The Society of the Spectacle (French: La société du spectacle) is a 1967 work of philosophy and Marxist critical theory by Guy Debord, in which the author develops and presents the concept of the Spectacle.
Debord traces the development of a modern society in which authentic social life has been replaced with its representation: "All that once was directly lived has become mere representation."[2] Debord argues that the history of social life can be understood as "the decline of being into having, and having into merely appearing."[3] This condition, according to Debord, is the "historical moment at which the commodity completes its colonization of social life."[4]
I first read Society of the Spectacle at the San Francisco Art Institute at the end of the 90’s. To give you some background, I was on a one year scholarship. I was granted this scholarship after I kissed and stole a piece of art by Valeska Soares. This was a beeswax block, with two mouths sculpted into it and a puddle of oil perfume connecting them. When I was arrested I told them I did it because I fell in love. I had heard that someone stole the Mona Lisa for the same reason some time in history, and this story had a profound effect on me. I listened to Bjork’s “Army of Me” on the way to the La Jolla Art Museum to commit this act of art/life. I was 18 at the time, so I was charged with Felony theft, though it was reduced to a misdemeanor, it was challenging to explain this to employers for years. Since time the San Diego Court records building burnt down, and it’s as if it never happened. I was a person who had always felt at odds with society and art gave me a solution. Something to focus this energy into. I could not afford the San Francisco Art Institute, but I would take this opportunity of a one year scholarship to know what to research on my own over the next two decades.
When I read Society of the Spectacle, it rang true. I had been part of the punk scene growing up in San Diego, and I became made aware of a division of North and South California rather quickly after moving to San Francisco. I loved roaming the city, but when I read this book I knew why I was an artist. I wrote a letter (I don’t remember the contents) that the teacher had me read to the class. This started a series of conversations that shocked my naive mind. Students yelled at the teacher and me saying things like “I’m not here to save the world, I’m here to make money”. I was really so naive as to believe most people became artists to make a difference in the world.
One day I came to the courtyard on top of the SFAI building and there were several wood crates painted white, with the word “Pond” stenciled on them. Me and some young woman I never talked to before were sitting against the wall and trying to figure out if this was a shipment or art. I found it truly interesting. Society of the Spectacle had taught me that Images, and Art in general often mislead us with the promise of a future that negates the present. It’s like you look at an image and you want that to be your reality, but because of that your current reality is destroyed. So finally I made the suggestion we “Find out if it’s art”. This woman agreed, and we got up, picked one of the crates up and threw it off the roof. I thought if it was art, that is supposed to look like life, the artist would know he had accomplished his task. The school put me on probation with the requirement I do a hundred hours of work, or something like that for the artist Travis Pond. So it turns out it was art.
My reaction to Society of the Spectacle was to go on Strike, and make no physical art. I was yelled at by other students often, and some students stood up for me. I did do art still, just made no physical art. I was asked to do a performance piece by another artist and I chose Vitto Acconci. I had seen that video where he does a “Rubbing” as he calls it. You rub a part of your body with your thumb till you bleed. So I did this during the smoke break of Doug Hall’s New Genres class for another student, not as a performance. Despite the frustration these actions gave teachers, I got A’s in almost all my classes, but this didn’t mean I could keep going to school, when the scholarship was up. I kept doing actions like this, once taking a packet of red dot stickers used to show when a piece of art was sold, and put them discreetly on all the patrons. I worked at a coffee shop in San Rafael called Double Rainbow. I started asking customers “Would you like to pay for that” instead of telling them the price. Soon people realised they could answer, “No” and their food would be free. Over time the coffee shop filled with people looking for a free meal. Some people put the money they had planned on buying their meal with, in the tip jar. I started giving money to customers. Obviously I got fired, I even sent them some money years later as an amends.
Working was almost impossible for me, even without these shenanigans, I would space out or get confused. At this time I moved to Portland, and became homeless. When I hopped a train to Eugene, Oregon an anarchist house offered to give me a Tattoo. I asked her to write Permanent Strike, which she carved into my leg with a razor blade and india ink. I later added a circle around the “A” with a sewing needle. The idea was a strike without demands, to shut down the machine of Capitalism, and oppression. I tried to live this life as authentically as possible, I would be homeless until I was about 26. When I had been hospitalized finally, and willing to take meds I rejoined society. When I was in the hospital I realized part of the reason it was so easy for me to reject society was I never really had a place in it. In subsequent years when people asked me about my tattoo I would tell them “I’m an anarchist who got hungry”. This led me down a spiritual path to survive on different terms. I was fortunate enough to work for a group home for a period of time where we were actually helping people get out of prisons and psyche wards and on to their own apartments. This establishment became corrupt though and started leading clients further into the system instead of getting them out. I was unable to keep this job after new managers came in and have struggled to work ever since. While I was working there though, I had found the mail art network, and being able to afford art supplies, gave in and made lots of art even painting.
Cat Army’s origins are actually hard to describe, the spiritual quest I mentioned is still going and is a large part of CatArmy for me, but Situationist tactics are a huge part of how it functions. One of the tactics Situationism uses is called Detournement. This is basically hijacking or rerouting. CatArmy is a Train station for such rerouting. Any number of ideas connect to other ideas in CatArmy. In this way an artist not associated with an art movement can become part of the dialogue. Or an occultist’s feminst ideas can be spread to mail artist and so on. This happens in who we encourage to participate and how they are involved with each other. This is also seen in CatArmy propaganda, that may use an erotic image with a occult symbol, with a political message and so on.
If I was to try to return the emotional tone to Society of the Spectacle after all these years, it’s one of love in the face of confusion. We are constantly sold someone else’s idea of reality, and by corporate and political powers who have no interest in our well being. I hope by creating a place where artists have a voice to the larger art world, and create their own content, we can take back the contents of our reality. At this time in the world Art galleries and Schools including the Art Institute are being shut down around the world. These institutions have been serving the Jeff Koons’s of the world for some time. I’m still hungry, and still need money to live. My symptoms got worse before Coronavirus hit, I’m not as naive as I used to be, and not so fundamentilist about situationism as to create no art. In re-reading Society of the Spectacle recently I found this verse which I believe can be relevant to what I hope we do in CatArmy:
With the power of the councils-a power that must internationally supplant all other forms of power-the proletarian movement becomes its own product. This product is nothing other than the producers themselves, whose goal has become nothing other than their own fulfillment. Only in this way can the spectacle's negation of life be negated in its turn.
