The Emancipated Spectator by Jacques Rancière, R ancière, 2008 Stefan Szczelun
chapter ! The Emancipated Spectator
The frst chapter is directed at 'theatre'. He notes that rom at least the time o Denis Diderot's Entretiens sur Le Fils Naturel" (Conversations on The Natural on! #$%& the spectator as represented in ritin as) "separated rom *oth the capacit+ to ,no and the poer to act" p.-. There as a m+th instituted throuh discourse that the spectator as 'passive'. To remed+ this passivit+ ertold recht (/%/ 0 %1$& and 2ntonin 2rtaud (/%$ 0 %3/& attempted to create orms o theatre ith onl+ "active participants as opposed to passive vo+eurs" p.3. uch theatre attempted to em*od+ the livin communit+. communit+. The Livi Livin n Thea Theatr tre! e! oun ounde ded d % %3# 3# *+ 4uli 4ulian an ec, ec,!! as as a cont contin inua uati tion on o this this pro5ect. 6anciere points out that the+ ere reactin aainst a phantom created *+ Humanist discourse and not a real orld condition! the audience can never *e 'passive'. 78 Later in a similar mode 9u+ De*ord ta,es the idea o this passivit+ urther and suests that 'The pectacle' alienates ever+one rom lie itsel. The *asis o this! olloin Ludi Feuer*ach's criti:ue o reliion! is that non0separation is re:uired in order to live authenticall+ *+ respondin directl+ to +our on desires 7-8. De*ord persuasivel+ arues that consumerism manaes our desires to the e;tent o alienatin us rom our poer o 5udement. 6anciere sees in De*ord's la*ellin o spectators as passive! unthin,in and stupid the same Humanist strate+ o stulti+in the pu*lic he had previousl+ identifed in education. He po,es un at the a+ that the 'strule aainst the societ+ o the spectacle and in particular detournment is included in all critical art aendas! and is tauht to *e cond conduc ucte ted d in 'sta 'stand ndar ardi dise sed d orm orms' s'.. 6anci 6ancier ere e does does not not see see a stru struct ctur ural al opposition *eteen collective and individual! imae and lived realit+ or! activit+ and passivit+. Consumerism ma+ *e *anal *ut it does not ollo that consumers are poerless idiots. Collectives are made o individuals! imaes are ala+s a part o the use o our sensor+ a*ilities! and contemplation ma+ loo, 'passive' *ut it is ala+s mentall+ active. He sees these let0feld theories as perpetuatin the idea o a pu*lic that are presumed to *e 'inoramuses' *+ an intelliensia. < The ociet+ o the pectacle tells us an+thin at all! it is to underline the messae a*out our on ina*ilit+. ina*ilit+. "
Does the desire to reduce the distance *eteen the spectator and the art! that has *ecome de riour! serve onl+ to create that distance> 6anciere arues that it does! *+ reinorcin or creatin "em*odied alleories o ine:ualit+." p.-. The class *asis o this is underlined= "
"These or,ers! ho should have supplied me ith inormation on or,in conditions and orms o consciousness! provided me ith somethin altoether di?erent= a sense o similarit+! a demonstration o e:ualit+." "The+ disrupted the distri*ution o the sensi*le hich ould have it that those ho or, do not have time to let their step and a@es roam at random) and that the mem*ers o a collective *od+ do not have time to spend on the orms and insinia o individualit+." p.%. He realised a*ove all that "there as no ap to *e flled *eteen intellectuals and or,ers". p.-G. 7B8 as he still seein thins rom the intellectual point o vie> There ma+ not *e a ap *eteen the intellience o the intellectual and that o the or,er *ut in other a+s the ap *eteen or,ers and intellectuals is sometimes a chasm rom an autodidacts point o vie. To *e *rided 0 or the or,er to et the ruits o his thin,in pu*lished 0 she needs to ive attention not onl+ to a particular :ualit+ o prose! *ut also the reerences o a 'ood' education and ideall+ one that is thorouhl+ rounded in the classics! or at least the canon. This is made all the more di?icult *+ *ein accompanied *+ a crushin lac, o entitlement that is all too easil+ reinorced in literar+ and academic circles. "2n emancipated communit+ is a communit+ o narrators and translators" p.-"2rt should pro*lematise the presuppositions that maintain the s+stem o stultifcation."
chapter 2" The #isad$entures of %ritical Thou&ht"
He no ets don to discussin actual e;amples o artor,s. First he discusses the political photoraph+ o 4osephine ec,seper (*.%$3& and the photo0collae o arther 6osler (*.%3B&. He thin,s that their poer to e?ect chane is undermined *+ presuppositions a*out the unthin,inness o the population and an assumption that shoc,in people out o an assumed tur*idit+ can motivate them to chane the s+stem.
"individualist desire or autonomous creativit+" is onl+ attri*uted to +oun *oureois. p.B1. hat he had learnt rom the archive as the untruth o such stereot+pes. 6anciere is all or 'disorderin' the semiotic class distri*utions mapped *+ ourdieu in his inJuential %#% stud+) 'Distinction= a social criti:ue o the 5udment o taste'. He thin,s that this ,ind o norm fndin socioloical research ill reinorce stereot+pes rather than challene them. The process o cultural emancipation starts ith individuals or small roups o artists ho do an+thin *ut o*e+ these norms o taste. < ta,e it to mean that e should ocus on a collectivisin pra;is to ma,e the *est o our capacities and resources rather than hopin people ill sin up to a sinle tihtl+ ormulated ideolo+. < ould see this as elemental as our *asic human a*ilities.
chapter ' (esthetic Separation, (esthetic %ommunity
He proposes three propositions a*out the seeminl+ contradictor+ terms= communit+ and the individual. This is a ,e+ 6anciere's theme 0 e;plorin the seemin contradiction *eteen the uni:ue sensi*ilities o each human and our need to *e social *eins and co0ordinate our actions. . The phrase 'epares! on est ensem*le' comes rom a seeminl+ a non0political poem *+ tKphane allarmK. The poet claimed that the romantic and personal crisis in the poem as reerrin to a ider social crisis. The same crisis as the conte;t o the //3 paintin *+ eurat 0 'athers at 2snires ' 0 is a "the painterl+ con5unction o hih art and leisure". Mr*an class strule had reached an interestin point in hich a su*stantial amount o leisure had *een achieved *+ collectivised la*our. The actor+ is seen in the *ac,round *ut in the oreround a fure is doin nothin *+ a river. The tension *eteen our e;istence as communal *eins and our need or solo contemplation is shon *ut or 6anciere this is too prescriptive and in e?ect neutralises the li*erative potential o leisure. Later he points out= "eurat evinced *oth the enimatic potential o popular *odies that ained access to 'leisure' and the neutralisation o that potential." p.#3. Certainl+ the main fure at the centre o the athers seems depressed! *ut < never sa it as propaandist. -. He then descri*es a contemporar+ art pro5ect '< and Ms' that as made on a or,in class estate in contemporar+ 2snieres *+ the art roup Campement Mr*ain. The need e;pressed *+ the inha*itants in this stressed area as or a place o contemplation! a place to *e alone. <.e. a *rea, rom the stress o *ein toether to *e individual! a space or contemplation. B. Finall+ a passae rom Deleu@e and 9uattari's 'hat is hilosoph+>' (%%& is :uoted at lenth. His summar+ is that this is a*out the lin, *eteen "the solitude o the artor, and human communit+" p.11. "For the comple; o sensations to communicate its vi*ration! it has to *e solidifed in the orm o a monument. No the monument in turn assumes the identit+ o a person ho spea,s to the 'ear o the uture'." p.1$ 6anciere points out the Let's dream o a communit+ in harmon+! as the oal o strule! is a utopian one. Dissensus! the inevita*le 'conJict' or 'tension' *eteen the essentiall+ di?erent sensor+ orlds o to or more individuals! is a human state that on't o aa+ 'ater the revolution'. This has *een orotten *+ 'the modernist dream o a communit+ o emancipated human *eins' p.$G. ut the 'intertinin o contradictor+ relations' can itsel produce communit+. "The parado;ical relationship *eteen the 'apart' and the 'toether' is also a parado;ical relationship *eteen the present and the uture." p.1% He claims these three propositions defne an 'aesthetic communit+ in eneral'! hich is a 'communit+ o sense' rather than one o aesthetes. 2n artistic dissensual communit+ can produce the 'anticipated realit+' o a ider
communit+. 6epresentation (or mimesis& re:uires a 'concordance' *eteen the sensor+ reime o one person and another 0 *eteen the artist and the spectator. The radical tradition rom 6ousseau to De*ord has seen a ap at the heart o 'the mimetic communit+'! a ap *eteen stae and audience! *eteen spectacle and consumer. 6anciere's holds that the reader has a uni:ue su*5ect position and ma,es a specifc interpretation hich is all her on. This produces a necessar+ distance *eteen the intention o the artist and the interpretation o the reader or vieer. "Free appearance is the product o a disconnected communit+ *eteen to sensoria 0 the sensorium o artistic a*rication and the sensorium o its en5o+ment". p.$3. He anal+ses this disconnection *eteen the o*5ect as intended and its appreciation in 4.4. inc,elmann's classic #$3 discussion o the elvedere Torso and the parado;es it thros up. p.$3. 718. 2 similar enaement is made ith chiller's thouhts on the reedom possi*le ith art! in his contemplation on the incomplete classical sculpture 4uno Ludovisi. p.$%. e a*andon ourselves in ecstas+ to her heavenl+ race! her celestial sel0 su?icienc+ ma,es us recoil in terrorO 7$8. Iur 'aesthetic sensorium' as e;pressed in artor,s is then mar,ed *+ the loss o a destination or social purpose or art. p.#G. ocial emancipation is an aesthetic process.
maicall+ middle0class throuh old0stars o educational certifcation! more it is the realisation that all human intelliences are o e:ual. 2lthouh 6anciere criti:ues class hile rarel+ mentionin the ord! he stops short o an+ insiht into the a?ective dimension o class! *+ hich < understand as the emotional toll e;acted *+ class oppression. He does not o into that ,ind o ,nolede or the a+ that trauma can *e a *arrier to ,nolede. 2?ects that impact on people undamentall+ tend to happen at an impressiona*le ae 0 and the alse idea o an ine:ualit+ o intellience and status ostered *+ the school s+stem is one o the most poisonous. < recentl+ heard this descri*ed *+ a middle class oman as a dail+ pencillin o the lines that separate! until the division as etched into her *ein. 6anciere insists! as e have heard! that art cannot *e desined to emancipate 0emancipation cannot *e prescri*ed. Emancipation must *e sel0rouht or it is not emancipation. The aim o political art is oten ta,en as the creation o "an aareness o political situations leadin to political mo*ilisation." p.#3. Hoever 6anciere claims that "there is no straihtorard road rom the act o loo,in at a spectacle to the act o understandin the orld) no direct road rom intellectual aareness to political action." p.#1. The most malin presence in m+ non0career in 2rt as around the constellations o the hite cu*e. < still thin, that an empt+ neutral room should *e useul or ma,in propositions pu*lic and discussin them 0 *ut the macro rame o 2rt asn't somethin that reel+ elcomed this sort o use.
edro Costa's
chapter ) The *ntolerable *ma&e
The mere viein o shoc, imaes intended to reveal the 'sordid truth' *ehind the '*rilliant appearances' o the spectacle is! 6anciere insists! merel+ in complicit+ ith the s+stem and achieves little or nothin. Harsh realities and the acade o lamour are to sides o the same coin. He points out that there is still a literar+ pre5udice aainst the imae and its presumed a*ilit+ to dupe the spectator or em*roil him in the lamourised a@e. "e must challene these identifcations o the use o imae ith idolatr+! inorance or passivit+." p.%1 He discusses 2lredo 4aar's %%3 or, on the 6andan enocide '6eal ictures' and in particular his or, called 'The E+es o 9utete Emerita'. (2n imae used as the *oo,s cover in the edition < read& "The traditional thesis is that the evil o imaes consists in their ver+ num*er! their prousion e?ortlessl+ invadin the spell*ound a@e and mush+ *rain o the multitude o democratic consumers o commodities and imaes." p.%$. hat e see on the mainstream media! accordin to 6anciere! is mainl+ the aces o rulers! e;perts and 5ournalists tellin us ho to interpret imaes. ut even that somehat dated idea suests that e do not choose hat to atch and he starts to all oul o his on criti:ue.
status o the *odies represented and the ,ind o attention the+ merit." p.%%. or,in class artists are li,el+ to fnd themselves outside the ame. Inl+ a e can emere into the liht o pu*licit+ throuh the chicaner+ o selective flters. 2ter the dianosis he ives his prescription= "The point is not to counter0pose realit+ to its appearances. 2s an artist < thin, it is almost impossi*le not to anticipate a communicative reception. + video o London's 4/ demo in %%% recorded the events o that da+ chronoloicall+ ith an attention to the visual e;pressions o dissent. There is no voiceover to direct peoples interpretation *ut hat < chose to record reJects an intention to communicate. e are let ith man+ :uestions. Does a documentar+ ith a voice0over ive too much interpretation> Can such a didactic orm still as, +ou to thin, a*out somethin! rather than tellin +ou> Does the selection o hat to shoot! ho lon to shoot it! hat sort o shot to use! still constitute a selection and so a a+ o directin the vieer ho to thin, a*out somethin> I ettin the vieer to see the orld in a particular a+. + hunch is that e should not *e concerned so much a*out the artor,s as the rames and spaces in hich the+ are seen. hat < see in 6anciere is a persistent nain aa+ at classism hilst also careull+ ,eepin his place in the dominant stae ith neo0classical reerences and clever ord pla+. hen ourdieu admits that e;treme e;pressions o class disust had *een censored rom Distinction he sa+s= "one cannot o*5ecti+ the intellectual ame ithout puttin at sta,e one's on sta,e in the ame 00 a ris, hich is at once derisor+ and a*solute" (p.$B&.
2 *asic assumption that < ma,e is that the s+stem must manae the media and state cultural institutions ell enouh to insure that challenes to its survival do not de0sta*ilise its rip on poer. The a+ this heemon+ is maintained is idel+ ,non as 6anciere points out. 9ate,eepers or manaers! patrons and politicians! all contri*ute to maintainin a status :uo! a class s+stem. 2t the same time the+ must provide the s+stem ith su?icient criticism to inoculate it.
chapter + The ensi$e *ma&e
This chapter is the most a*struse and theoreticall+ a*stract. Ir as he simpl+ havin a lauh at the e;pense o the airs and races assumed *+ the rulin
class> 6anciere comments that his idea o the pensive imae is an idea o a sort o inactivit+ and that Heel has interpreted the paintin or his on uses. The idea o pensiveness is frst ascri*ed to Honore de al@ac in his novella 'arrasine' (/BG& via arthe's amous anal+sis in R (%#G&. al@ac ends his narrative indeterminatel+ *+ fnall+ leavin the protaonist 'pensive'! ith the suestion o a continuin and undefned thouht process that oes *e+ond the narrative. 6anciere oes on to discuss the incidental micro events descri*ed in 'adame ovar+' (/1$& *+ 9ustave Flau*ert. The micro events are li,e silent pictures inserted into! *ut also a*ove! and *e+ond the narrative. "The pensiveness o the imae is then the latent presence o one reime o e;pression ithin another." p.-3 2 contemporar+ e;ample is said to *e the contemplative flms o 2**as Siarostami! li,e '6oads o Siarostami' (-GG1&. 2nother e;ample is 'hirin' (-GG%& a eature flm in hich the vieer is conronted *+ the aces o an audience o omen atchin an unseen flm. The audience are thereor let to imaine the events *ein seen *+ the omen. He then transers his attention to the electronic screen via 4ean0Luc 9odard's mammoth eiht episode 'Histoire(s& du Cinema' (%%/&. The pensiveness in this video series is= .
Re$ie-ers %onclusion The frst chapter puts orard the core idea that there has *een a m+th o peoples passivit+ enerated rom the esta*lished let hich has *een a central plan, o classism *+ persuadin people o the ine:ualit+ o intellience *eteen them and their masters. 6anciere tal,s a*out a*rutir rather than oppression. The crude idea o the inert masses as disposed o ell *eore 4ohn Care+'s 'The
that < as aare o! readin 6anciere's anal+sis elt li,e sha,in o? a lon dead leech. 6anciere dares conront the ar;ist radical let ith their classism! rather than more technical aruments ith ar;ist theor+. The criticism o ierre ourdieu that ollos in chapter - is somethin similar to hat < rote less eleantl+! *ac, in %%B. ourdieu does not understand ho the stratifcation o taste that he measures as cultural norms is neated *+ the actions o autodidacts and other outsiders ho cannot *e measured in his socioloical surve+s. ourdieu onl+ reconises individual cultural aenc+ *+ +oun *oureois. (For his detailed criti:ue o ourdieu see part B o notes on The hilosopher and His oor a*ove& The suestion in Emancipated pectator is that thins li,e participation art onl+ reinorce the idea that the audience are usuall+ passive receptacles. 6anciere points out that predetermined outcomes cannot *e emancipator+ *ecause or an artor, to *e emancipator+ the vieer has to *e ma,in 5udements *ased on their on ,nolede and e;perience. (reerrin *ac, to The <norant choolmaster&. The idea that individuals need to *e thin,in or themselves is hardl+ ne and it is to 6anciere's credit that he rereshes it and leads on to a set o philosophical pro*lems a*out the relation *eteen the individual and the collective. The rest o the *oo, mainl+ concerns these :uestions. For 6anciere *oth conditions are co0terminus ithout an+ need or consensus.
6oom' photoraph. all is said to use a 'strate+ o :uotation ithout direct imitation' and it is implied as a ,e+ to readin the hole sho. The inJuence o Delacroi;'s /1B paintin The Death o ardanapalusO is claimed. <'d rather have seen it separate rom *ein told ho to loo, at it. < ver+ much elt that such curatorial uidance as closin o? an+ o m+ on thouht. That is stultifcation. + on thouhts on seein this or, in reproduction ere ver+ di?erent. < did not ant to have this rameor, orced onto m+ frst viein o the actual print. Hoever < suspect that all ma+ have made this claim oriinall+ as much as a strate+ to have his or, shon as 2rt as somethin he ished to rame the or, ith. 6anciere ould sa+ that an+ situation is reada*le in an emancipator+ ashion i e don't *o don to the strateies o a*rutir *ut enae our minds in an e?ort to deconstruct the orces that ould limit and channel our thin,in. This is not eas+ to do as a lone mind! and < fnd it happens *etter in discussion ith others. 6anciere manaes to 5ile m+ thin,in *ut as an anal+sis there are too man+ varia*les. < eel there is also somethin missin. For those o us or ever on the outside) e perhaps need more o a pra;is o
conte;tuall+ disruptive micro0audiences! as ell as a macro anal+sis o arts patronae *+ the state and commerce.
Endnotes.
78 2ainst this the earl+ musichall audience ere moved rom sittin around ta*les drin,in into the f;ed ros o seats 0 a late C%th commercialised audience 0 oten seen as a strate+ to paci+! *ut < suppose it could have *een a drive to et more pa+in customers into a space. The *oureois audience *ein politel+ :uiet and immo*ile did not mean that the+ ere mentall+ passive. Hoever held up as a model or rod+ or,in class audiences to 5ude t hemselves aainst as used as a a+ to denirate the ph+sicall+ active audience and so or,in class cultural e;pression.
7-8 Feuer*ach's 'The Essence o 6eliion'! /3. 7B8 + ver+ short summar+ o err+ 2nderson's account o the academicisation o ar; ma+ *e ound here 6anciere's loner %/B criti:ue o ar; summarised here 738 6anciere reers to Das Capital as "the i*le o *oureois scientism". p.B-. No onder the ienalle crod li,e 6anciere and the ideoloical let mistrust him. e.. Nathan ron. http=.radicalphilosoph+.comarticlered0+ears0althusserPs0lesson0rancierePs0error0and0 the0real0movement0o0histor+. 718 The Torso is currentl+ in the atican useum and is considered evidence o t he hih point o classical aesthetics. 7$8 Friedrich chiller! In the 2esthetic Education o an= in a series o letters! #%31. + usin these canonic e;amples o European learnin he is o course parado;icall+ a?irmin his *elonin to the Humanist communit+ o learnin. 7#8
2s a orm o popular mass entertainment! cinema0oin did not enerall+ fnd avour amon the middle class until the advent o sound s+stems heralded the era o art deco picture palaces in the %BG's. (9omes! ar+anne. 'The ast 2s resent= the home movie as cinema o record'! ms %%#& The inception o sound and the increasinl+ lare sums o mone+ to *e made also *rouht the mass0mar,et flm frml+ under the control o the capitalist class. The+ imported their on literar+ culture *+ a+ o the script and the aesthetics o ood taste. The Charlie Chaplin flms o the %-G's can *e seen as a *ride to this period. His inJuences rom or,in class culture and musichall met a Holl+ood s+stem hich had an ethos o respecta*ilit+ and taste! and a literar+ heritae and articulation. Commercial cinema continued to evolve throuh the %BG's and %3Gs ith an increasin reliance on scripted dramatic narratives. The content as respecta*le and sentimental. The illusion o narrative continuit+ as smooth. There as a sheen o perection hich created an increasin ul rom the sel0enerated activit+ o artists and amateurs. This dominance as maintained until there as a resurence o the vular in the orm o 0ovie horror! roc, and se; enres in the consumer e;plosion o the %1G's.
