Introduction: From the Notion of Spectacle to Spectacle 2.0: The Dialectic of Capitalist Mediations
Affiliation: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, US
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Affiliation: State University of Milan, IT
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Chapter from the book: Briziarelli M. & Armano E. 2017. The Spectacle 2.0: Reading Debord in the Context of Digital Capitalism.
This chapter explains how Debord’s idea of the Spectacle vastly exceeds its superficial theatrical stage, to focus on a ‘deeper’ level implied in the original Debordian formulation; specifically the mediation logic of the sphere of production of value which today translates Spectacle into labour in its informational guise. Informed by this perspective, the authors revisit Debord’s notion of Spectacle and the intellectual context of his original work to critically inquire as to how knowledge workers produce, consume and reproduce value, via processes of subjectification as well as precarious forms of (digital) labour. The Spectacle’s ubiquity thus makes it into a real tangible environment, as the only way people ‘know’ reality.