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 Ranciere 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?
