Sites of Spectacular Agency: A political theory for everyone and no one

8/9/2019 Sites of Spectacular Agency: A political theory for everyone and no one

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Sites of Sites of A theory of A theory of

no oneno one

the Poncey-Highlands Reading Gr Europische Universitt fr InterdiGraduate School (CH)

pectacular Agency pectacular Agency ::politics for everyone andpolitics for everyone and

oupziplinre Studien/ The European

PaulPaulBoshearsBoshears


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Inv

ecoevotheof a

frui

TheThesimsim

asinstinstunif butgengen

stigating spectaclist

omic relations provides ancative analy

tic for palpatingcontours of that new modegency required in the

ion of globalization.

spectacle presents itself spectacle presents itself ltaneously as all of societyltaneously as all of society ,

art of society, and asasument of ument of unificationunification ...theication it achieves is nothingan official language of official language of eralized separation.eralized separation.


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The contingeThe continge cy mode of organizationcy mode of organization


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Like political action :Rituals promote solidarity a

Rituals reinvigorate and rein

Rituals do not have to be basbut rituals require appropriatioof the context (propriety). Ritupornography.

Today the dominantmode of political action ispornographicpornographic a ritualaction that is performedso as to inculcate in theinculcate in theviewer a sense thatviewer a sense that

something has beensomething has beensatisfied.satisfied.

ong the group

orce membership

d on metaphysical truths,n and re-envisioning in lightl divorced from propriety is


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W elcome to the collective.You are Anonymous.

You are Legion.You do not forgive.

You do not forget.And You do not matter.


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Ceci sexxxy

Ceci n'estsexxxy

as


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Lingua TraumaLingua Trauma


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Andrea Fraser.

U ntitled . (2003)

Johan Grimonprez.Double Take . (2009)


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The commodificatithe individual-as-c

offering a seemingunique personalityamong mass prodaffirmation of one

A spectaclist economyspectaclist economy assubelieve themselves to be funone another and the objects

contact.

Cool is to sCool is to svalue isvalue is

n of memory, reconcilesnsumer with this world,

re-assertion of his or her by making choicesced commodities thetaste . - George Markus.

es that the agentsdamentally alienated fromwith which they come in

ectaclist economics asectaclist economics asto capitalist economicsto capitalist economics


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If you were cool in high schoyou didnt ask too many queYou could tell whod been tobig metal concert by the nehallways.You didnt have to askand thats what cool was :the ability to deduce,to know without asking . A nd the pressure to simulatmeans not asking when youwhich is why kids grow ever

oltions.

last nightst-shirts in the

coolnessdont know,more stupid .

Dave Berman.Self-Portrait at 28


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Cool is a fully mimetic-between all reality (act

Cool, impossibly, seekother the subject that

that would answer

Psycasthenia losingsurroundings

communicative relational and perceived)

to collapse into eachsks and the object

neself in one's


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Were creating it to where thaperiod. To where a motherfucThats a superstar . Lil' Wayn

My drawings, like my texts,order. For me, the most a

in what I show . Pierre Kloss

ts the artist you have to beer just gotta like YOU.. Tha Carter . (2009)

re of a dramaturgicalthentic vision of what I do is

owski


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I

beevS

t

d

m determined and ready to

a commodity that fulfillseryones fantasies.sha Grey

It is the horizon based on whiche image may have a meaning,

y pointing to a desired world,hich the beholder thuse comes capable of discussing,nd based on which his ownesire can rebound. Sergeaney


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The f lneur , like Whitmanscomposes itself in the sharethis space at this time. It is a

ong o f Mysel f ,experience of being in

n affirmation.


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tpectacular Agency a

heory of politics for veryone and no one .


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Spectaclist economicsrequires two messages :

1 ) that who you are isprimarily the result of your purchasingdecisions

2) that you are only asimportant as your purchasing capabilities.

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Sites of Spectacular Agency: A political theory for everyone and no one