Den frigjorte tilskuer

Abstract

The article is a critical analysis of the idea of the need to activate the spectator considered passive and without the proper knowledge or agency. This idea runs from Diderot through Brecht and Artaud to Debord. The idea of the passivity of the spectator presupposes an idea of inequality where the passive spectator is contrasted to the active creator and the activated spectator. In the article this opposition is contrasted with an idea of the creative ability of everybody to speak and participate in the sharing of the sensible world. The idea of the passive spectator is thus replaced with an idea of a prior equality that presupposes that everybody is capable of thinking and speaking.