ABSTRACT
Vaneigem’s radical subject negates the seductive glamour of the spectacle with demands for active participation; it responds to the media t ions of spec tacu la r l i fe wi th forms of immedia te communication and direct control; it challenges the spectacle’s claim to circumscribe reality with actions and gestures which allow for forms of self-realisation in another, broader, chosen context. A creative, imaginative, and sensuous subjectivity, it takes the promises of the spectacle literally, willing the end of all separation, and refusing to perpetuate the sacrifices, deferrals, and endless layers which mark its relationship to the world. It wants to strip away the veils of commodified experience to gain the immediacy of a world directly l ived, in which the potential revealed by technological and cultural experiment are unleashed, and the possibilities of a world free from work, need, and sacrifice can be
explored. In short, the radical subject demands the right to construct the situations in which it lives.
