ABSTRACT
In La Société du Spectacle (1967), Guy Debord argued that vision had become the dominant sensory mode and governing logic for Western culture’s encounter with the world; he located visuality’s ascendence in relation to film’s development (1890–1910) and its ability to show something (display), the rise of commercially available television, and the role of consumerism within popular culture. Debord suggested that spectacle had displaced lived experience, such that visual representations had come to mediate social relations. Consumer culture amplifies this logic, emphasizing appearance and reorganizing cultural images and values by connecting products to social relations. This chapter examines Debord’s notion of spectacle through an analysis of a 2020 Black Lives Matter protest by Justin Morris, the first iteration about being seen, and a 2016 gender reveal flash mob orchestrated by Allison Holker-Boss, Baby Boss Reveal. Through an analysis of how each event constructs the spectator–spectacle relationship, this chapter argues that these “choreographies” employ spectacle as agency and as an affirmation of identity, presenting “performers” as spectacular objects and as subjects by transforming space into place and bringing the private into the public.
