Anna O'Meara

Topic

Spectacle as World: Situationist Theories on the World of Images

Department of Art History and Visual Studies

Date & location

• Friday, March 21, 2025

• 12:00 P.M.

• Fine Arts Building, Room 115

• and Virtual Defence

Reviewers

Supervisory Committee

• Dr. Lianne McLarty, Department of Art History and Visual Studies, University of Victoria (Supervisor)

• Dr. Erin Campbell, Department of Art History and Visual Studies, UVic (Member)

• Dr. Emile Fromet de Rosnay, School of Languages, Linguistics and Culture, UVic (Outside Member)

• Dr. Olivier Morel, Department of Film, Television & Theatre, University of Notre Dame (Outside Member) 

External Examiner

• Dr. Jaleh Mansoor, Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory, University of British Columbia 

Chair of Oral Examination

• Dr. Brendan Burke, Department of Greek and Roman Studies, UVic

   

Abstract

Society of the Spectacle (1967) (La Société du Spectacle) was not simply an expression of the ideas of its author, Guy Debord, but rather served as a definitive theory of the Situationist movement (SI) (1957-1972.) This dissertation aims to explain the Situationist theory of the Spectacle through the central theme of the Spectacle as world. Discourse regarding the theory of Spectacle as world is established through primary texts, images, and archival documents by members of the Situationist International (SI) and interlocuters. Central sources include the book, Society of the Spectacle (1967), and the film, Society of the Spectacle (1972), both by Guy Debord. Context will be established through conflicts and comparisons with theories of worlds surrounding the Situationist milieu, particularly from Surrealism and the journal, Arguments.

The postwar period saw a proliferation of images through media to an extent that had not existed prior. However, according to the Situationist theory of “Spectacle,” this proliferation was a world, not a mere accumulation of images. Representations dominated architectural space, perception, and individual subjectivities. Aesthetes of the time like Surrealists and the journal, Arguments, characterized the postwar inundation of images as liberating. They argued that representations presented possibilities for limitless voyages into Inner Worlds. These concepts were often blended with mystical and occultist notions. Unlike aesthetes and mystics, Situationists rejected the glorification of representation, art, and the limitations of subjectivity, which they argued created an alienated inner wasteland. The Situationist project aimed to transcend the limitations of superficial perception, particularly insofar as perception was manipulated and socially defined. This transcendence was not intended to lead to a fixed utopian end, but rather a series of endings and beginnings because, unlike frozen images and reels of the past, the material world was in flux. Situationist strategies that employed principles of flux and diversity (e.g. détournement) presented challenges to media and representation as a means of iv contesting authoritarian structures, notably fascism, Stalinism, and colonialism.

This dissertation is organized into the following chapters: (1) Weltanschauung (worldview) (2) Pseudo-worlds (3) Inner Worlds (4) Dreamworlds (5) The End of the World. (1) Weltanschauung begins by defining the limitations of perception through Situationist readings of European philosophy, as well as the interpretations of their contemporaries, especially Surrealists and members of the journal, Arguments. Limitations to perception are considered particularly with regards to art and representation. (2) Chapter 2, Pseudo-worlds, considers how Debord defines the Spectacle as a “Weltanschauung materialized.” When materialized, worldviews become a pseudo-world separate from human thought and control. The illusory falsity of the pseudo-world is treated with regards to various designations including distortions, lies, and artificiality. (3) Inner Worlds considers how subjectivity is often envisioned as an individual’s mind; an inner being. Surrealists interpreted this interiority as an escape where the different manifestations of the Self could be found and unified. Contrarily, Situationists saw the Inner World as a wasteland of alienation. (4) Chapter 4, Dreamworlds, compares how Surrealists saw subjective Inner Worlds as best emulated by dreams with Situationist interpretations of the function of dreams as distinct from the Self. The relationship between art and dreams is essentially connected for Surrealists, but distinguished as separate by Situationists. Media, while not technically a dream-generator, emulates aspects of dreams in ways that detach individuals from material reality as a mechanism for social control. Means of challenging the Spectacle are hypothesized through the principle of change and a world in flux. (5) The End of the World considers possibilities for transcending Spectacle and subjectivity. If an individual contains an Inner World, then that world will end. New futures can be created. Change allows for creation v and revolution.