INITIAL IDEAS FOR BUBLICATION & FOOTAGE

After re-think my video editing skills I realized that I would probably not have enough time to create a documentary style video with a voice over. So instead I would produce a Publication to go along side the DVD of the experiments. This would all be packaged in a laser cut Card Cd case with a slot for both the DVD and the publication. I think this would be an appropriate format for CCTV style footage. In the past security footage will of been stored on Video Tape. This would of been a nightmare to produce, but as technology has increased. Security footage will more than likely be stored on DVD's and hard drives. So I thought this format would be the most relevant.

I plan to carry out various experiments aswell as capture footage of aspects of panopticism in our modern day society, such as speed cameras, and swipe barriers at uni etc. I want to create a sort of CCTV footage style video Showing how panopticism affects our lives and how it the thought of being watched can cause people to act differently or conform to society's beliefs.

PUBLICATION PLAN

I wrote out a plan of what I wanted to include in my publication so I could work out how many pages I needed and what sections to split it up into. As i wanted to concentrate on the 3 panoptic techniques Foucault refers to I split the book up into 3 sections focusing on surveillance, partioning and registration. I hope to analyze each of the experiments in the book using quotes from Foucault and other panoptic writers.

The book will also touch on consumerism and advertising explaining how the gaze of the lens can be extended through advertising. I want to explain how using women in advertising can affect the way women feel about the way they look.

LASER CUT & PRINTED PROPS

In order to make the experiments seem more official I created some props to help with the tests. These will hopefully make the requests look more official and believable rather than the drawn chalk versions I had originally planned to do. By using nicely cut out versions the public should place more faith in the fact they are being watched.

I will use this fancy wallet box in order to attract the attention of the public. It is a nice piece of packaging with golf foiling which should hopefully encourage people to interact with the 'desirable object'

This is the original ring I cut out for the jewelery box experiment. After realizing I had spelt YOU'RE wrong I have since re cut this out on the laser cutter. I have used the colours yellow and black as these are commonly used with CCTV signage all round the UK. This should emphasize the aspect of power and order.

 

This box will be left on the floor to see whether or not the public will accept the command and change their path or simply walk through the box. This will determine which members of the public will show aspects of self dicipline and those who do not conform to the request.

Here are other printed aspects which I will use for various other experiments.

Wet Paint

I plan to leave a wet paint sign on a bench in town to see whether or not anybody actually uses it.

Go Wild for the Camera

I plan to see whether or not people will play up to the camera or shy away.

Smile for the Camera

This is a much more friendly version of the above test, as the request is not much to ask.

DIGITAL FOOTPRINT - COP

I found this Clip on the digital footprint quite interesting, It highlighted the recent changes over the past ten years which has resulted in a huge increase in the digital footprint. In today's society our life is directed by digital elements everyday, our online shopping is monitored, so much that we receive personalized adverts. With social media sites like facebook etc. photos of us are uploaded with times and dates on a daily basis, letting the whole world know where we are and what we are up to. Even things like loyalty cards at supermarkets, the data consumption is huge. On every bus there is  11 cameras, and each street has its own set of eyes which just shows we are under 24 surveillance without even knowing it.

COP PUBLICATION CONCEPT BOARDS

Here are the concept boards for my Publication for context of practice. I plan to test out how much CCTV works and to test its panoptic powers. I want to video an experiment, in which I will leave some valuable objects on the floor in various areas of Leeds and draw a circle round them with a sign saying Smile Your're on Camera. The idea behind this is that hopefully the pedestrians will just ignore the items and walk by as they know they are been watched, I want to see how long it takes someone to pick up the items and in which areas took longer/shorter. Within the items will be anti consumerism propaganda promoting "buy nothing day" in a hope to help people realise the damage of over spending on useless products.

VIDEO RE-THINK

Having realised I had not given my Publication much thought I needed to find other ways to link it to my essay. The video footage was only really outlining one theme of panopticism. I will need to have other examples that highlight some of the other theories. In my essay I mention the documentary We live in public, this shows 2 very different effects of constant surveillance  Some people play up to the camera and others become quite reserved and shy away from the cameras, I want to try and show the different effects surveillance has on the public. Over the footage there will be quotes taken from my essay which is relevant to different aspects of the video. 

The footage will be burnt onto a DVD, to go with the DVD I will produce a booklet which will have a copy of my essay within , illustrated with snap shots from my footage. The Publication will hopefully visually explain how panopticism works and what the different effects are. I want to try and capture this invisible force in action, and show what kind of people are influenced by CCTV and others that don't conform so to speak.

Sections from my essay I could use with the Video:

Strict Partitioning

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). 

Surveillance

Automatic Functioning of Discipline

,  “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)

. “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)

“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)

“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) 

Registration

The collection of data on an individual, that builds up a digital version of our selves. This can be seen at college everyday, swiping us in and out of college each day, with files will of information about each of us, under constant monitoring all day.

“Computers become machines for producing retrievable identities.” (Lyon 2001: 115)

Playing Up to the Camera

“a chance to display oneself under the gaze of the camera” (Ernst, 2002: 461)

“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:)

“the constant torture of the random but ever possible gaze,” (Ainley 1998: 90)

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)

The Gaze in Advertising 

“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 command created by an image obsessed culture is ‘do some work! Transform Yourself! Look Better! Be more erotic!” (Coward 2000: 39)

“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)

“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).

“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.

WORK BUY CONSUME DIE - PROPAGANDA

Here are a collection of anti consumerism propaganda posters I came across online which follow the work buy consume die theory. I may produce something along the lines of this either to go along side the objects or inclue them within or even both.

 

Clever use of image and type. Too playful I want hard hitting

in your face propaganda

This is a better example its to the point. This is how

I want to display my messages. Hard hitting propaganda

Simple illustration

Barbara Kruger - nice concept

Graffiti Piece - Simple to the point.

This seems to be all over the world, Once again hard hitting.

National Buy Nothing Day!

Shepard Fairey

Brilliant to the point and Simple.

Nice visual interpretation 

CONSUMERISM RESEARCH

The Cult Of Consumerism

Added by lesmoore on November 10, 2012.
Saved under PERCEPTION MANAGEMENT
Tags: consumerism, cunsumer

The ancient philosopher Confucius was asked what he would do if given the opportunity to rule the state and he said he would rectify the language. If he were asked this question today he might say to control the media. You don’t need soldiers on street corners to control populations, you can control them in their own heads and their own imaginations. On the one hand it is very depressing because how do you get out of the trap, there is no way to compete with media stories told thousands times a day through advertising, through programming, through the newspaper, through the Internet, through video games to forward the “American Dream”. Capitalism has to do this and unless it does the whole thing will fall apart. Capitalism is in essence like a house of cards that has to be constantly held together and every single day taught the story is, because it is unnatural. The actual equation is maintained by a tremendous amount of time spent in convincing the American people the value of this society.  And it is being held down by this incredible and relentless propaganda system. Just under the surface are solutions that are much more compassionate, much more connected and humane, much more caring for the outcome of the planet and concern for other people yet these are submerged in a carefully constructed indoctrination program. The message being conveyed is simply that the way to happiness is through the consumption of things. In fact buying something in the market place will make you happy. That is the message of nearly every single ad. The advertising message as a whole is that it is far better to buy then not to buy and that you will be happier as a result of buying rather than not buying. That in itself has been a major force for global change over the last fifty years.

In the nineteen twenties business leaders were forced with a dilemma. Overproduction of goods had exceeded demand. Production between eighteen sixty and nineteen twenty had increased 12 to 14 times while the population only increased by a factor of three. There were several ways of solving the problem; one idea was to reduce working hours and raise wages so that production and consumption would reach an equilibrium. This would have lead to more leisure time for workers and a higher standard of living. The problem with this is it could have a slight decrease in profits and corporations are mandated by law to maximize profits on the part of their shareholders.

According to business leaders there was another problem. John Edgerton, President of the National Association of Manufacturers warned that a shorter work week might undermine the work ethic and potentially ferment radicalism. If people had time to think they might also have time to rethink their current position in life. The emphasis should be on, as Edgerton believed, more work and better work instead of upon leisure. It seems like a harmless enough statement but what businessmen were advocating was revolutionary. Production would no more be about satisfying human needs it would be an end in itself. Rather than a democracy of ideas or mass participation the United States would become a democracy of material goods. The citizen would be replaced by the consumer.

The problem of Capitalism is the problem of consumption. After the basic needs have been met there is no real need of consumption. You have to convince people that their identities are based upon the consumption of objects for which there is no material need. That is the problem that comes from the expansion of the market. If you look at advertising it has a very interesting history. Right up until the nineteen twenty advertising spoke about the products themselves. It spoke of how they were made, what that product did, how well it lasted, it was simply a discourse about objects. However around 1920 that concept changed and from that period on advertisement began talking about the relationship of goods to our needs rather than the goods themselves.

At the center of the new strategy was Edward Bernays the American Nephew to Sigmund Freud. Bernays would concern himself with propaganda on behalf of corporations. Rather than focus on the intrinsic worth of a particular product Bernays suggested a new strategy where products became linked with the unconscious desires of the public and in this manner there would be no limits to either production or consumption.

Bernays is considered the father of Public Relations particularly in the United States. Bernays “contribution” was to take the propaganda technique that had been developed for military, psychological warfare and national security type issues during World War I and apply them in a systematic way to commercial issues. One of his best known efforts was to encourage women to smoke. Bernays would stage beauty pageants and photo ops in which smoking by women was portrayed as woman’s liberation, a way to be free and empowered. The market in Bernays mind had a clear desire to be free, to be stronger, to be more self empowered so women clearly wanted these things. Along comes Bernays and the tobacco industry and says here is how to have it. Out of this would come a new political idea of  how to control the masses.

Edward L Bernays is regarded by some to be the father of public relations. Bernays was a nephew to Sigmund Freud. Bernays pioneered the use of Psychology and other Social Sciences to design public persuasion campaigns. He published several scholarly works still used in Universities worldwide today.  In his book “Propaganda” Bernays wrote,

“If we understand the mechanisms and motives of the group mind, is it not possible to control and regimen masses to our will without their knowing about it.”

Bernays literally wrote the book on propaganda. His clients include Proctor and Gamble, CBS Television, The United Fruit Company, The American Tobacco Company, General Electric, Dodge Motors and he also spearheaded a campaign to Fluoridate the water supply in America. Bernays was hired by a number of Presidents to engage in propaganda campaigns as well as the US Army. Another quote from his book “Propaganda”

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in Democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government, which is the true ruling power government. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we never heard of.”

Nazi Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels publicly praised Bernays on many occasions, stating that Bernays work was the blueprint the Nazis used to seize control of the Reich.

Goods don’t make us very happy, goods are not central to satisfaction, what makes us happy are non-material things. Things that make us happy are things connected to sociability. That is not to say that possessions have nothing to do with happiness, poor people without access to food, clean drinking water and shelter are not happy. It is not that material things are not connected to happiness they are to some degree but once you get past a certain level of comfort material things simply do not provide us happiness. At the same time there is this giant propaganda machine of advertising constantly telling us the way to happiness is through objects, the way to happiness is through consumption, the way to happiness is through personal connections, through autonomy, through the things done in relaxation time. When you ask people what makes them happy they will rarely say objects. So what the advertisement industry did was to connect their product with those things a person really wants. Advertisement took images of sexuality, health, sociability, of meaning, of family, of intimacy and linked those those desires to images that associate their product with essentially happiness.

Five or ten million a year is enough to survive very well as long as you don’t begin to compare yourself with others around you or others in the same economic sphere. At a certain level deprivation is relative because you are associated with people you compare yourself with at that level. In the book The Status Seekers-Vance Packard uses the phrase “Merchants of Discontent” to describe the strategy of advertisers deliberately targeting the less affluent with status symbol messages. For someone with little chance of changing their social condition in life, consumerism offers a quick fix that allows people to feel they are a part of this social hierarchy when in fact they are standing still. The strategy was particularly evident in mid twentieth century automobile manufacturers. Studies found that people living in housing developments were more likely to park their cars outside of the garage then those who could afford more expensive homes. A typical example was a Plymouth commercial that used the bi-line “we’re not wealthy we just look it.”

The American way of life could be characterized by a myth that would seem to make political activism unnecessary. In the new democracy of material goods there were an infinite number of possessions that could be purchased by rich and poor alike, there was no need to change institutions because the system was already perfect. It was called the American Dream and happiness was just one possession away, the one dimensional man that buys to fulfill that dream.

The anxiety about buying things and the investment in the American Dream has to do with being able to work hard and pull yourself up by the boot strap. There are rich and there are poor but the American Dream makes the claim that there is a level playing field between the classes. But in reality the American Dream is at odds with how social mobility works. Social mobility is much more based on class then the resources available into which you are born. Part of those are material resources but much more we are dealing with cultural resources. There are class structures that keep people mostly in their places. There are slight exceptions to this movement from one rung to the next . The level of social mobility is remarkably low in the society. The American Dream is punctuated by very visible examples in the media showing people that were once poor but are now rich. If those people are rich, if those people have made it and the vast majority of the people did not and the major thing that separates them is hard work then the reason the vast majority of the people are where they are because that is where they deserve to be because they didn’t work hard enough or you weren’t intelligent enough.

America never had mass prosperity it was just the period between 1946 and 1980 where it looked like the prosperity was getting better and better and that came out of the tremendous earnings from war time industry, a huge backlog from World War II and the GI Bill that came in and developed a whole new professional class.  The prosperity went on until around 1980 and since then there have been cut backs in community services, cut backs in educational opportunity and greater inequality. Since 2000 and 2008 the inequality between the very rich and the very poor has been greater than it has been at any period since the beginning of the twentieth century.

Throughout history the rich have always argued that the poor are authors of their own fate. They are stupid, they are disreputable, they are hopeless but the truth is they are poor because they are paid less than the value of what they produce. Poverty is needed if you are going tohave wealth. The only way a rich slave holder or a Roman Senator or a antebellum plantation owner in the south who can live in this fabulously luxurious mode is by having slaves that work from the crack of dawn until down into the night. That is expropriation, that is creating the poverty of the worker the serf or the slave so that the slave holder of the feudal lord or the plutocrat or capitalist can accumulate wealth.

The idea that human happiness is connected to the immense accumulation of commodities is the idea that is driving the development in China, India and increasingly in Africa. We are starting to see the result of what that means for the planet. The United States represents five percent of the world population that is striving for the wealth and prosperity and promise of the “American Dream,’” but when the rest of the world’s population is brought into the equation then the competition for goods and the energy it takes to produce those additional goods moves earth ever closer to the exhaustion of the physical planet.

Fascism was an alternative to Capitalism. Mussolini Benito Mussolini denounced contemporary “super-capitalism” as a failure because of its alleged decadence, support for unlimited consumerism and intention to create the “standardization of humankind”. 

The current rate ofconsumption has resulted in real dangers. The Mayans and the inhabitants of Easter Island exhausted their resources and causing collapse of the social system. Today what is at stake is the collapse of the Eco-structure that supports life on this planet. Already populations are social unrest, wars, famine, and nearly every major problem facing mankind as a whole is directly related to over consumption. We have in essentially enslaved ourselves but we have had considerable help in doing so.

Analysis

I found this essay quite useful to get my head round consumerism, they touch on many topics, some of which we have already gone over in class which made it a bit easier to understand. They mentioned Edward Bernays who is the granddaddy of advertising. He linked products with peoples unconscious desires in advertising so people instantly could relate to the product and thought of it as an essential. This form of advertising can be seen as morally wrong, we are tricked into buying products we don't need in effect, whilst wasting the planets resources on consumerist rubish at the same time. Advertising is in a way a form of panopticism, controlling and manipulating the publics spending habbits. Our society is all about looking good, we are constantly gazed upon on a daily basis and judged for our material possesions. I am wanting to produce propaganda which opposes his methods. I will want to create anti consumerism propaganda which should make people question why they spend and what its worth I am thinking of using the work buy consume die slogan as this is quite appropriate then I might have some information to go along side it.

PROPAGANDA RESEARCH

Propaganda, simply put, is the manipulation of public opinion. It is generally carried out through media that is capable of reaching a large amount of people and effectively persuading them for or against a cause. The exact meaning of propaganda is constantly debated, however, and no specific definition is completely true. Some argue that any persuasive communication is propaganda, while others hold that propaganda specifically alters political opinions. However, it is doubtless that propaganda is material which is meant to persuade or change public opinion, and though it often varies in form and technique it always serves the same purpose. Propaganda is communication for the purpose of persuasion.

Propaganda, although it has existed almost indefinitely, has grown immensely during the past few centuries. Although evidence of intentional propaganda can be traced back as far as ancient Greece, the advent of communication media on a larger scale has exponentially increased its usage. After the invention of the printing press, it became possible to quickly and easily produce posters and books. Prior to this development, however, the majority of propaganda was spread by word of mouth. The printing press enabled the propagandist to quickly produce mass amounts of posters with one intended effect, a form of propaganda much less risky and difficult than oral communication.

More recently, propaganda was again bolstered by the invention of the radio. The ability to communicate orally with large amounts of people in a very small amount of time also helped the development of propaganda. Also, the beginning of radio also saw the beginning of advertising as we know it today, which is another form of propaganda. Before radio, it was almost impossible to communicate directly with many people in such a short amount of time. Admittedly, direct communication through print was possible, but very few people actually read ads. Radio opened up a whole new world of advertising. The invention that has impacted propaganda the most, however, is the television. The ability to visually communicate over long distances rapidly increased both the amount and the effectiveness of propaganda. Advertising as well as political propaganda was rapidly accelerated for this new medium.

Also, in more recent years, the introduction of the Internet and long-distance communication as enabled further increases in propaganda. In an age where we are increasingly bombarded by propaganda from a variety of media, it is increasingly important to recognize and understand propaganda and its effects.

Although the word propaganda has a negative connotation, propaganda itself is not necessarily bad. Propaganda is an attempt to change opinions by persuasively presenting new ones. The propagandist attempts to alter the opinions of his subjects or viewers by convincing them of the validity of their own. In order of accomplish this, he or she uses a variety of methods and techniques. It is important to recognize these techniques and examine the purpose of the propaganda before making decisions based on it. The purpose of propaganda is to change opinions, but more importantly to influence your decisions. By understanding the purpose of the propaganda and the method being used, one can go a long way toward making effective independent decisions.

MODERN DAY PROPAGANDA EXAMPLES

This is quite a good example of modern day propaganda which ties in with my theme of panopticism outline the governments controlling and regulating of everyone  feeding us lies in the media and not telling us the full stories. We are essentially loving in the dark and its this strict monitoring and regulating of the public which has lead to how the world operates today.

This is quite an in your face bold propaganda poster, I believe it ties in with the fact that in modern day society we are nothing, just information stored on a database, In effect theres us, and our digital selves, and its whats on paper that the government care about, how much money you make etc.

I really like this example I found, this couldn't tie in more perfectly with my essay. Representing the constant watch of the world, which in effect makes a more controlled and disciplined society, everyone watching out for the abnormal and the outcasts, the criminals without even knowing they are controlling this form of social control.

This is another example which I think was quite relevant, highlighting the hidden aspects to the media which are not showed, large companies that profit in in humane ways in some cases control large parts of the media and it is the limiting of information that is keeping people unaware of the worlds problems and controlled my the media. Fed lies on a daily basis.

CONSUMERISM PROPAGANDA

"While some progressives are fond of calling fundamentalist religion the 'opiate of the masses,' they too often neglect the pacifying nature of America’s other major fundamentalism. Fundamentalist consumerism pacifies young Americans in a variety of ways. Fundamentalist consumerism destroys self-reliance, creating people who feel completely dependent on others and who are thus more likely to turn over decision-making power to authorities, the precise mind-set that the ruling elite loves to see. A fundamentalist consumer culture legitimizes advertising, propaganda, and all kinds of manipulations, including lies; and when a society gives legitimacy to lies and manipulativeness, it destroys the capacity of people to trust one another and form democratic movements. Fundamentalist consumerism also promotes self-absorption, which makes it difficult for the solidarity necessary for democratic movements." 

- Bruce E. Levine

BARBARA KRUGER

This is a site-specific work by american artist barbara kruger is currently on display along the façade of the art gallery of ontario (AGO) in toronto. the public installation is located on the north facade of the frank 
gehry designed gallery as part of the contact photography festival. the piece was created by kruger in 
response to the festival’s theme ‘pervasive influence’. the work consists of a  series of found images 
and statements that includes ‘shove it’, ‘love it’, ‘kiss it’, believe it’ and ‘shame it’. the project aims 
to explore ‘how photography informs and transforms human behavior, especially via the medium’s 
connections to mass media, advertising, consumerism, and propaganda.

This was quite good example I found, it is imagery of a human made up of tonnes of big multi 
million pound corporations. Ultimately living to buy there products and make them richer.

I am wanting to create some kind of panoptic/anti consumerist propaganda which will be situated within the items I leave about town. I am hoping to leave them in busy shopping areas.