I was somewhat familiar with Guy Debord’s writing prior to reading “The Society of the Spectacle” because he is associated with Marxism and the Situationist movement, both of which I learned about in high school. In this text, Debord defines the “spectacle” as a social relation of false consciousness mediated by images. He goes on to say that the spectacle is an objective material relation, yet it is real only in its unreality. It’s unsettling that Debord wrote this in 1967 and it definitely rings true today. Society, especially the newest generation known as Gen Z or “Tweens,” has become increasingly distracted with an image-saturated world. Fulfillment is sought by not having but through the appearance of having. Social media trends, online personas, selfies, “likes,” “followers,” the list goes on.
While I was not familiar with Walter Benjamin’s work prior to reading “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” after further research I found his argument is in the vein of Marxism similar to Debord. I believe the key takeaway is the concept of authenticity in the realm of mechanical reproduction. Even though reproduction weakens the aura of the original, there is really nothing like seeing the one true work of art.