Author Description

Following his acclaimed history of the Situationist International up until the late sixties, The Beach Beneath the Street, McKenzie Wark returns with a companion volume which puts the late work of the Situationists in a broader and deeper context, charting their contemporary relevance and their deep critique of modernity. Wark builds on their work to map the historical stages of the society of the spectacle, from the diffuse to the integrated to what he calls the disintegrating spectacle. The Spectacle of Disintegration takes the reader through the critique of political aesthetics of former Situationist T.J. Clark, the Fourierist utopia of Raoul Vaneigem, René Vienetʹs earthy situationist cinema, Gianfranco Sangunettiʹs pranking of the Italian ruling class, Alice-Becker Hoʹs account of the anonymous language of the Romany, Guy Debordʹs late films and his surprising work as a game designer. -- Publisher description.