Lectures from the Allen Room & Wertheim Study: Propaganda and Political Spectacle

This talk will focus on the theories of Edward Bernays and his Freudian influences, with particular focus on Bernays’ work with Woodrow Wilson and the affective relationship of key policies during and after WW1.  How can we critique commodities, production, consumption and propaganda in relation to Debord’s concept of the society of the spectacle and Marx’s commodity fetish?  Post modern theory will help us to look at current notions capitalist realism in relation to political spectacle.  Case studies of the exhibition, Propaganda: Power and Persuasion, at the British library in 2013 will be considered and a critical analysis of contemporary television programming such as Veep and House of Cards in relation to political spectacle will be offered.  Can concepts of object oriented ontologies and their relationship to politics help us to understand concepts of capitalist realism and notions of social structures?

Nina Trivedi (Wertheim Study) is a PhD candidate at the Royal College of Art, in London in the department of Critical and Historical Studies.  She has contributed writing to various journals, exhibition catalogues and most recently chaired a panel on prosumerism for an arts foundation in London.  She is the book reviews editor for Journal of Visual Culture.

This lecture is in conjunction with the exhibit Over here : WWI and the Fight for the American Mind.  Now through February 15