Détournement and 'The Spectacle' ~ Side B

Now that this 'Guy' and his theories have had time to settle into my brain (my spectacle) a little bit, I wanted to post a side B, if you will. I would be lying if I said that this material was easy for me to grasp right away. I needed some time to digest, not understand, ask questions, and look at these methods in my everyday life and try to make sense of it all. I did come to the conclusion that I can stop beating myself up, for not necessarily understanding some of these theories and methods presented...So with that said, I am going to try and breath now! And possibly attempt to learn some more French, because I am with Adam M. - my eyes hurt after trying to watch those images and attempt to read the words. I must have paused my video 100 times. But after all, "restricting oneself to a personal arrangement of words is a mere convection"....

So, if this Spectacle is not a collection of images, but a social relationship, I feel that we are then becoming more and more separated from the world around us. I guess this kind of goes without saying, but works as a jumping off point for me. I, for one, do not know that I necessarily agree with Debord completely, yet I believe his theory is interesting, and can relate to many aspects of creation, and consumerism alike. So if this spectacle reunites the separated, but reunites it as separated, does this not mean that the new product, or reunion, is then it's own distinct product or idea? I feel that this relates directly to speech, for example. At a young age, we learn words. Yet words are so ubiquitous, and take form in many ways. This can be from everyday speaking with friends and colleagues, to writing where the thoughts are tangible (yet still can be fuzzy and meanings blurred.), to the words chosen for advertising. With words, ignorance and other misunderstandings can be passed and remixed. In the area of the 'spectacle', desires are fed to us via advertising, and other forms of media, and the images and the desires they produce permeate levels of our own lives and leisure. This is seen in "Commodity Fetishism" and can make one lose sight of what basic 'needs' (not wants) are. It resonates with me, that, whether or not we believe these elements, we are still a part of this; In fact, the Spectacle becomes ingrained in our everyday lives from a very young age. The spectacle does re-establish it's rule, wherever representation takes on an independent existence. Just as the spectacle re-establishes itself, society does too. The redundancy and lack of cohesion is a direct effect of how we actually contradict ourselves.

So how does this relate to Remixxxx? Is the practice of working artist or musician or any other sort of creative person effected by the spectacle? As I said before -Yes. I think so. I feel that it is impossible not to be involved in the spectacle, through mere existence. Especially in the culture and society we live in. Under conditions of the 'borrowing' system, and the selling power that art/music/fetishes have on the market, people come to view the creator as things and the money as creative! This irks me. The problem for me lies in the relationship between the producer and the consumer becoming completed obscured. So of course, when this disunity between the creator and the consumer, a sort of misunderstanding resonates and all Hell breaks loose. The spectacle consumes more information, twists it, remixes it and creates new thoughts and ideologies for future generations. In a way, this is why I personally enjoy mixing other people works and words into art (see last blog entry - I took words from Debord-Marx-Blogs-the Spectacle), because it is inevitable that we share ideas as a collective of people! These shared ideas should not be lost to the 'who's is this and who's is that', but yet a conglomerate of information. We can't put a copyright on words! Ideas tend to be individualized, and usually spin in great new creative directions when more than one person is involved. That's the juice and the spice to life, right there...in my mind anyways. And yes, thinking about it makes my head spin. Its hard to digest, but fun to break apart and think about in abstract ways. And the spectacle definitely makes me think about it the next time I say that I really "need" something, because it's is usually just because I 'want' it. And most of the time I want it because I am interested in creating something new with its contents. And once again, there is the shift from "being" to "having"...and around and around we go... I look forward to discussing this more tonight, as a collective!