective imposition
(The Subject valuing an Object)
the Valued Object (Commodity) appears
as an Object intended for a Subject
(the imposed Value is Subject-reflective)
Further,
The Commodity, being the result of Production, carries the mark of Authorship,
though the Commodity in light of Conveyance,
obscures this Authorship through the shifting Subject/Object interplay,
this reification transforms the Commodity
from thing-intended-for the Subject to thing-desired-by the Subject
In effect,
the Authorship of the Commodity is transferred to the Spectator
(the illusion of Avatar)
If we accept Debord’s analysis of the Spectacle as Worldview materially translated,
then the resulting reification of the Commodity
(the illusory transference of Authorship)
manifests a false sense of Subject Agency, or, Will in the World.
