Synopses & Reviews
The theorists of art and film commonly depict the modern audience as aesthetically and politically passive. In response, both artists and thinkers have sought to transform the spectator into an active agent and the spectacle into a communal performance.
In this follow-up to the acclaimed The Future of the Image, Rancière takes a radically different approach to this attempted emancipation. First asking exactly what we mean by political art or the politics of art, he goes on to look at what the tradition of critical art, and the desire to insert art into life, has achieved. Has the militant critique of the consumption of images and commodities become, ironically, a sad affirmation of its omnipotence?
Review
It’s clear that Jacques Rancière is relighting the flame that was extinguished for many—that is why he serves as such a signal reference today. -- Thomas Hirschhorn
Review
His art lies in the rigor of his argument—its careful, precise unfolding —and at the same time not treating his reader, whether university professor or unemployed actress, as an imbecile. -- Kristin Ross
Review
In the face of impossible attempts to proceed with progressive ideas within the terms of postmodernist discourse, Rancière shows a way out of the malaise. -- Liam Gillick
Review
Ranciere's writings offer one of the few conceptualizations of how we are to continue to resist. -- Slavoj Zizek
Synopsis
Following up on his acclaimed work The Future of the Image, Ranciimp;quest;re explores the meaning of critical art and suggests how we may overcome the potential trap of being a spectator. As passive spectators, he argues, we risk consumerist oppression and an upheaval of social relations. Suggesting a more active part in the process of observation, Ranciimp;quest;re reveals how we may affirm the status of spectatorship and build upon it. In our contemporary age of mass visual media, Ranciimp;quest;re"s lucid perspective stands alone in a sea of trivializing critiques of spectacle.
Synopsis
What we see here is Ranciere developing a unique voice as a political theorist.French philosopher Jacques Ranciere is a refreshing read for anyone concerned with what art has to do with politics and society.What we are given is, above all, a figure of the spectator whose capacities to sense and think are greater than we have been prepared to conceive.
Synopsis
What we are given is, above all, a figure of the spectator whose capacities to sense and think are greater than we have been prepared to conceive.
Synopsis
The foremost philosopher of art argues for a new politics of looking.
About the Author
Jacques Rancière is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Paris-VIII. His books include
The Politics of Aesthetics,
On the Shores of Politics,
Short Voyages to the Land of the People,
The Nights of Labor,
Staging the People, and
The Emancipated Spectator.
Gregory Elliott is a member of the editorial collective of Radical Philosophy and author of Althusser: The Detour of Theory and Labourism and the English Genius: The Strange Decay of Labour England?.