Wark Review

Krysana Maragh

In what ways was the Wark book, The Spectacle of Disintegration, useful in understanding participatory culture in present time?

This book offers terrific insight about the key issues of modern society. People in modern society have a tendency to believe that everything they see in the media is good. The spectacle is the image that mediates relations between people. Wark maps the historical stages of the spectacle from the concentrated, to the diffuse, to the integrated, to the disintegrated. He argues that the media is responsible for the misconception of the relationship between desires and needs. As it relates to participatory culture as a whole, The Spectacle of Disintegration highlights a particular concept that I find key to the understanding of the relationship between the two, “No matter what happens her next day or next week, I just want to record the fact that this actually happened.” (Wark, 204). This is modern day social media: a constant updating of what is happening regardless of the level of impact it may have. It happened, it is posted, and it is recorded forever.

In analysis of the “spectacle”, Wark offers four categories total: the concentrated, diffused, integrated, and disintegrated. The concentrated is to be understood as the focusing of efforts to raise the status of one, equivalent to what we understand to be a “media-whore”; the Kim Kardashians of the world. The diffused is understood to be the converse of the concentrated where advertising allows for public focus to be separated; the meaning of life is found everywhere. The integrated spectacle is understood as the combination of church and state meaning what we believe to be good mixes with what we are told is good. The spectacle of disintegration is the attempt to separate these two.

Wark focuses heavily on the Situationalist movement of the 1960s. The Situationalist International movement led by Guy Debord was made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and political theorist. They examined Marxist theory and capitalism with the understanding that shifts from individual expression through first-hand experiences and fulfillment of desires to individual expression by proxy inflicted significant damage to the quality of human life for both individuals and society. Consumers are passive subjects ruled by their commodities in the spectacle that is mass media. Wark also narrows in on the role of the middle class. He centers on the ambiguity of the “new” and its attraction for the avant-garde artists. There was a strong draw to this group because an overarching image that depicted the masses had yet to be established. Even the situationists had motive to represent this public’s desires, frustrations, and boredoms and claimed these feats as a new frontier. The power of the middle class was its ability to both command popular space and consume it. This was the beginning of a new market of people and speaks directly to idea of participatory culture.

Participatory Culture is one in which the prosumer was birthed. The consumer is also the producer. Thanks to modern advancements in technology, the ability to contribute is shared by all whom have access and knowledge of social media. This is considered a relatively low barrier for entry because of the wide-spread use of platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. These also prove to be an integral component to the notion of participatory culture as it encourages collaboration and thus a connecting of people.

The role of media today is overwhelming. Wark argues that the main problem of modern society is that people often don’t understand the differences between desires and needs because we often led to believe we need the items we see, i.e. the biggest houses, the fastest cars. But we could and should do without as most people do not possess the purchasing power to obtain these items. Wark’s insight on the Situationalist movement provides the precursor to this problem we are facing today. Our quality of life is defined by our fulfillment of desires when in truth it should be defined by the fulfillment of need. But the two are often confused. Wark offers an analysis of power but it is now in our hands as prosumers in a participatory culture to set the new standard, one where the things we record are regarded as art that reflects our times, much like that of the Situationalists.

Wark, McKenzie. The Spectacle of Disintegration. London: Verso, 2013. Print.