THE SPECTACLE
Everyone is different, but we live in an indifferent society of spectacle.
Independent
Oct. 2022 - May. 2023
DESCRIPTION
“Spectacle” comes from Guy Debord’s 1967 book The Society of the Spectacle. It is manifested in that the individual becomes a passive subject, controlled by images and commercialised information. People are audience watching the spectacle, and at the same time they are a part of the spectacle to be watched. In a society where modern production conditions are ubiquitous, life itself is presented as a huge collection of spectacle, and everything that exists directly is transformed into an appearance. ‘‘The real world is reduced to ‘simple images’, and images are upgraded to ‘real existence’”. This spectacle has replaced and surpassed reality where people cannot tell whether it is real.
I focus my research on exploring the relationship between “seeing” and “being seen” in the spectacle, to show how people live in the city of the spectacle where they are all part of a reality show. People no longer can tell what is performing and what is performed, and every moment they are all watching others and being watched by someone else. Based on this, I chose Manchester as the location of my filming set for creating the city of the spectacle, use the concept of escape as the narrative way, and applied the conceptual scenarios to the actual city to show different characteristics of the spectacle. My project itself is the present of the spectacle. My attempt is to expose separation and alienation, construct situation, and manipulate the images to dominate people’s senses. The entire narrative story which developed around my escape route, leaving the “watching” and “being watched by the audience” scenario is the rebellion of expectations against the society of the spectacle.
THE APPROACH OF THE RESEARCH:
Studio 1: Generating research question, exploring different methods to presenting the topic from different perspective through performance, and forming my own methodology.
Studio 2: Using my methodology (a narrative methodology through modelling and filming) to do spatial experiment.
Studio 3: Spatial realisation.
THE SPECTACLE TRAILER
The trailer is a preview of the project in the form of video and also a summary of the project. I mix and edit scenes shot in the real world with scenes from the digital model, representing design backgrounds and different scenarios.
PROJECT JOURNEY
This video mainly summarises the concept exploration from Studio 1 to Studio 3. It records that I use the form of films to express the Spectacle from different perspectives at different stages. At the same time, it is also reflected in the exploration of the scenes under different scenarios in Studio 3.
A title goes here. Click to edit and add your own.
This is a paragraph. Use this area to add any information you want to share with users. Just click "Edit Text" or double click here to change the text and make it your own. You can also adjust the paragraph's font, size and color so it fits your website’s theme.
This is a great place to tell users a story about your website and let them know more about what you offer. You may want to share information about your company's background, your team, or the services you provide. Be sure to keep the tone and voice consistent throughout the site so users become familiar with your brand.
Events Performing in the Spectacle City
Imprisoned in a flattened universe bounded by the screen of the spectacle that has enthralled him, the spectator knows no one but the fictitious speakers who subject him to a one-way mono-logue about their commodities and the politics of their commodities. The spectacle’s estrangement from the acting subject is expressed by the fact that the individual’s gestures are no longer his own; they are the gestures of someone else who represents them to him. The spectacle as a whole serves as his looking glass. What he sees there are dramatisations of illusory escapes from a uni-versal autism.
The Society of the Spectacle, Guy Debord
A ESCAPE ROUTE
I reorganised the clips I ran on each street from my film Escape, integrated them on the map, and drew the route in connection with the reassembled escape route of the film. The map reflect the actual Manchester city streets, also provide the original backdrop for the design concept. The escaping map uses the film escape in Studio 1 performance as the main concept, summarises and arranges the story clues developed by studio 1 and studio 2. According to the streets where running and city patterns, applies each scenes of the spectacle to specific urban areas. The escape point will start at The Assembly, the central apartment tower, stop at Oxford Road Station, and then return to The Assembly to form a loop.
The final spectacle map is formed by combining the final escape route and the real city scene, while different spectacle characteristic scenes are narrated. The entire map is based on the concept of panopticon and New Babylon, to depict a scene of watching, being watched, and being controlled. The dynamic maze-like design also makes the entire route full of uncertainty.
The whole story is divided into five main parts：
Scene 1 ‘‘Tower’’ is the starting point of escape story. It is an apartment tower in Manchester, and it also corresponds to ‘‘Dream’’ part of the Studio 2 scene experiment, which is a scene
that expresses being trapped in the spectacle.
Scene 2 ‘‘Stage’’ corresponds to ‘‘Performance’’ part of Studio 2, where the performance event is commercialised and becomes a part of consumption, and becomes a part of the
spectacle in watching and being watched.
Scene 3 ‘‘Alley’’ corresponds to ‘‘Corridor’’ in Studio 2. ‘‘The alley’’ represents hidden facts, distorted real behavior and information, in this case, perspective is controlled, behavior is
regulated, and thoughts are chained.
Scenes 4 and 5 “Bridge” and “Station” are part of “City” in Studio 2. “Bridge” is the link to all events and buildings, and it is also a monitoring path that is constantly being built. The “Station”
scene is the idea showing the way of escaping from the spectacle at the end of the story.
SCENE 1 - THE TOWER
The apartment tower (The Assembly) in Manchester becomes the starting point of the escape story. The spectacle (dream) is applied to the tower and gradually spread throughout the city.
The story line starts from the room on the top of the tower, and the serial scenes show protagonist escaping downward.
The protagonist trys to take the elevator to leave the tower, but she can't realise that she already become one of ''show'' watching by spectators.
SCENE 2 - THE STAGE
The place is dominated by images and illusions that replace the real world and become the stage for the spectacle.
‘‘The only result of people walking in is to lose themselves and surrender to the manipula-tion of commodities. They enjoy the alienation of themselves and the alienation of others’’.
People are all curiously watching and recording what is happening and expecting what will happen.
‘‘The spectacle is not a collection of images, but a social relation among people, mediated by images”.
‘‘In societies, where modern conditions of production prevail, all of life presents itself as an immerse accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has moved away into a representation’’.
To really appreciate spectacle, you may even need to commit a murder.
To really appreciate a show, you may need to become part of the spectacle.
SCENE 3 - THE ALLEY
The Alley is a place where facts are concealed, behavior is regulated, thoughts are restricted, and the past is cut off. Here, everyone is following and followed by others, and controlled by the spectacle.
In this dystopian society, people gradually lose their sense of ethical responsibility, and can only feel the freshness of rapid changes and the shocking to numb stimulation. “The only result of people walking in is to lose themselves and surrender to the manipulation of commodities. He enjoys the alienation of himself and the alienation of others”.
SCENE 4 - THE BRIDGE
“Bridge” is the link to all events and buildings, and it is also a monitoring path that is constantly being built.
''A crowd thinks in images, and the image itself calls up a series of other images, having no logical connection with the first. A crowd scarcely distin-guishes between the subjective and the objective. It accepts as real the images invoked in its mind, though they most often have only a very distant re-lation with the observed facts...Crowds being only capable of thinking in images are only to be im-pressed by images. We see, then, that the disappearance of the con-scious personality , the predominance of the un-conscious personality, the turning by means of the tendency to immediately transform the suggested ideas into acts; these, we see, are the principal characteristics of the individual forming part of a crowd. He is no longer himself, but has become an automaton who has ceased to be guided by his will''. (The Crowd: A study of the popular mind,
Gustave Le Bon)
SCENE 5 - THE STATION
The Station is the ending part of the story. It's the only way to hopefully get out of the spectacle.
''One cannot abstractly contrast the spectacle to actual social activity: such a division is itself divided. The spectacle which inverts the real is in fact produced. Lived reality is materially invaded by the contemplation of the spectacle while simultaneously absorbing the spectacular order, giving it positive cohesiveness. Objective reality is present on both sides. Every notion fixed this way has no other basis than its passage into the opposite: reality rises up within the spectacle, and the spectacle is real''. The result of this is that you can never escape the control of the spectacle. The spectacle itself has become the subject, and everyone has become a part of it. The story will continue to repeat itself.
UNITES
Unite is the "consumer goods" that appear in order to control in the spectacle, replace the real world in watching and being watched, and become a more real existence to dominate the city.
Surveillance Balloon
The role of Surveillance Balloon is to monitor behavior in the city and project it on the screen as a show. There are two main types: camera balloons and screen balloons. The former is mainly used for camera and moni-toring, while the latter is used for projection.
Patrolling Bridge
Monitoring Tower
The first monitoring tower is located next to the apartment building The Assembly, and has been continuously set up as the spectacle spreads. The top of the monitoring tower is a platform for the hot air balloon to land for maintenance or refuel. The two platforms that can be accessed provide 360-degree viewing and monitor-ing of the spectacle.
The monitoring platform /the central watching tower of the whole city.
1 Cambridge Street abandoned industry tower
DEVELOPING AN NARRATIVE METHODOLOGY THROUGH MODELLING AND FILIMING
STUDIO 1
Performance
During Studio 1, through exploring the research question from 7 performance, I have developed a narrative methodology of filmmaking and modelling. All of the films and models in Studio 1 are investigating the society of the spectacle in the context of Bystander Effect and performing the issues from different perspectives.
Individual Experience
Group Choice
Mind
Room 'Dream'
External ('Performance')
'City'
Performance 1-7
PERFORMANCE 1: BYSTANDER
The location of the experiment is Hulme Park, Manchester. I lay down on the side of the road as a tester, and at the same time hid a camera in the bush behind to avoid misunderstanding of the experiment. Through a 15-minute personal experience social experiment, I want to test that among all the people passing by me, how many people can notice that I am lying on the ground with a painful face, and among these people, how many people will actually give help. After fifteen minutes, the experiment was over, and out of all the 26 people who walked past me and noticed me, only one person asked if I was ok or needed any help.
For the first performance, I mainly did a social experiment to test the bystander effect in Manchester. Personal experience and this experiments have deepened my perception of the whole phenomenon: the connection between the bystander, the bystander and the entire environment. However, the experiment itself still has limitations. If it can be improved, the location can be selected from multiple different places, and the testing time can be extended to an hour or longer, etc. Not only the above factors affect the results of the experiment, but I also think about blow question: What makes people make their own choices and decisions? Does the identity/ profession of others influence people to make different choices? (e.g. can an office worker wearing a suit and a homeless person both get people to help) How does group choice affect individuals?
PERFORMANCE 2: IMAGES
Inspired by Michael Mapes, I selected images online from the In-ternet about consumerism and modern entertainment technologies, such as television, advertisement, chat history, shopping bags, re-ceipt, teeth brush, products, ect. Also, different countries’ people’s face was chosen and combined into one person’s face. Combine the two through deconstruction and reorgansation to intergrate the consumer entertainment items in modern life and human being. Use this collage to reflect the phenomenon of people are controlled by consumerism and entertainment in modern life, and to express Neil Postman’s ‘‘Amusing Ourselves to Death’’ point of view in an-other way.
For the physical version, while the plastic bag is representing consumerism, it also serves as a screen for perfor-mance to show the relationship with the pictures and audiences.
For the next step, I want to step back and look at the problem, from individual thought to the space in which the individual lives, and consider using physical models to express different meanings of spectacle space.
PERFORMANCE 3: TRAPPED
Use model making as a method to explore spaces with multiple meanings, combined with the explanation of the scene in theory ‘‘The society of spectacle’’, to show the spatial expression of “Most of people are prisoners under the accumulation of spectacle”.
The four angles represent different spatial forms, but they all express the polysemy of space around overlapping, spatial decon-struction, and fragmented images, and further express the phenomenon of "spectacle".
The interior is mostly narrow and irregular spaces, creating a feeling of being "trapped". Living furniture or architectural components that can be seen everywhere are collected in fragments and recomposed into a new space, making the form familiar but strange as well. At this time, the space not only represents the ordinary space of daily life, but also a place imprisoned by images. The use of plastic and transparent images makes the spatial composition multi-meaningful.
If I take a step back again and look at the problem, can I express this space in a real environment? Can I establish a “Performance” to express the multiples of spaces, and at the same time connect the stage, audience, and people who watching the video through the screen to explore multiple relationship between “watching” and “being watched”.
PERFORMANCE 4: SPECTATOR
I use the way of filming to show the reac-tion of spectators as audience watching events and their impact on the occurrence of incidents. The space of “seeing - being seen” is expressed through the mutual nesting of spaces where audiences, actors and screens are. Through a satirical short film, the story is presented in a exaggerated and absurd way. The multiple stage spaces and screens express the phenomenon of “seen-being seen”. At the same time, it also makes people who watch the film realise that they themselves are also a member of the bystanders.
Scenes throughout the film suggest large nested environments, representing ‘’seen-being seen’’ spaces. The space for actors is uncertain. The balcony space is only a symbolic “stage”, but in reality, this kind of stage may be seen everywhere, such as streets, stations, supermarkets, etc. When the audience watches the two actors quarrelling, the audience space and the actors are divided by translucent curtains, further blurring the connection between the audience and the stage space. When the actor fell to the ground and broke the curtain, it further deepened a dialogue between the stage and the audience space. And through the broken curtains, it can be seen that the space outside the actors is a city, which will show the relationship between the city and the performance space, or imply the relationship between the people walking on the street downstairs and the actor space on the balcony. Let the viewers realise that there may be people downstairs watching the actors on the balcony from different angles, and they are also by-standers.
From the perspective of the entire large space, the people watching the film are also members of the audience, and they also watch this ironic performance through the screen, forming an external "seen-being seen" spatial form.
The process of establishing the “Performance” also made me think about the multiple meanings of the spectators, and also these questions emerged: what does the “audience” represent in a modern soci-ety, and what does the “stage” represent?
So next step, I plan to step back looking from the interior ‘‘performance’’ to outside ‘‘city’’ and make another film to demonstrate the issue.
PERFORMANCE 6: ESCAPE
Inspired by the artist Yuge Zhou and the film Truman Show, Black Mirror, the film and model are used to express the feeling of escaping from the indifferent society and ‘‘being recorded” in the context of modern cities, while discussing the circu-lation relation among the crowd, society and city.
PERFORMANCE 7: THE FISH
Combined with the previous performance methods, continue developing the methodology of filming and model making to represent the “spectacle”. Use experimental film of different perspectives to further explain the meaning of “bystander”, and the relationship between “I”, “space”, “society” and “crowd”. It is the summary of the journey of Studio 1 and also it provide a direction for Studio 2.
CITY
PERFORMANCE
CORRIDOR
DREAM
Three Pespective of Views - Me, Fish and Passerby
By using filming presengting the three pespective of views, showing different perceptions about surroundings and making a connection among them. The model as a representation of a "fishbowl" rotating in the background also implies the transition of ''show''.
REALISING THE METHODOLOGY
STUDIO 2
SPATIAL EXPERIMENT
In Studio 2, I want to further explore the overlaying and nesting space and try to figure out how to break the fourth wall and how to build a closer connection between different roles while explaining their relationship on a spatial level. The spectacle I experiment in Studio 2 is through establishing an architectural film space, to explore a relationship between watching and being watched, observing and being observed.
The space presents the relations among the “actor”, “audience” and “stage” and ‘‘screen’’ from different angles and perspectives, giving the space the possibility of different interpretations and perception.
EXPERIMENT 1 : DREAM
By deconstructing the ‘’trapped’’ model, reconstructing a dream space, the ‘‘false world’’ recreated under the influence of images and memories, traps people in it. It is a space to reflect people’s fragmented memories and perception in the central of the viewing and being viewing world. The discontinuous and incomplete events inside of the dream make people trapped in this space, and the process by which people examine and reorganise their memories. Although people are trapped in different dreams, people often cannot realise that they are “trapped”, and gradually lose themselves and be controlled by the spectacle.
EXPERIMENT 2 : CORRIDOR
“Corridor” is an exploration of multiple views. Through the interaction between seeing and being seen in different frames, it reflects how we view and perceive the space under different perspectives. Physical modelling is a method that I want to use to explore ‘the control and interaction of the viewer’s view’. By playing with the space of the model, different layers show hidden, perceived, unobserved, under optical illusion of different spatial feelings. The contrast between the simple exterior and the changes in the inner space shows a hint of spatial uncertainty, and increase people’s suspicion about the event and the relationship between themselves and the space.
Through manipulating the viewer’s experience, gradually expand the spatial level and bring more uncertainty and suspicion about space and perspective.
EXPERIMENT 3 : PERFORMANCE
“Performance’’ represents a space of consuming and being-consumed, which is composed of temporary events. It is produced by events, and will disappear with the end of events. This space becomes a situation as an object of part of the consumption and a human creation, permeated with images, events and shows into the city.
EXPERIMENT 4 : CITY
The existence of “City” is not the result of urban development, but as an independent building, like a theatre or a black box, which focuses more on the relationship between “people and space”, while emphasising the relationship between “performers” and “ audience” communication and interaction inside. “City” is more like the existence of an objective bystander, passively dominated by the spectacle and formed by reality.
So, in this chapter, instead of showing the designed forms or shapes of the building of “City”, I will test what kind of “City” space is more likely to be affected and controlled. In order to achieve that, I use projection mapping as a method to explore under different situational conditions, how reality space is distorted and becomes a medium for passive spread of spectacle. Projection mapping can become a way to add extra dimensions to the static space, to blur the performance of real reality and visual performance, and to create the illusion of spatial perception.
