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THE SPECTACLE 2.0 Reading Debord in the Context of Digital Capitalism the Spectacle 2.0: Reading Debord in the Context of Digital Capitalism CDSMS EDITED BY MARCO BRIZIARELLI AND EMILIANA ARMANO THE SPECTACLE 2.0 Reading Debord in the Context of Digital Capitalism The Spectacle 2.0: Reading Debord in the Context of Digital Capitalism Edited by Marco Briziarelli and Emiliana Armano University of Westminster Press www.uwestminsterpress.co.uk Acknowledgements The spectacle thus unites what is separate, but it unites it only in its separateness (Thesis 29, 1967) Dobbiamo convincerci che oggi, quanto al risveglio del fattore sogget- tivo, non possiamo rinnovare e continuare gli anni Venti, ma dobbiamo cominciare da un nuovo punto di partenza, sia pure utilizzando tutte le esperienze che sono patrimonio del movimento operaio e del marxismo. Dobbiamo renderci conto infatti chiaramente che abbiamo a che fare con un nuovo inizio, o per usare un’analogia, che noi ora non siamo negli anni Venti del Novecento ma in un certo senso all’inizio dell’Ottocento, quando dopo la rivoluzione francese si cominciava a formare lentamente il movi- mento operaio. Credo che questa idea sia molto importante per il teorico, perché ci si dispera assai presto quando l’enunciazione di certe verità pro- duce solo un’eco molto limitata. (Ontologia dell’Essere Sociale, G. Lukács) Un ringraziamento particolare va a Christian Fuchs per aver discusso in pro- fondità il progetto editoriale e per averlo sostenuto in quanto editore e revisore. Siamo altresì grati a Kylie Jarrett e Eran Fisher per averci incoraggiato nelle fasi iniziali di ideazione. iv The Spectacle 2.0 Alla stesura di questo libro hanno anche collaborato, del tutto involontari- amente, Romano Alquati, Tom Bunyard and Jonathan Crary. Non sempre è stato possibile esplicitarlo ma la lettura di alcuni dei loro scritti ha sensibilmente influenzato gli autori. Marco Briziarelli and Emiliana Armano Competing interests The editor and contributors declare that they have no competing interests in publishing this book Published by University of Westminster Press 115 New Cavendish Street London W1W 6XH www.uwestminsterpress.co.uk Text © the editors and several contributors 2017 First published 2017 Series cover concept: Mina Bach (minabach.co.uk) Printed in the UK by Lightning Source Ltd. Print and digital versions typeset by Siliconchips Services Ltd. ISBN (Paperback): 978-1-911534-44-0 ISBN (PDF): 978-1-911534-45-7 ISBN (EPUB): 978-1-911534-46-4 ISBN (Kindle): 978-1-911534-47-1 DOI: https://doi.org/10.16997/book11 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc-nd/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA. This license allows for copying and distributing the work, providing author attribution is clearly stated, that you are not using the material for commercial purposes, and that modified versions are not distributed. The full text of this book has been peer-reviewed to ensure high academic standards. For full review policies, see: http://www.uwestminsterpress.co.uk/site/publish/ Suggested citation: Briziarelli, M. and Armano, E. (eds.). 2017. The Spectacle 2.0: Reading Debord in the Context of Digital Capitalism. London: University of Westminster Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.16997/book11. License: CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 To read the free, open access version of this book online, visit https://doi.org/10.16997/book11 or scan this QR code with your mobile device: Contents 1. Preface: Guy Debord, Donald Trump, and the Politics of the Spectacle 1 Douglas Kellner 1. Donald Trump: Master of Media Spectacle 2 2. The Apprentice, Twitter and the Summer of Trump 4 3. The Spectacle of Election 2016 7 Notes 11 References 12 2. Introduction: From the Notion of Spectacle to Spectacle 2.0: The Dialectic of Capitalist Mediations 15 Marco Briziarelli and Emiliana Armano 1. Context and Purpose 15 2. Genealogy of the Spectacle 17 3. Foundational Elements of the Debordian Spectacle 24 4. Beyond the Integrated Spectacle: From Integration to Subsuming Digitalization 30 5. The Emergence of the Spectacle 2.0 33 6. Book Structure and Content 40 Notes 43 References 43 Part I: Conceptualizing The Spectacle 49 3. The Integrated Spectacle: Towards Aesthetic Capitalism 51 Vanni Codeluppi 1. Introduction 51 2. Alien and Blade Runner: A New Social Model Emerges 52 3. The 1970s: From Conflicts to the Network 55 4. From Information to Sensation 58 viii The Spectacle 2.0 5. Aesthetics and the Metropolis: The Case of Birmingham 60 6. Conclusions 63 References 64 4. Guy Debord, a Critique of Modernism and Fordism: What Lessons for Today? 67 Olivier Frayssé 1. Introduction 67 2. Debord’s Theories as Countercultural Productions 68 3. The Genesis of Debord’s Theories 71 4. The Society of the Spectacle, a Critique of High Modernism 73 5. High Modernism and High Fordism 74 6. What Use is Debord in Understanding Digital Work and Labour in the Age of the Internet? 75 7. Conclusion 78 References 79 5. The Spectacle of New Media: Addressing the Conceptual Nexus Between User Content and Valorization 81 Raffaele Sciortino and Steve Wright 1. Introduction 81 2. Some Preliminary Thoughts on Debord 83 3. The Debate Around Value Production in Social Media and its Implications 85 4. Notes Towards a Conclusion. Against Impotence: Promises and Limits 90 Notes 91 References 92 6. Spectacle and the Singularity: Debord and the ‘Autonomous Movement of Non-Life’ in Digital Capitalism 95 Clayton Rosati 1. Digital Capitalism and Apocalypse 95 2. Spectacular Theory and the ‘Autonomous Image’ 98 3. Pseudonature, or the Autonomous Image in Digital Capitalism 103 4. Malthus and the Cylon: AI, Obsolescence and Digital Capitalism 110 Contents ix 5. Cylon Troll in the Revolutionary Council 112 Notes 114 References 114 Part II: Phenomenology and Historicisation of the Spectacle: from Debord to the Spectacle 2.0 119 7. Rio de Janeiro: Spectacularization and Subjectivities in Globo’s city 121 Barbara Szaniecki 1. Introduction 121 2. From the New Museums to the New Cultural Urban Scenario 122 3. The Creative Territory: Real Estate Speculation and the Spectacle of ‘Free Labour’ 125 4. Final Considerations 130 Notes 132 References 133 8. Data Derives: Confronting Digital Geographic Information as Spectacle 135 Jim Thatcher and Craig M. Dalton 1. Introduction – The Spectacle of Data 135 2. The Double Role of Data Within the Spectacle 136 3. Drifting Towards Data 140 4. Drifting Through Data 143 Notes 146 References 146 9. Branding, Selfbranding, Making: The Neototalitarian Relation Between Spectacle and Prosumers in the Age of Cognitive Capitalism 151 Nello Barile 1. Introduction 151 2. One Step Back: The Actuality of Debord’s Definitions of Spectacle, Consumption and Commodities 153 x The Spectacle 2.0 3. The Second Model Explaining Cognitive Consumption: The Double Bind 155 4. The Third Model Explaining the Evolution of Cognitive Consumption: The Ritual of Confession 158 5. The Integration Between Bit and Atoms: From the Automation of Everything to the Destiny of Makers 160 References 164 10. Tin Hat Games – Producing, Funding, and Consuming an Independent Role-Playing Game in the Age of the Interactive Spectacle 167 Chiara Bassetti, Maurizio Teli, Annalisa Murgia 1. Premise: The Age of the Interactive Spectacle 167 2. Producing Counternarratives Today: A Theoretical Reading of Tin Hat Games 169 3. The Case Study 170 4. Collectively Constructing a Critical Product 172 5. Digitally Setting Up an Interactive Spectacle 174 6. Discussion and Conclusion 178 Acknowledgement 180 Notes 180 References 180 11. ‘Freelancing’ as Spectacular Free Labour: A Case Study on Independent Digital Journalists in Romania 183 Romina Surugiu 1. Introduction 183 2. Several Notes on Contemporary Romanian Journalism 185 3. A New Space, in a ‘Post-Apocalyptic’ Landscape 187 4. Crowdfunding and Financing the Old ‘New’ Journalism 188 5. What Does Freelancing Stand For? A Debordian Interpretation of Free Labour in Journalism 190 6. Conclusions 192 Acknowledgement 193 References 193 Contents xi 12. Immaterial Labour and Reality TV: The Affective Surplus of Excess 197 Jacob Johanssen 1. Introduction 197 2. Neoliberalism, Reality Television and Labour 198 3. Spectacular Labour 199 4. Affect as Excess 201 5. Shame and Sign Value 202 6. Conclusion: Disciplining Bodies 205 References 206 13. Disrupting the Spectacle: The Case of Capul TV During and After Turkey’s Gezi Uprising 209 Ergin Bulut and Haluk Mert Bal 1. Introduction 209 2. Spectacle, Strategy and Digital Capitalism 212 3. Gezi and Capul TV: Resistance and the Aesthetics of the Mediatized 214 4. ‘With Our Own Words, With Our Own Media’: Voluntary Labour and the Sustainability of the ‘Guerilla Media’ as Counter-Spectacle 218 5. The ‘Hive’ Disrupts the Spectacle: Leadership, Strategy and Politics 221 6. Conclusion 222 Notes 222 References 223 About the Editors and Contributors 227 Index 233 CHAPTER 1 Preface: Guy Debord, Donald Trump, and the Politics of the Spectacle Douglas Kellner Guy Debord described a ‘society of the spectacle’ in which the economy, poli- tics, social life, and culture were increasingly dominated by forms of spectacle.1 This collected volume updates Debord’s theory of the spectacle for the twenty- first century and the age of digital media and digital capitalism. We now live in an era, where the digitally mediated spectacle has contributed to right-wing authoritarian populist Donald Trump becoming US president, and Debord’s concept of spectacle is now more relevant than ever to interpreting contempo- rary culture, society, and politics. Donald Trump lived the spectacle from the time in New York when as a young entrepreneur and man about town he performed his business and per- sonal life in gossip columns, tabloids, and rumor mills. Trump used PR advi- sors to promote both his businesses and his persona to eventually become a maestro of the spectacle when his popular TV show The Apprentice made him into a national celebrity.
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