Task 1 - Panopticism Task...

Choose an example of one aspect of contemporary culture that is, in your opinion, panoptic. Write an explanation of this, in approximately 200-300 words, employing key Foucauldian language, such as 'Docile Bodies' or 'self-regulation, and using not less than 5 quotes from the text 'Panopticism' in Thomas, J. (2000) 'Reading Images', NY, Palgrave McMillan.  






Modern society has been under constant change and will always continue to change as long as we permit it too. The main way that this has been in effect is due to Panopticism. Panopticism is a apart of every day life, a simple way of describing Panopticism would be 'a power which is constantly visible but never verifiable'. This is something which showed the change over from physical control over its patients to then a mental control which proved alot stronger and allowed a much greater return in progress of time that was needed to change the behaviour to what was needed.


A modern day Panoptic technique in which we are all judged upon (especially in the younger generation) would be online social sites such as Facebook and Twitter, everything that you post and all the actions that you perform on these sites are judged people judge you upon these actions. Every time that you post anything or upload a picture you are being monitored and this then makes you self consciously act in the way that you think is expected and is also acceptable for society. 


You can try to prevent the Panopticism from happening however this deems near impossible in our modern world due to the way in which things have been put in placed now, On Facebook and Twitter you are able to prevent people who are not your friends to see what you are up to, this is a way in which we can monitor our own privacy yet this can only allow us to do so much. Normally aswell people do not consider these settings to even be there and presume that they have been already put into action. they would be wrong.

The Gaze... Lecture Notes 5.

What makes us want to hurt others and what makes us want to watch others suffer through others seeing?

when playing a computer game it gives you a chance to do something that you cant do in real life without getting hurt or badly injured, thats a reason why people enjoy these games.

Richard focussed on institutional structures of power in the last lecture, this lecture will focus more on interpersonal, psychical and power sexual relations

some common misconceptions about physchical, power and sexual relations...

- It’s mish-mash of psychology (behaviour) and psychiatry (mental illness).

- Although it is linked to the two – it’s also a ‘way of thinking’ that can be applied to all aspects of society, including art and design.

- It’s all about sex.

- Whilst psychoanalysis does position the role of sexuality, especially in our infancy, as a foundation of our adult lives – it is also about how we treat and examine other objects.

scopophilia – sexual stimulation by sight….(objectifying the actors on screen) 

   ‘In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure. In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact  [. . .] they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness.’

 

 There is also a view point on tv these days.. there is a modern tv show known as peep show

 

this allows you too look through the eyes of the character so that you are able to see what they see and how they want to act! and what they look like whilst they do, making you feel more apart of the show.

There are two ways of gazing...

1.the spectator’s gaze – gaze of a viewer at an image

2.intra-diegetic gaze – a gaze of one depicted person at another within the image

The use of the extra-diegetic gaze is more affecting than the intra-diegetic gaze in this instance.

Intra-diegetic gazes defer our guilt – someone else is hurting that person 

Extra-diegetic gazes enhances our guilt – we are complicit

Different forms of ‘gaze’ evoke different structures of power;

Popular Culture... Lecture 4.

The aims of this Essay:

- Critically define 'popular culture'

- Define 'Ideology'

- Contrast ideas of culture with popular culture and mass culture.

What is culture:

- On of the most complicated words in the english language!

- A particular way of life

- Works of intellectual and especially artistic significance

The State

‘…but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie’ (Marx & Engels (1848) ‘Communisit Manifesto)

This is what was placed next to this image as it describes the way that they think this all links together to show how each of them all look at each other ... as you can see they say the order in which the world was working and what priority is in order to make sure each of them do what they have been told! 

What is Ideology 

- Inferior kinds of work

- Well liked by many people

- Work deliberately setting out to win favour with the people

- Culture actually made by the people themselves

these would show how you can then portray something as ideology, it says how you want things to look and be perfect in other peoples eyes and this will allow this to then be made out to be perfect and liked by everyone

Working Class

Bourgeois

Matthew Arnold (1867) ‘Culture & Anarchy’

matthew believed that culture was created from the best things that have happend in the world, the study of perfection., attained through disinterested reading, thinking and writing. This can all lead to the pursuit of culture.

'The working class… raw and half developed… long lain half hidden amidst it’s poverty and squalor… now issuing from it’s hiding place to assert an Englishmans heaven born privelige to do as he likes, and beginning to perplex us by marching where it likes, meeting where it likes, breaking what it likes' 

There are many things out there now which will show modern culture and how this is wanted to be placed and preformed in the best of lights, this can be a range off something from everyone is interested in when they get the most of things in the modern world. This could be anything from Facebook, big brother, hollyoaks. 

These all have a way of inviting the crowds into them and making them something which we see as 'cool' to watch ... thus making it Popular 

What else makes something popular:

The AURA of an object or the hype which surrounds something can make a massive impact on what you makes something popular. The best way to describe this would be with the Mona Lisa, this has such hype about the painting that its became famous for it, however there is much better paintings out there now and these do not has as much influence in the modern world. 

This can also edit what is 'cool' and 'popular' in the fashion industry and how you want these to then be made, the most influencial way of working with this is to look at what comes up in magazines and is broadcasted on the big screen, this then makes you think you want these and thus making it high demand and popular. 

Marxism and Design Activism... Lecture 3.

Marx suggests that there is no point in thinking without action... He calls the unification of thinking and action "praxis"

Marx wrote the communist manifesto, this outluined what he thought was a better way of organising society, Marxism led to the rise of the Soviet Union.

Capitalism is the society that we live in, Capitalism means that a few that are high in power are able to made the most profit, these are usually the people who are at the top of the ranks. This is a system which is based around individualism and so it makes us complete. We are taught to compete from school onwards

We are also taught to think that if your at the top of the jobs market it is because you deserve to be. We are lead to believe that competition is in human nature however back in primitive society we shared everything. this is now enforced in our modern culture to make us believe that competition is healthy so that we always better ourselves.

Marx argues  that society has two distinct sections, the base and the superstructure, The base is where all the workers with the mains skill and tools, mainly the people who set the ground work and then you have the superstructure who are the people who deal with legal, political and cultural proberlems ... and this is what the ideological world we see today

Religeon is sometimes classed as the trap for the working class!, the ultimate form of mental control, The working class are taught that theres an honour in being poor because if you are moral and that youll be then rewarded for your morality in heaven. 

Ideology usually emerges from the rulling class and there world view. The exploited class starts to think that this is also their world view. 

Art has always been Ideological

Another thing that has happend with modern culture is that education is now something that teachs us to act and behave in a way that society wants us too. This is now used as a state apparatus.

The media reflects ideology thats in the world already and effects us all without us even knowing.

Technology will liberate us Lecture 2

We will be looking into the overview of critical implication of techniology in art and design. What are the implications of technology on your design area!?

Technological conditions do not just have an effect on materialism. They affect how we think and operate as a society, this affects how we behave and how it will change us

Walter Benjamin claimed that when you copy an image that then becomes a copy of the oringinal work, however that is still  a copy of the main work but still the essence is there and its a piece of work in its own right,

Its hard to then tell whos work is the original once everyone starts to copy of each other, this becomes even more difficult when you start to look at artists work when they repliceate there own work and use them as repeat patterns...

Machine Age: Modernism.

Technology is parallel to new developments, the spirit of the age is dictated by technology and its use in art and design.

The only way to understand the idea of "original" is that only the art work created by technology and photography, sometimes these have been classed as the originals ... Benjamin Waleters calls these the "aura"

Freud explores the istinctual side of human behaviour . Marx brings about the understanding that techonolgy affects the value of the work of art as its no longer the only one out there. Marx foresore that labour and production through industrail revolution would naturally lead to a bigger consumption of art and design.

Photography destabilises in a similar way to postmodernism.

Frued explores technology in terms of how it can affect our subconscious - this is how we ended up with surrealism

One thing that came shortly afterwards with photography is Kineticism - the study of movement

Also with photography comes the dematerialisation of art and design. We dont necessarrily have to deal with an object at all!

Panopticism ... Lecture 1.

Institutions and Institutional Power...

The Panopticon (below) was created in 1971  

The main focus of this lecture is going to be on Michael Foucault who was born in 1926 and died in the year 1984. He was an activist and fought for gay rights, prisoner rights and much more. He was the guy who created the ideas of Madness and civilisation which shows the rise of the psychiatric doctors. 

He also created discipline and punishment, this showed the rise of the prisoners and the officers who worked in these 'prisons'

Back in the old days there was a different approach and thought to what madness was, it was thought of in a positive way so to speak, this was due to way that people seen these as the jokers and they were entertaining to watch while they made idiots of themselves. 

Then came the 1900's and things quickly changed and a more moral attitude became known and it was a disgrace to have this style of behaviour now. Those who didn't fit to the standard which was expected of the public were placed into what was called "The house of correction" also known as The Great Confinement (this was a place in which anyone who couldn't or wouldn't work, e.g. mothers, criminals or the insane were then placed to make sure that they could be changed into these people who were the perfect citizens. 

This worked for a certain length of time but it soon had to change because the way in which it was all coming together, the insane started to change the sane and create more criminals and trouble makers then what actually entered the house of correction. 

Asylums hence were created due to this issue, this is where the people who were imprisoned where trained like children to the degree that if you did something wrong you were punished and if you were to do something that was good you would then be rewarded for the things that you did. 

WITH THE BIRTH OF THE ASYLUM, THERE WAS A CHANGE OF CONTROL, GOING FROM PHYSICAL TO MENTAL. 

Others way of which you were expected to respect the new morals which was going on, this was created through the way of "The Pillory" this was created to show a message to show others that if you don't act morally to the way that society expects you to then you will be publicly humiliated. 

This made people to start to correct themselves on a new level so that you are able to work create the public to a way in which the government or the king wants.

THE PANOPTICON

This is the general layout which of the panopticon worked with, you can see the way in which each little station round the outside has a booth in which you can sit a single prisoner so that they can see the centre tower.

These above are some panopticons which are still around in Cuba, these are still in use and still applying there job well.

This here is the view from the inside of the panopticon, the tower that was in the centre was so that the guards could see into the each of the cells however, the guards in each of the cells couldn't see any of prisoners, this made is so that each prisoner could not interact with any other people and you felt like you were constantly under scrutiny and under a careful watch. 

The centre tower wouldn't be lit up so you couldn't see inside and then you would have to wonder if you were being watched or not, this still created the sense of wondering and you would never be 100% sure. So it started to create this sense of of risk and if you misbehaved would you be caught. Hence the development of self control, this eventually lead to no need for guards as they couldn't see if there was some guards in there any more so due to it not being lit you just behaved yourself. 

This style of prison was a way in which you can create a sense of...

Scrutiny 

Allows experiments on the prisoners 

Also makes them more self productive. 

This has now been implied into the more modern world, from the images below you can see how a work office has this open plan which is meant to be more contemporary and a more friendly working environment in which you can work and get things done so you can still talk to piers, yet it has a more stronger purpose where your boss can see what everyone is doing all the time. He wont even need to do anything except sit in his office, this is so that you can literally see him and know that he may be watching you so you don't miss behave.

All the above are examples of how it is implied in the modern day living. Ranging from libraries to pubs to educational environments.

Introduction to Contextual Theoretical Studies...

Head of the course and our tutor to this study is Richard Miles, we will have lectures every thursday at 11.00 am and a seminar at either 10 till 12 or 1 till 3 depending on our CTS group. 

The things which should be posted onto our contextual theoretical studies blog should be our lecture notes, any exhibitions that we attend, tasks and essays that we are given, independent research, we should document and type up our crits and the feedback that we get and also link this blog to any practical work  that we find or any that we have created personally.

There will be a range of studies to which we are going to cover, these will help to expand our range of knowledge when it comes to the subject matter. I will post the notes which we have took in any lectures which we have in the future. 

So Second Year Begins...