Print Culture and The Spectacle 2.0

This paper describes creative printmaking practices that employ art as a platform for alternative voices that critique DeBord’s modern-day exploitation systems in the Society of the Spectacle1 (Debord, 1967). The specific art practices discussed aim to tempt mainstream participants caught within the Spectacle’s cycle to recognise, evaluate, and reconsider the impact these systems have on contemporary society. The creative industries have spent much time ‘on mute’ throughout the past two years. While navigating the ever-changing lockdowns and restrictions, art practitioners – whose role is often to bring people together physically – have been forced to operate in isolation from behind a keyboard. As visual practitioners, we must speak out in response to these COVID-related paradigm shifts with the most effective post-pandemic voice we can muster: our art practice. This paper suggests that a potent reaction to our impacted creative lives comes from understanding how the Spectacle’s mechanisms operate in a contemporary sense during this pandemic. At the same time, it discusses how art can be used to challenge the principles and ethics of a culture caught within the Spectacle. The paper also discusses historical and contemporary artists and art practices that utilise the same techniques, mediums, and frameworks employed by the Spectacle to expose the mechanisms of present-day Spectacle 2.0. These artists, who draw from print culture, utilise methodologies that successfully navigate the risks of becoming part of the ongoing cycle that the Spectacle perpetuates.