The Society of the Spectacle

Introduction

In this lesson, students will finish the last portion of their quiz on Modernism, take a unit pretest, and consider the ideas of Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle.

45 minute Block Specialty class (no defined SOL’s)

Cognitive Objectives

Students will show their prior knowledge of the upcoming unit through a pretest. Students will explore the idea of the spectacle.

Materials and Advanced Preparation

PowerPoint presentation/ digital projector Notes printouts.

Teaching and Learning Sequence

Introduction/ Anticipatory Set (5 minutes) Students will look at a quote by Debord:

o “In societies dominated by modern conditions of production, life is presented as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has receded into a representation.”

o I will have them try to decipher its meaning. I will explain to students that we will be looking once again at the idea of the spectacle

(explored previously when discussing the Olympics).

Lesson Development (35 minutes, Lecture and Discussion)

How does media effect… o the way we think?o the way we experience the real, physical world?o the way we “act” or conduct our lives?

Media Consumption statistics: According to 2010 New York Times data…o Americans ages 8 to 18 Average more than seven and a half hours a day watching

television or on the internet.o When taking multitasking into account: 11 hours of media content.o This does NOT count the hour and a half spent texting, or the half-hour talking on

cellphones. Is this a positive or a negative thing? We are “experiencing life” more through mass produced media than through our actual

daily interactions.

o Examples: Images of sunrises/sunsets vs. the actual; games like guitar hero; facebook.

“The spectacle presents itself simultaneously as society itself, as a part of society, and as a means of unification. As a part of society, it is the focal point of all vision and all consciousness.”

o Society itself: we begin to view mass media as society rather than merely a representation.

o Part of society: looking at it from a distance and seeing it as an element of society, an all-encompassing forum of ideas and images.

o Means of unification: songs, logos, images… “Spectators are linked solely by their one-way relationship to the very center that keeps

them isolated from each other. The spectacle thus reunites the separated, but it reunites them only in their separateness.”

“The reigning economic system is a vicious circle of isolation. Its technologies are based on isolation, and they contribute to that same isolation. From automobiles to television, the goods that the spectacular system chooses to produce also serve it as weapons for constantly reinforcing the conditions that engender “lonely crowds.”

“[The spectacle] is not a mere decoration added to the real world. It is the very heart of this real society’s unreality. In all of its particular manifestations — news, propaganda, advertising, entertainment — the spectacle represents the dominant model of life.”

While the media in many ways represents our lives, it also directs our lives (in Debord’s view, the media is increasingly directing rather than representing)

o Traditional idea that “art imitates life” transforms into “life imitates art.”o The difference between the media showing us who we are and showing us who we

should be. News/advertising/entertainment drive public thought and discourse.

o Talking “around the water cooler” The media creates characters or archetypes that we act out/ consume.

o Insane reality staro Manufactured identities: the surfer, the goth, the prep, etc (market segmentation)

What is behind all of this? Capitalism. “The spectacle cannot be understood as a mere visual excess produced by mass-media

technologies. It is a worldview that has actually been materialized, a view of a world that has become objective.”

o objective here meaning “external/externalized”

Closure (5 minutes)

During the last five minutes, we will have an open discussion about the idea of “the spectacle.”

Homework

None

Formative Assessment

I will check students understanding through questions during the lecture. I will see students’ thought processes through the wrap-up conversation.

Summative Assessment

I will grade students’ quizzes and pretests.

References

Simon Wilson and Jessica Lack, The Tate Guide to Modern Art Terms Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle Google image search

Appended Materials

Slideshow Pretest + answer sheet