In “Society of the Spectacle”, Guy Debord provides a rather emphatic commentary on the development of modern society, where he states, authentic social life has been replaced with merely its representation. “All that once was directly lived has become mere representation.” — Debord views the chronology of social life as, “the decline of being into having, and having into merely appearing.” As a result, he states, our social lives are being slowly but inevitably consumed by commodity. One would be hard-pressed to argue against Debord’s statements here. These themes are, in all likelihood, more relevant today than when first written nearly 50 years ago, and their relevance in our lives will only continue to strengthen. The logical question, then; now what? How can we break the cycle? Debord goes on to write;

“The spectacle is not a collection of images… it is a social relationship between people that is mediated by images.”

Debord urges the reader to wake up as spectator who has been drugged by spectacular images, and views the ‘construction of situations’ as the medium to do so. As architects, we have this ability, and perhaps even the responsibility to construct such a medium. Unfortunately such social obligations are frequently overshadowed by more immediate, and often commodity-driven, obligations.

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Debord goes on to describe the construction of situations in the subsequent text, “Preliminary Problems in Constructing a Situation” —  The concept is not about merely the creation of ambiance, but rather an integrated ensemble of behavior in time…a temporary field of activity favorable to our individual desires.

Pursuant to the omnipresent iPhone discussion (yet written 65 years before Apple began running our lives); “In our time functionalism (an inevitable expression of technological advance) is attempting to entirely eliminate play. The partisans of “industrial design” complain that their projects are spoiled by people’s playful tendencies. At the same time, industrial commerce crudely exploits these tendencies by diverting them to a demand for constant superficial renovation of utilitarian products.”