Spectacle

As a spectacle (Latin spectaculum = spectacle for the eyes, sight, even noise, noise) is generally described as an event that attracts attention.

Term use

The term " spectacle" has negative connotations for events with shallow or befremdlichem character, but certainly also positive for remarkably entertaining events. If an event is referred to as "spectacular ", Open effectiveness is positively praised, without negative undertone. Thus, for example, referred to Events, festivals or performances that aim primarily to sensory stimuli for an audience, for example, fire shows, media circus, etc.

History

As a spectacle productions are referred to that were reinforced since the Baroque, such as son et lumière, first exclusively, and since the late 18th century and the people is popular and served the curiosity of the audience. Market theater offered as a popular theater not only spectacle and pieces of equipment, but living pictures or images of horses theaters and traveling menageries to satisfy the curiosity of the audience for the unusual.

Criticism

The French Situationist and filmmaker Guy Debord in 1967 an influential for the New Left work entitled The Society of the Spectacle, in which, he the spectacle of consumption in Western societies, based on the analysis of commodity fetishism, criticized from a neo-Marxist perspective. A similar critical position represents Theodor W. Adorno 's concept of the culture industry.