“2. The images detached from every aspect of life fuse in a common stream in which the unity of this life can no longer be reestablished. Reality considered partially unfolds, in its own general unity, as a pseudo-world apart, an object of mere contemplation. The specialization of images of the world is completed in the world of the autonomous image, where the liar has lied to himself. The spectacle in general, as the concrete inversion of life, is the autonomous movement of the non-living.”
I chose ‘The Treachery of Images’ as an image to represent Debord’s message due to the inherent criticism and irony that Rene Magritte’s piece highlighted in his time: at how artists, content creators and the general people lie to themselves and each other by creating and perpetuating images, and how this leads them to move through life convinced that the spectacular illusion they immerse themselves in is 'living’. This is most evident when Debord states, “The specialisation of images of the world is completed in the world of the autonomous image, where the liar has lied to himself. I interpreted this as professional artists and image makers making images guided by a specific discipline or brand that is autonomous due to its separation from hobbyists and non-commercial creators, which onto itself declares itself as being "autonomous’ – unique – to which the non-specialists agree and buy into. This is compounded by the idea that the creator is not only convincing the masses that what they’re are presenting is real, but is convincing themselves that their creation is also real, forgetting their artists craft is based on the ideology of lying and persuading an audience that what they see is real. This issue has been and is observed in social media content creators posting photography or art that is purely representational to the world and declaring that it is true or real – captions and thumbnails on Youtube telling you that the content is real. The Treachery of Images aptly comments on this as the comment 'This is not a pipe’ highlights the easily forgettable idea that what one see’s in an image is representational, and to think otherwise or declare it as being reality would be to lie to the audience and the creator. This paragraph can be potentially interpreted as elevation of awareness to the fact that 'The spectacle in general’ is 'the concrete inversion of life’ and that it a unfortunate fact that creators publish the message that the spectacle they produce is in fact life itself and those who partake in the lie are living.
