LECTURE 3// Panopticism

Panopticism
Institutions and Institutional Power.

-A study into the way we are raised and how it affects our thought and actions.
-How institutions affect our thoughts and actions.
-Social Control

-Berfore the 1600's madmen were tollerate, the village idiot was common but there was no division between the sane or insane. The disabled were often given jobs that they would not be considered for even today. 
-After the 1600's a new attitude of work emerged. Anxiety emerged towards the socially useless, those who could not perform tasks as efficiently began to be cast out. 

-'Houses of correction' are created for the Diseased, Mad, Criminals and Single Mothers.
-In the houses labour was used as a form of moral reform. 
-Im the 18th century the houses of correction were seen as a huge mistake. It was a melting pot of the unwanted which caused massive social problems. 
-The houses of correction were broken up into Hospitals, Prisons and Mental Institutions. 

-In the Asylums inmates were no longer beaten, they were treated like children; good behaviour was rewarded whilst bad behaviour was punished. They were being re-educated. 

-Control switched from physical control to mental control, this lead to the emergence of this form of control on all people in society. 
-Social experts emerge in each field, like phycologists, doctors. This sub-validates the new system. 

-In this modern form of discipline we take responsibility for our own actions, consequences, punishments and rewards. 

-Foucault was interested in this new form of power. "Modern discipline is a technology." aimed to control the conduct and improve the performance of the individual. 
-Foucault based his new theories on the Panopticon, a multifunctional building laid out in a circular fashion, with cells around the peripheral wall facing into one control tower. Every Cell could have a full view of the control tower but not of any other cells, giving the impression of always being watched. Each cell had a full open front (with bars) facing the control tower and a small window at the back looking outside. 
-Most Panopticons became prisons.
-The design had a fiendish mental effect on the inmates.
-Everything inside is light, visible and on display, the inmates are under constant scrutiny. 

-In the panopticon you are constantly reminded of supervision, you never behave independently. You are isolated but never alone, it is a form of phycological torture. 

-We are always being watched in the panopticon, once this panoptic effect has taken place the inmate begins to self-regulate. Because the guards may or may not be present at any time but the inmate is unsure they begin to behave automatically. This is an allegory for social control. 

-When people believe that they are permanently visible they tow the line.
-For example the open pan office is built, the myth that it is designed to make sure everyone gets along is told as the truth. In reality the knowledge of scrutiny the workers are under makes them work much harder. They are more efficient as a tool. 
-The open plan bar is another example. Bouncers and bar staff can see all that is going on, this changes the behaviour of the customers, whereas cosy pubs offer shelter from scrutiny. 

-In this respect we live our lives to conform to the wishes of others. 
-CCTV
-PC monitoring on networked machines
-Sign in sheets
are examples from college, we turn up even if we dont have to. 

-The relationship between Power, Knowledge and the Body. "Power relations are an immediate control of the body." Creating DOCILE BODIES, which are self-monitoring, self-correcting and obedient. 

-Power is a relationship: Power is not something that one person has over another, it is a relationship, there has to be a degree of acceptance of the power exercised. For example:
-Facebook
-The Police
-Family
-god
-Mass Culture

STUDY TASK 2// The Gaze In Advertising. COSMO

For this task I am analysing the front and back cover of Cosmo On Campus, which features two great examples of 'The Gaze' or 'The Look' as Rosalind Coward puts it in her post-feminist essay on the subject.
"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." pg33.
So firstly and most importantly Cosmo On Campus (Cosmopolitan) is owned by the Hearst Corporation, which controls a massive media empire spanning television, news, magazines, newspapers and several websites. A company run exclusively by men, the only women with any say in the corporation happen to be the grandchildren of William Hearst, as they were left shares in his will. The lead editor of Cosmo on Campus however is a woman, as are most of her peers, so it appears that Cosmo is written almost entirely by women, who cover topics with an editorial style which is controlled by men. As Coward puts it Cosmo is a "Masculine investigation of women", or a masculine idea of how women should look and act. This is an undeniable truth when you see an article labelled 'Look Hot From £1' on the front cover, or the inevitable 'top 10 great sex positions' on the inside.

"The ability to scrutinise is premised on power... Women's inability to return such a critical and agressive look is a sign of subordination" pg33.
In the image of the magazine cover above we see two people meeting our gaze. Firstly, on the front cover is the female. She is smiling at the viewer in full makeup with airbrushed skin, in other words a mans vision of the perfect woman, but more importantly, not a reality. Her pose is important too, she is hiding her hands, a sign of non-agression, it is trusting and permissive, it leaves the whole front of her body unguarded and she stands at ease. She is submissive to the viewer, allowing them to 'Gaze'.
"Those women on the billboards, though; they look back. Those fantasy women stare off the walls with a look of urgent availability."
In contrast, on the back cover, the male character meets your gaze with a much more agressive gaze right back. His skin is probably airbrushed too, but only to accentuate muscle tone, a signal of power and agression. The male character is also covered in tattoos, which furthers the agressive image and where the female hid her hands behind her back the male curls his into fists and displays them prominently, almost raising them for a fight.
So in summary we have a submissive female, portrayed as a male fantasy, weak and innocent. On the reverse a powerful dominant male looking back at you critically.
At this point I began to wonder why a female and a male would be portrayed in this way when the magazine is aimed at women aged 18-25 (students). Both images are a fantasy, based on a masculine doctrine, where the male is a "sort of cross between a rutting stag and David Bailey" and the female is kept as submissive, distant and separate to the male, not because she is particularly aesthetically pleasing but because it it important for the male dominance of society that companies like Hearst rely on   to show women in this way. "The aesthetic appeal of women disguises a preference for looking at women's bodies, for keeping women separate, at a distance, and the ability to do this. ...This is a form of voyeurism ... and [voyeurs] are always in control."
So by portraying women as submissive and the male as dominant the female reader feels like she must chase the males fantasy desire to achieve the look that the front cover portrays, or else the rear cover man will judge you. This derogatory image of women, which seems counter to the interest of the magazine actually forces the female to search for the answer to these questions in magazines like Cosmo and Elle (which is also owned by Hearst). So by portraying women as submissive to men in all aspects of the mass media, the corporate machine that Hearst is part of can continue selling products.

LECTURE 2//

LECTURE 1//

DESIGN FOR WEB// Software Workshop 1

ollymoss.com
- Black
- Dull
- Incomplete
- Space
- Empty

malikafavre.com
- Busy
- Gifs
- Bright
- Stop moving

360landstrasse.sf.tv
- Photo
- Streetview
- German

mercertavern.com
- Hipster
- Clean
- Lost type
- Vontage
- Monotone
- Boxes

noble-design.co.uk
- Girly
- Red

caavadesign.com
- CD
- Space
- Circle



Questions for my own site:

What is the purpose of this website?
- To inform
- To entertain

Who is the target audience?
- Gamers
- Historians
- Designers
- Anyone with and interest in Computer Gaming or the history of the technology involved

What do the target audience need?
- Simple layout
- Side-scrolling timeline
- Facts
- Clean colours
- Visual clues hinting at computer gaming


Limitations of Web

Fonts- You have to pay and annual fee for specific fonts, if you run a commercial site. To get around paying, use standard fonts. Specify a font family, use 'if' quotations. 'IF' user doesn't have Helvetica, use Ariel, ect.

You can also use 'WebScript' to install a font onto a website. People can download these fonts so you need a licence.

WWW.fontsquirrel.COM is a website for free web fonts.

Work in RGB only. Work with 'websafe colours' only.

On a retina display iphone the dpi is 227. However if this was transfered to an old screen the screen would be massive.



HTML and CSS can build websites.
HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language.
URL - Uniform Resource Locator
CSS- An add-on to HTML, which is limited, Adds in more graphic based websites. Cascading Style Sheets
FTP- File Transfer protocol
CMS- Content Management System
WYSIWYG- What you see is what you get system, like Dreamweaver.



Dimensions: 1024x768  (look in diary for specifics)
Font: Arial, Helvetica, Sans Serif
Alignment:  Left
Menu: Home, About, Contact, Work, Play
Background: White
Text: Balck

DESIGN FOR WEB// The Bad Ones

1. GlitterMaker- Use of bright pink, glitter and gifs.

2. George R.R. 'That' purple colour, purple text and 'that' green. Full of gifs.

3. Sip Hawii. Text too large have to scroll constantly.

4. Yale School Of Art. Background image is a repeat gif.

5. The Worlds Worst website. Set up to be terrible, so that everyone knew what terrible looks like.

6. The Worlds Worst Website Ever. Same as above.

7.Videosonic. Black website, gradients and yellow blocks of text.

8. Ron Oslunds Home Page. Space image, super nova, full gradient and flashing text.

9.ACCEPT JESUS! Background is a fast moving gradient. Text is black.

10. Bieber FanSite, glitter, bad textures and use of pink on pink.

DESIGN FOR WEB// The Good Ones

 1. CREAKTIF - Break and Improve.

A multimedia website where you play as a character. You use arrow keys to run around the world space and hit enter to view the content as you fid it. If this seems like a waste of time t you they include a menu bar at the bottom of the page also, however it is enjoyable to run about if you have some free time.





2. USA Today

Much smoother delivery of news from the industry standard. The new layout run a bit like a social networking site. On top of the clear use of colour and easy to navigate layout the designers implemented new ways to deliver stores to an online audience. The main story text is still all there but they include an interactive image bar which you can flick through before reading the story for some background or extra information.














3. AIGA Competition site

This site runs in the same was as the new Ebay introduction website, with both fixed and moving parts. As you scroll down the circular page shape remains and the images that it frames move. The use of colour is sparse, which really clears up the design for the content to be the most important thing on the page.

4. FA Design

FA Design is a studio design website. It is very simplified with only three main tabs which open up onto a simple list. For example the work page contains a list, this list outlines the studios work and uses a simple tool to indicate how much content is available in each field be merging a bar chart with the menu itself. However I do have a criticism, white text on black is pretty poor.

5. Duex Huit Huit

Still Images dont really do the website any justice and to some degree it would be nicer if the graphics here were better, however from an interactive standpoint this website does do things differently. All of the websites content loads onto one page, a process which is surprisingly quick and efficient. The user then scrolls about the giant page with the arrow keys. The page simulates a sliding motion much like sliding between menu screens on an iphone, so there is a transition but it is quick and the next page fills the whole screen. This gives the website some simple interactivity without loosing too much functionality. 

6. Setetres.st

This is a really fun website to view, it is a portfolio website which is fun to play around on but doesn't compromise with function at any point. The opening page is totally free of clutter and immediately sets the tone of professionalism with a hint of comedy. The site works on this very structured grid format and when you hover over a particular icon the grid square it sits in indents and drops, all very stylish.
The portfolio page is neat and condense, when you hover over a bar it expands into the full preview. This is great, however sometimes it can get confusing if you scroll down a page and everything is opening and closing all at once. One of the nicest and most original features is a fake script editing bar, the portfolio is for a web designer so he added this as a joke, but it adds a real personal touch. You can open it and mess about with some settings and even view some ASCII porn.

7. graphicnovel-hybrid4.peugeot.com/

This was an award winning website designed to scroll as a graphic novel. Ignoring the style, which I like but isn't really different, the key to this websites success has been its coding. The novel starts by scrolling down and then continues automatically. A white scrollbar tells you how far through the 'novel' you are. Then out of nowhere the screen is scrolling sideways through the page from left to right then from right to left, then in reverse from bottom to top despite technically still 'scrolling down'. I suppose that here the innovation in coding is the champion.

8. Chrome Web Lab

Chrome web lab is an experiment by google chrome for the Science Museum in London. They are running 7 different experiments aimed as getting people more interested in the possibilites of the internet. The design is solid, with gradients and plenty of white space. The interactivity and coding is amazing and the layout simple buy helpful. The experiments are also a great thing to take part in.

9. Kinetic V5

The website plays out like a graphic novel again, their is a strong theme but once again the magic is in the coding and scripts. The website remains two tone throughout with black and a single other colour. As you scroll though the content is constantly changing and interacting with the next 'page'.

10. UNIVERSERIES

This is a giant interactive info graphic, a database of the American Film industry. The style is modern with a similar feel to the style of my first entry. Darwina also comes to mind. The universe can be expanded to reveal different areas in the industry and read individual bio's of the directors involved. The links you can see are graphical representation of how the directors influenced each other in the films they made.