Past Responses

LEGO BRANDING AND IDENTITY

REGGAE WEBSITE RESEARCH

After searching the internet for reggae sites I realised that pretty much all of them were really poorly designed and said nothing about reggae. The sites were very dull and boring and I feel personally were letting reggae music down. I am hoping to come up with something a bit more eye catching.

reggae.com - boring, colour scheme says nothing about reggae

http://www.rastaites.com/events/natreg.htm

Awfully designed website - garish and ugly

http://www.rastaites.com/events/natreg.htm

Little bit better but still does not represent reggae at all

http://www.bobmarley.com/ - this is allot better, much more natural

and relevant to reggae music. Nice colour scheme.

http://reggaetopsite.com/ - Not too bad, easy to navigate round. Could be better.

http://www.reggae-reggae.co.uk/ - I like the style of this, The colour scheme

is much more relevant, not half as tacky as the rest.

http://www.ukreggaeguide.co.uk/index.php?id=22

Tacky design with too much use of the rasta colours

ESSAY PROGRESS

How do panoptic techniques in modern day society affect those who are subjected to them?

Panopticism is present everywhere in today’s society, where ever we go we are under constant watch of security cameras and other members of the public, this ‘scrutiny,’ causes people to change the way they act, feel and even look. Every move we make is being documented and assessed from a distance, and causes a form of self discipline and change that can be seen in the effects of Bentham’s ‘Panopticon.’

The Panopticon is an ‘annular building’ with individual cells all around the outside and a giant all seeing tower in the middle with venetian blinds on the inside and outside of the windows. This provides a one-way gaze, whereby the subjects in the cells know they are beeing constantly watched,  “hence the major effect of the Panopticon: to induce a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power.” (Foucault 1977: 65) It was through this principle of isolation and constant surveillance that the Panopticon functioned. “The inmate must never know whether he is being looked at at any one moment,”(Foucault 1977: 65) its this ‘not knowing’ that causes the subjects to start correcting their behavior for fear of being watched, they are “caught up in a power situation of which they are themselves the bearers.” (Foucault 977: 65)

The Panopticon functions by using 3 separate techniques. Firstly “a strict spatial partitioning” (Foucault: 1977: 61) is needed, this prevents the ‘in mates’ from coming into contact with his fellow inhabitants, “He is seen, but he does not see; he is the object of information, never a subject of communication” (Foucault: 1977:65). The second techniques he describes is ‘Surveillance’ which is a form of monitoring activity, this knowledge of being watched has a psychological affect which has the power to create self discipline within the subject. The third technique he talks about is registration, in that it allows us to identify the individual. Individuals are recorded and observed in society today, the information collected about us, are used to create a digital version of us. We can see this showing through in personalized online adverts, which are subjected to us on a regularly basis. “Computers become machines for producing retrievable identities.” (Lyon 2001: 115)

These concepts can be seen in todays CCTV surveillance, “it can be claimed that through surveillance cameras the panoptic technology of power has been electronically extended: our cities have become enormous Panopticons.” (Lyon, 1994; Fyfe and Banister, 1998; Tabor, 2001) Foucault describes the city as a series of “disciplinary mechanism[s].” (1977) CCTV has the ability to trap, control and individualize members of the general public. Maybe CCTV is actually a form of social control, which cause people to conform to what is deemed socially acceptable. In a way this is a restriction on our freedom, Todays society behaves in a manner, which we have been disciplined into, rather than acting freely and without restriction. We are forced to conform to society’s rules, which have an impact on the way the way we view the world, the way we behave, think and look.

“He who is subjected to a field of visibility, and who knows it, assumes responsibility for the constraints of power; he makes them play spontaneously upon himself. He inscribes in himself the power relation in which he simultaneously plays both roles; he becomes the principle of his own subjection.” (Foucault 1977a: 203) What Foucault is referring to, is a form of self discipline that is caused by this “all seeing all knowing power,” which Foucault refers to as “omnipresence.” (Foucault 1977: 62) CCTV recording makes us as individuals accountable for our actions, the fact we are being watched and judged on a daily basis, which deters us from behaving in a way that society sees unacceptable. People essentially correct their behavior as a result of this gaze. It also has the power to change the way they feel about their surroundings. CCTV cameras have the ability to both scare the subject and also provide security. This is because the presence of the cameras indicates there is something that needs to be under surveillance, but there is also the comfort that there will be someone on the other side of the lens.

Surveillance can have a very different effect in some cases. In the 2009 documentary, “We live in public,” the idea of privacy is pushed to its limits. This documentary explores the story of Internet pioneer Josh Harris, who set up a big brother style project, in which he placed more than 100 artists in a human terrarium under New York City. He installed webcams, which followed and captured every move they made, eliminating all privacy. They were provided with as much food, drink and drugs as they like. But were unable to leave for over a month. This constant gaze on the ‘inmates’ resulted in some quite ‘abnormal’ behaviour.

This experiment was “a chance to display oneself under the gaze of the camera” (Ernst, 2002: 461) but this eventually was the destruction of the inhabitants.  At first the ‘inmates’ were in a state of ecstasy, there was a sense of love and compassion, there was also a constant need for attention and recognition, and the subjects were essentially seeking fame, acting differently to how they may usually. “Being under the constant watch of the world influences people to carry out actions they would not usually do. They may either play up to the camera which encourages the subject or they will be more reserved and up tight” (Koskela 2003:) Throughout the documentary you can see how the behavior of the subjects rapidly changes as they begin to get sick of the cameras. They face “the constant torture of the random but ever possible gaze,” (Ainley 1998: 90) this invasion of privacy had a very negative effect, turning these highly creative people into uncreative ‘docile bodies,’ when the experiment finally got closed down by the police, the subjects left in a zombie like state, this ‘strict partition’ from the outside world caused a ‘plague’ like effect, which changed the way they thought about the world and the way they behaved. This is an extreme case of what effect panoptisicm can have on individuals and shows how the techniques used cause radical changes in behavior and personality. The experiment shows that if we continue to increasingly publicize our lives eventually we will feel the wrath of these panoptic techniques.

In some ways the Panopticism, fails without a sophisticated cultural visual language for reminding citizens that they are being watched. We have all been programmed to police each other’s actions essentially. The ‘Panopticion’ makes all acts visible but it is unable to distinguish between acts that conform to the rules and acts that pretend to conform. If it cannot tell the difference between the two there is no threat of retribution, which means the machine fails. The majority of society will conform under the watch of CCTV but a select few will feign conformity, these people understand that even though they know their actions could be on camera there is no definite chance that the footage will be accessed. “[t]he sheer mass of the data would be impossible to handle’”(Lyon, 2001: 52)

There is no denying that these security measures contribute towards a “disciplinary” society, but for some of these methods, rather than being security measures, can be seen as tools which allows the individual to be controlled and therefore society as a whole. (Foucault, 1977)

Foucault describes the disciplinary mechanisms as “subtle coercion for a society to come” (Foucault 1977: 209) quite surprisingly Foucault’s beliefs have become a part of how our society functions today. Many of his ideas have been carried on through various different media. We now have a society, that functions through a number of different bodies, like Hospitals, the Police and Prisons. All of these bodies register, classify and record us. This has been happening for a long time now; Foucaults writings have become a part of the way our world works. We are no longer anonymous; we are known, and it is becoming increasingly easier to access information about us, everywhere we go, there are panoptic forces acting upon us. As Foucault states, “visibility is a trap.” We are unable to act and behave in a manner that apposes the constraints that have been placed upon us. The question is, whether in the modern society, there is any inclination to behave in this way, or whether we have now become a predominantly accepting society of “docile bodies”, (Foucault, 1977) quietly doing as we are told and conforming to the rules without even realizing that we have been conditioned to behave this way through using a series of disciplinary mechanisms that have rooted themselves into our urban fabric.

Panopticism works in many forms. A very different instance would be the use of women in advertising, in a ‘sex sells’ society, we are subjected to hundreds of images of beautiful women on a daily basis, we see huge billboards scattered with women gazing upon us. Here a pair of seductive eyes has replaced the gaze of the CCTV camera. Although the method of delivery has changed, the results do not. This replacement gaze works quite differently on both genders. Men mainly control the media, “In this culture, the look is largely controlled by men. Privileged in general in this society, men also control the visual media. The film and television industries are dominated by men, as is the advertising industry.” (Coward 2000: 33) The use of women in advertising is mainly targeted at males, as this is a very easy way to grab their, all these images of women we come across everyday, are thought of as the perfect women. But actually this is a false representation of what the models are really like, the majority of them have been airbrushed and photo shopped in order to enhance the bodies outlining today’s predominantly male run society’s beliefs about the perfect body, physique, face etc. These are just ideas of what men went, In a highly visual society where looks matter, this can have a negative affect on how men view women and can create a very shallow society. In this day and age there is a clear divide between what is beautiful and what is ugly. This puts pressure on women all over the world who are faced with these images on a daily basis.

“The command created by an image obsessed culture is ‘do some work! Transform Yourself! Look Better! Be more erotic!” (Coward 2000: 39) Women are affected in a very different way. These images Cause women to question their identity and the way they look, this results in a mass makeover essentially. Where women feel inclined to change the way they look. It also causes them to become uncomfortable with the bodies they have. “Women’s experience of sexuality rarely strays far from ideologies and feelings about self-image. There’s a preoccupation with the visual image – of self and others – and a concomitant anxiety about how these images measure up to a socially prescribed ideal” (Coward 2000: 33) This results in a constant race for the perfect body, forever chasing the dream of society’s representation of the perfect woman. This has eventually lead to this size 0 trend, causing girls all over the world to go to extreme measures to lose weight and get in shape, “women are compelled to make themselves attractive in certain ways, and those ways involve submitting to the cultures beliefs about appropriate sexual behavior, women’s appearances are laden down with cultural values, and women have to form their identities within these values, or with difficulty, against them.” (Coward 2000: 36).

Advertisers use this Panoptic Gaze to target consumer’s unconscious needs and sexual desires. It also has the power to influence what we buy, what clothes we where what’s in and what’s out. Everyday we a shown what we want, or what society thinks we want. These desires are targeted on a subliminal level, he are constantly bombarded with these types of adverts. “The camera in contemporary media has been put to use as an extension of the male gaze at women on the streets” (Coward 2000: 33) Coward is referring to voyeurism.

Bibliography

Ainley, R. (1998) Watching the detectors: control and the Panopticon. In R. Ainley (ed.) New Frontiers of Space, Bodies and Gender. London: Routledge, 88-100.

Coward, R. (2000) “The Look,” in Thomas, J. (ed.) Reading Images, Casingstoke: Palgrave, pages 33-39

Ernst, W. (2002) Beyond the rhetoric of panopticism: surveillance as cybernetics. In T.Y.Levin, U. Frohne and P. Weibel (eds.) CTRL[SPACE]: Rhetorics of Surveillance from Bentham to Big Brother. ZKM Centre for Art and Media: Karlsruhe, 460-463.

Foucault, M. (1977) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of a Prison. London: Penguin Books.

Lyon, D. (1994) The Electronic Eye: The Rise of Surveillance Society. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Lyon, D. (2001) Surveillance Society: Monitoring Everyday Life. Buckingham: Open University Press.

Fyfe, N.R. and J. Bannister (1998) ‘the eyes upon the street“: closed-circuit television surveillance and the city. In N.R. Fyfe (ed.) Images of the Street: Representation, Experience and Control in Public Space. London: Routledge, 254-267.

Koeskela, H (2003) ‘Cam Era’  – the contemporary urban Panopticon, Surveillance & Society 1(3): 292-313

Tabor, P. (2001) I am a videocam. In I.Borden J.Kerr J.Rendell and A. Pivaro (eds.) The  Unknown City: Contesting Architecture and Social Space. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 122-137.

Lecture 12 Globalisation & the Media

Multi national corporations have become the dominant force, more powerful than countries.

Globalisation: growth to a global or worldwide scale; "the globalisation of the communication industry".

The access to worldwide communication has made us more globalised.

All workers contribute to a larger machine. 

Mcluhan was writing about the social effects of the mass media before the introduction of the internet:

We are becoming more connected as a world. 
This connection should make us closer and more aware of our responsibilities to each other.

The state we have is a capitalist western world trying to take over, this brings a variety of resistance:

Does globalization make people around the world more alike or more different?

Key point from these writers:

Imperialism isn't bought by war, it is done by forcing politics and culture upon others so that they become like you.

One of the illusions people have is that somehow the mass media is a giant free market where independent companies are competing with each other, When in reality they are all owned by bigger corporation.

  Companies owned by Time-Warner:

 

Culture is made in the west and then repackaged and sold all around the world. 

IT becomes popular because everyone wants to be more like the culture they are consuming. The biggest selling product in India last year was skin whitening cream because the buyers wanted to appear more western and fit in more with the culture they consume.

Chomsky knew that the news is fabricated 'facts' that push the interests of the wealthy,

Murdoch once boasted that The Sun has the power to determine the result of elections, which causes politicians to pander to Murdoch in order for the media to portray them in a good light.

Advertisers dominate the media and take precedence over the content:

Global climate coalition: manufactured propaganda stories saying that global warming wasn't happening- the people that started it was texaco, exxon and ford.

By demonising others it can portray the interests of ourselves as just:

Al Gore suggests that to stop global catastrophe we need to buy more things to live greener which is a very Capitalist solution. 

In comparison:

Politicians wont stamp down on emissions because it will lower profits for the big corporations which will cause them to lose support from them big corporations.

LECTURE 11 - Censorship and ‘Truth’

This lecture considers notions of „truth‟ in the context of Fine Art and the Media, and in 

particular photography.  It will consider the indexical qualities associated with photography 

and the rendering of „truth‟, which has led to the oft-quoted but flawed cliché that „the camera 

never lies‟, which has to a large degree been undermined by the possibilities of digital 

manipulation, however the lecture will show that this is in fact nothing new and has long 

been possible with analogue (film) photography.

Thus the „truth‟ shown in photography has often been manipulated for a particular purpose, 

and perhaps most importantly for political propaganda.  Within this, it will also consider the 

versions of the „truth‟ we are allowed to see in the media, i.e. what is kept hidden from us for 

political reasons.

Jean Baudrillard has considered that in contemporary history, this has gone even further, or 

almost been reversed to the extent that wars are not as they have been in the past, but are 

in fact timed and organised in order to be viewed as media events.

Jean Baudrillard and The Gulf War did not take place

“It is a masquerade of Information: branded faces delivered over to the prostitution of the 

image” Jean Baudrillard, The Gulf War Did not Take Place, 1995, p.40

„It is the de-intensified state of war, that of the right to war under the green light of the UN 

and with an abundance of precautions and concessions.  It is the bellicose equivalent of safe 

sex: make war like love with a condom!  On the Richter scale, the Gulf War would not even 

reach two or three.  The build up is unreal, as though the fiction of an earthquake were 

created by manipulating the measuring instruments‟. Jean Baudrillard, The Gulf War Did Not 

Take Place, 1995, in Poster, M. (ed.) (1988), Jean Baudrillard: Selected Writings, 

Cambridge, Polity Press, page 233

„Two intense images, two or perhaps three which all concern disfigured forms or costumes 

which correspond to the masquerade of this war: the CNN journalists with their gas masks in 

the Jerusalem studios; the drugged and beaten prisoners repenting on the screen of Iraqi

TV; and perhaps that seabird covered in oil and pointing its blind eyes to the Gulf sky.  It is a 

masquerade of information: branded faces delivered over to the prostitution of the image, the 

image of an unintelligible distress. No images of the field of battle, but images of masks, of 

blind or defeated faces, images of falsification. It is not war taking place over there but the 

disfiguration of the world‟ Jean Baudrillard, The Gulf War Did Not Take Place, 1995, in 

Poster, M. (ed.) (1988), Jean Baudrillard: Selected Writings, Cambridge, Polity Press, page 

241

„The claim that the Gulf War of 1990 would not take place (1991), followed by the assertion 

that it did not take place, seems to defy all logic.  Such statements are anticipated by the 

earlier claim (1983) that the only future war would be a hyperreal and dissuasive war in 

which no events would take place because there was no more space for actual warfare.  The

underlying argument is that the Gulf War was a simulated war or a reproduction of a war.  

Whatever its human consequences, this was, for Baudrillard, a war which consisted largely 

of its self-representation in the real time of media coverage‟  Macey, D. (2000), The Penguin 

Dictionary of Critical Theory, London, Penguin, page 34

Baudrillard on Simulacra and Simulations

„Abstraction today is no longer that of the map, the double, the mirror or the concept.  

Simulation is no longer that of a territory, a referential being or a substance.  It is the 

generation by models of a real without origin or relativity: a hyperreal.  The territory no longer 

precedes the map, nor survives it.  Henceforth it is the map that precedes the territory –

precession of simulacra‟„ 

Whereas representation tries to absorb simulation by interpreting it as false representation, simulation envelops the whole edifice of representation as itself a simulacrum. These would be the succesive phases of the image:

1. It is the reflection of a basic reality.

2. It masks and perverts a basic reality.

3. It masks the absence of a basic reality.

4. It bears no relation to any reality whatever : it is its own pure simulacrum.‟

„In the first case, the image is a good appearance: the representation is of the order of the 

sacrament.  In the second, it is an evil appearance: of the order of malefice.  In the third, it 

plays at being an appearance: it is of the order of sorcery.  In the fourth, it is no longer in the 

order of appearance at all, but of simulation‟.

Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulations, 1981, in Poster, M. (ed.) (1988), Jean 

Baudrillard: Selected Writings, Cambridge, Polity Press

Censorship in Art

Amy Adler – The Folly of Defining ‘Serious’ Art

Adler is a Professor of Law at New York University and recognises „an irreconcilable conflict 

between legal rules and artistic practice‟.

She suggests that the requirement that protected artworks have „serious artistic value‟ is the 

very thing contemporary art and postmodernism itself attempt to defy

The Miller Test (1973) asks three questions to determine whether a given work should be 

labelled „obscene‟, and hence denied constitutional protection: 

1. Whether „the average person, applying contemporary community standards‟ would 

find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest

2. Whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct

3. Whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or 

scientific value

Obscenity law can be seen to have three roles to play:

1. „To protect art whilst prohibiting trash‟

2. „The dividing line between speech and non-speech‟

3. „The dividing line between prison and freedom‟

Bibliography

Aronson, E. and Pratkanis, A., 1992, Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use 

and Abuse of Persuasion, New York, Henry Holt & Co.

Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulations, 1981, in Poster, M. (ed.) (1988), Jean 

Baudrillard: Selected Writings, Cambridge, Polity Press

Jean Baudrillard, The Gulf War Did Not Take Place, 1995, in Poster, M. (ed.) 

(1988), Jean Baudrillard: Selected Writings, Cambridge, Polity Press

Hawthorne C. and Szanto, A. (eds.) (2003) The New Gatekeepers: Emerging 

Challenges to free expression in the Arts, New York, Columbia University Arts 

Journalism Program

Naas M. (2010) The Truth in Photography, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University 

Press

James Beighton, December 2012

LECTURE

 The camera never lies? 

Uses same negative over and over. Manipulates them 

in the dark room, over exposing etc.

 Manipulation goes back through history.

 Photography as a political propaganda

Removal of Nokolai

Digital Manipulation

Adbuster style adverts- Digital technology has allowed 

people to change the context of imagery. 

 Manipulated to make her look better.

Is it fair game to trick people in order to sell

a product?

Hidden truths?

Is this real? Conspiracy. How much does it matter?

Used as propaganda for the left wing against the right wing Fascists

Created this faker persona in order to increase sales of photographs. 

 Acted out whilst the fascists were on siesta for photos. 

But they heard the commotion and shot him.

 

 Media representation of what the war is

The reality of the war 

 Truth in photography. Black and white documentary photography

 This is the war that wasn't shown in the media.

 The mile of Death

Colour brings it to life.

 

More fine art? beautiful image from devistation

More of a media event to the west

Somebodies experience of war 

Landscape photogrpahy 

 

 Provocative

 Does it say more asbout the product or the person in it.

Individual reading of it, or is everyone seeing it that way.

 Was legally not allowed to show this image

Too sexual and provacative.

Became acceptable.

Syphilis connotation ? 

Venus and Cupid - Incest

Deemed masterpiece in the art world - if this was in the 

media their would be up roar

At the time the woman in the picture was 15 that was photographed

 

 Teenage girls in a sexual manner - metaphors of compassion

Acceptable because its painted.

Is there a semi erotic value?

Questionable

Tierney Gearon

Kids in the bath having fun? 

 Valid as art?