Final Project

The goal for economy, politics and other social factors is to rapidly progress to a shiny new golden future. Not keeping in mind who or what groups of people are being deceived and trampled over. The mass is easily won over by images promising a false momentary state of satisfaction but for a price. The population’s wants and needs are being taken advantage of by corrupt corporations, politicians and the media. We are also part of the problem for being complacent and gullible. People continue to be tricked by click bait and false information that is spread across all sorts of communication outlets. An article called An Illustrated Guide to Guy Debord’s ‘The Society of the Spectacle’  by Tiernan Morgan & Lauren Purje states, “Today, the integrated spectacle continues to provide abundant commodities while defending itself with the use of misinformation and misdirection.” Everyone has become accustomed to having every commodity provided at arm’s reach. We no longer question where, what, when, why and how they arrive to us since all that matters is our derived satisfaction. Humans are selfish and self-serving by nature.

    For my work I created a sculpture that serves as a spiritual guide. The story is that this dormant figure starts walking because it hears the ails of humans and wants to help. This help essentially is reconnecting the self or selves with the earth. The figure is both female and male, however its physical appearance is not of importance. I was inspired by totems I have seen in cities located in Ecuador. The artist that made me focus on the theme of reconnecting with the earth. On a daily basis, the media bombards us with trivial and occasionally truthful information. The spectacle has affected our reality and sense of self. As written in Guy Debord’s book, The Society of the Spectacle, he states, “The spectacle is able to subject human beings to itself because the economy has already totally subjugated them. It is nothing other than the economy developing for itself. It is at once a faithful reflection of the production of things and a distorting objectification of the producers.” The product (spectacle) which is created by people has taken control of our perception. Sounds like a bad and twisted science fiction movie. 

    The media and people alike have this idea that products give class, happiness, and values. Ads tell us that if we have their product we will be happy and that is what all of us want so then the product is a must have. There is a piece of text in the book The Art of Self  by Joanne Finkelstein that says, ". . .conclusion about twentieth-century consumer culture is that it changed human nature. We no longer have a reliable sense of ourselves and thus find it difficult to separate ourselves from our material circumstances." Our devices feed us imagery that is pleasing and which is meant to be admired. These images are edited, cropped, manipulated and most of us believe them to be true. We are becoming more aware because the media industry and the general public use editing software to alter their appearance. Very few confront the issue of how the edited image of models affect everyone's self image (the way we look at others, ourselves, our bodies). We have been told countless times by the media that what our focus should be is appearance, wealth and superficiality. That way we have no time or mind space to focus on issues like corruption, world hunger, sickness, poverty, violence, inequality, and climate change.

    I hope that through my work I guide people back to our elemental self and face the problems around us.

Quotes Used:

"The spectacle is able to subject human beings to itself because the economy has already totally subjugated them. It is nothing other than the economy developing for itself. It is at once a faithful reflection of the production of things and a distorting objectification of the producers."

-Quote by The Society of the Spectacle Chapter 1: Separation Perfected  by Guy Debord 2002 translation by Ken Knabb.

"Today, the integrated spectacle continues to provide abundant commodities while defending itself with the use of misinformation and misdirection."

-Quote by An Illustrated Guide to Guy Debord’s ‘The Society of the Spectacle’ by Tiernan Morgan & Lauren Purje

"Part of Theodor Adorno’s mordant conclusion about twentieth-century consumer culture is that it changed human nature. We no longer have a reliable sense of our self and thus find it difficult to separate ourselves from our material circumstances."

-Quote by The Art of Self Invention chapter 4 by Joanne Finkelstein