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.