the society of the mobile spectacle

The society of the mobile spectacle

Adriene Jenik
Chris Wiener
Juca Varella
Suely Rolnik (moderator)

The society of the mobile spectacle
Paraphrasing a provocation by philosopher Guy Débord about the unfolding of the consumption society and mass communication of post-second war, the aim of this roundtable is to propose a reflection about the meaning of the new entertainment medium and consumption after the television and advertising culture. Would the advent of the internet, games online and now, other mobile means introduce a new paradigm? Or solely intensity the conditions that characterize the society of spectacle?

The concept of the society of the spectacle tried to discuss the effect of mass culture commodity production upon the subjectivenesses, showing a passive relationship of the subjects before the spectacle logics which, from the illusion of its singularity, homogenizes them around consumption, for according to one of the famous phrases by Débord, - “The man who banalizes needs to represent himself spectacularly ”.

The questioning proposed to the participants of this table, in different ways, reflect upon the most general development of the usage of new technologies, has to do with its potentialities as transgressors or reaffirmers of the logics of the society of the spectacle. The thing is that these new technologies seem to start new interactive spaces marked by immateriality, simultaneity and velocity of relationships and image circulation, what suggests new ways of perception of time and social world.

How should they be used aiming to question/overcome the society of the spectacle?
About this issue, the project Meshes, developed in Germany, that tries to subvert reified relationships with cultural consume objects, even if only momentarily , through a proposal of an interactive construction of “ films” . On night visits to Berlin museums named “Long Night of the Museums”, visitors can send photos from their mobile phones taken at the museums to a mobile which, using softwares, organises theses photos via formal criteria of colour, contrast and shadow and, immediately generates several films of 12 images per second, and that when the last image comes in, a new film starts reorganising the existing images and assimilating the newly sent ones. This new way of interaction for cultural production puts the public, usually passive, in the position of producers, reflectors of their own condition of audience.

Another interesting aspect of this kind of project is related to the connections it establishes with the technological means of the mass consumption society, Débord’s society of the spectacle, for at the same time they introduce the singularity of individual production characterised by the use of mobile medium, they put together such products in softwares designed to work with large amount of images, representatives of the world of production means and mass consumption. The attempt to join these two types of technology, with different logics of resource optimisation, is one of the possible answers about the potentialities of these new technologies before the heritage of the society of the spectacle.

A pioneer initiative in Brazil to foment content production is the project Photo Reporter, by O Estado de São Paulo newspaper, which meets an international tendency where readers themselves contribute with the content of communication vehicles through pictures. Important moments of contemporary history have been registered solely by mobile phones with camera holders, like the attacks that happened at the London underground last year and that took pages of newspapers and sites all over the world. Predictions show a gigantic expansion of mobiles with cameras, the improvement of distribution net and personal mega pixels.

What are the consequences of the starting of these new actors in the society of the spectacle?
And lastly, the presence of the psychoanalyst Sueli Rolnik at this table is a real privilege that will allow a hearing of all these conscious and unconscious moves that inhabit the Mobilopolis.