Thursday, 29 November 2012
Thursday, 22 November 2012
LECTURE 6// Critical Positions on Popular Culture
Define the notion of culture as opposed to popular culture/mass culture.
Discuss culture as an ideology.
Interrogate the social function of popular culture.
Raymond Williams "one of the most difficult terms in the English language."
Marx's Concept of Base/ Superstructure.
Base- Forces of production/ relations of production
Superstructure- Social institution/ forms of consciousness
Marx argues that all forms of culture are a direct reflex of the primary base relation to production, ie capitalism. Capitalism produces capitalist culture- in a crude way. The dialectic method is that this is reciprocal, the culture which emerges from the base, strengthens supports and maintains the base ideology.
The Proletariat (base reality)
The bourgeoisie
Instraments of the state idealolocal and physical coercion
The state
Based on the super structure, culture is produced by the basic reality of the world.
So what is popular culture. Value judgements say that popular culture is an inferior for of culture, its is deliberately popular, "culture actually made by the people themselves".
Jeremy Deller produces a show 'Folk Archive' where art by everyday people is shown in an old institution.
You can trace the distinction between popular culture and 'real culture' to a point within British history, with the working class of Britain during industrialisation. It was clear who the workers were and who the rich were. Very clear segments of society.
The lower classes did begin to break through into culture, music halls, satirical papers, literature and political comments on working life.
Mathew Arnold (High class) 1867
-"the best that has been thought and said in the world"
-Study of perfection
-Attained through disinterested reading, writing and thinking.
-He is effectively arguing that new culture or popular culture is bad and unintelligent.
-Cultures aim is to maintain the status quo
F.R Leavis
-With the growth of industrial capitalism, he sees the world on a slow decline towards the gutter. We had a time where we had great culture with great intellectual fabric. The world has slowly dumbed down into insignificance.
-Worried about the elites fall of authority, allowing masses to control the culture.
-By following popular culture people are effectively tuning out, ignoring reality.
Frankfurt School- Critical Theory
-Equally critical of popular culture, but from the opposite position.
-Engaged in the radical study of popular culture
-Nazi's forced them out of Germany, travelled to America, saw the epitome of popular culture at the time.
-Argued that popular culture maintains social order, its not a threat at all, it is actually a tool of capitalism, to help perpetuate itself
-Culture under capitalism is produced in exactly the same way as other capitalist objects, cars, toasters, horror films etc.
-All Mass culture is identical
-People are sucked into a vacuum where all culture is the same. Music, Television, Movies etc.
-Herbert Marcuse: -what happens when you feed people this endless stream of monotonous rubbish, it reduces peoples capacity of independent thought. You are taught prescribed attitudes, an inaccurate view of the real world.
-Culture acts as a blanket over the real world, makes everything seem ok.
The Culture Industry
-X factor, Big Brother etc. Produces an affirmative culture, serves to de-politicise the populous.
-Everybody has a name and a personal story, no money, needs to win. Goes on Xfactor to 'make it big'. People vote for him, he wins, the leaders make it big. Exploits people, emotionally, monetarily, teaches the lesson that the way out of the lower class is to go on a talent show, rather than getting into politics or education.
Adorno 'On Popular Music'
-Music is produced on a production line.
-All music is standardised, selling the same thing over and over again.
-Pop music is easy to produce and make, easy to consume. Consumption is done in an easy way, a chain of consumption that you are lead through.
-Acts as a social cement, we are being sold something that someone else likes, or wants to sell
-Changes our actions, reflects the docility of real world, people who like dance music are particularly mindless. Desire to obey, even to repetitive mindless music.
-Instead of reinventing yourself you give up and blow your brains out like Kurt Cobain.What's the point in facing reality? Starting a revolution.
Walter Benjamin
-The work of art in the age of macanical reproduction.
-You can create meaning at the point of reception.
-Watching Xfactor doesn't necessary lead to indoctrination, buy a CD to make fun of it, watch it to laugh at how crap it is.
-The world of popular culture is a world of revolutionary challenges.
-In popular culture we are all the judges, whereas high culture is controlled entirely by an elite of that particular culture, Fine art for example.
Hebdige
-In culture like Punk music we have a challenge to popular culture which systematises itself into mainstream culture, "the best of puck music 3". What was about individuality and self expression becomes something that is bought and recycled again, mindlessly.
Discuss culture as an ideology.
Interrogate the social function of popular culture.
Raymond Williams "one of the most difficult terms in the English language."
Marx's Concept of Base/ Superstructure.
Base- Forces of production/ relations of production
Superstructure- Social institution/ forms of consciousness
Marx argues that all forms of culture are a direct reflex of the primary base relation to production, ie capitalism. Capitalism produces capitalist culture- in a crude way. The dialectic method is that this is reciprocal, the culture which emerges from the base, strengthens supports and maintains the base ideology.
The Proletariat (base reality)
The bourgeoisie
Instraments of the state idealolocal and physical coercion
The state
Based on the super structure, culture is produced by the basic reality of the world.
So what is popular culture. Value judgements say that popular culture is an inferior for of culture, its is deliberately popular, "culture actually made by the people themselves".
Jeremy Deller produces a show 'Folk Archive' where art by everyday people is shown in an old institution.
You can trace the distinction between popular culture and 'real culture' to a point within British history, with the working class of Britain during industrialisation. It was clear who the workers were and who the rich were. Very clear segments of society.
The lower classes did begin to break through into culture, music halls, satirical papers, literature and political comments on working life.
Mathew Arnold (High class) 1867
-"the best that has been thought and said in the world"
-Study of perfection
-Attained through disinterested reading, writing and thinking.
-He is effectively arguing that new culture or popular culture is bad and unintelligent.
-Cultures aim is to maintain the status quo
F.R Leavis
-With the growth of industrial capitalism, he sees the world on a slow decline towards the gutter. We had a time where we had great culture with great intellectual fabric. The world has slowly dumbed down into insignificance.
-Worried about the elites fall of authority, allowing masses to control the culture.
-By following popular culture people are effectively tuning out, ignoring reality.
Frankfurt School- Critical Theory
-Equally critical of popular culture, but from the opposite position.
-Engaged in the radical study of popular culture
-Nazi's forced them out of Germany, travelled to America, saw the epitome of popular culture at the time.
-Argued that popular culture maintains social order, its not a threat at all, it is actually a tool of capitalism, to help perpetuate itself
-Culture under capitalism is produced in exactly the same way as other capitalist objects, cars, toasters, horror films etc.
-All Mass culture is identical
-People are sucked into a vacuum where all culture is the same. Music, Television, Movies etc.
-Herbert Marcuse: -what happens when you feed people this endless stream of monotonous rubbish, it reduces peoples capacity of independent thought. You are taught prescribed attitudes, an inaccurate view of the real world.
-Culture acts as a blanket over the real world, makes everything seem ok.
The Culture Industry
-X factor, Big Brother etc. Produces an affirmative culture, serves to de-politicise the populous.
-Everybody has a name and a personal story, no money, needs to win. Goes on Xfactor to 'make it big'. People vote for him, he wins, the leaders make it big. Exploits people, emotionally, monetarily, teaches the lesson that the way out of the lower class is to go on a talent show, rather than getting into politics or education.
Adorno 'On Popular Music'
-Music is produced on a production line.
-All music is standardised, selling the same thing over and over again.
-Pop music is easy to produce and make, easy to consume. Consumption is done in an easy way, a chain of consumption that you are lead through.
-Acts as a social cement, we are being sold something that someone else likes, or wants to sell
-Changes our actions, reflects the docility of real world, people who like dance music are particularly mindless. Desire to obey, even to repetitive mindless music.
-Instead of reinventing yourself you give up and blow your brains out like Kurt Cobain.What's the point in facing reality? Starting a revolution.
Walter Benjamin
-The work of art in the age of macanical reproduction.
-You can create meaning at the point of reception.
-Watching Xfactor doesn't necessary lead to indoctrination, buy a CD to make fun of it, watch it to laugh at how crap it is.
-The world of popular culture is a world of revolutionary challenges.
-In popular culture we are all the judges, whereas high culture is controlled entirely by an elite of that particular culture, Fine art for example.
Hebdige
-In culture like Punk music we have a challenge to popular culture which systematises itself into mainstream culture, "the best of puck music 3". What was about individuality and self expression becomes something that is bought and recycled again, mindlessly.
Thursday, 15 November 2012
LECTURE no5// Style and Subculture
Style and Subculture
A subculture of a group of people with a culture which
differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong.
Dogtown and Z-Boys, 2001 documentary, mixes original
photography and documentary footage to investigate the zephyr skateboard team.
Financed by vans.
Peggu Oki, female skateboarder, clothing chosen for
practical use, no differentiation between male and female.
Street skating is a political statement. Non passive
consumption of cityscape. Resisting additional usage of city. Redefinition of
urban space.
Skateboarders form a bond, skateboarders live a certain type
of life, replacing family, school. As seen in Dogtown.
Yamakasi, 2001, parkour is used as a way to rob the rich to
give to the poor.
Graffiti is a similar expression of a re-use of public
space. Status is born from your talent and not from how you look.
Graffiti allowed black graffiti artist Prime to hang out
with skinheads.
Swoon, politically motivated artist.
“Girls in subcultures could be more invisible because the
term ‘subculture’ has masculine overtones.” 1977, not really true today.
Female in motorbike culture. Powerful and sexual, ‘not true
to the femininity of the time.’ In reality most girls on motorcycle clubs were
‘addons’ in the bikers lives.
In contrast in mod culture girls and boys tend to dress the
same, neat, tidy clean. Mod fits better into wider culture whereas bikers
(rockers) were messy. Girls could also be a face in the mod culture.
Quadrophenia, 1979, film about tensions between mods and
rockers. And the integration of mod culture into wider culture, ruining it for
them. The idea that there are ‘originals’ and those who follow.
Hippy girls, more likely to be middle class, mods working
class. University education, travel and time for personal expression leads to
hippies. You then have ‘good’ hippy, flower power and bad hippy, rock hippies,
creating their own destruction.
Riot Grrrl, post punk music scene. Modern issues of
empowerment challenged. American north west, music less about music and more
about protest. Do it yourself style songs, not about music but attitude of
female power.
Term Riot Grrl “this summer’s going to be a girl riot”,
girls were involved in 1991 race riots. Zines came from 1970’s punk ethic.
Women start self publishing.
Media attention turns to grunge scene, with Courtney Love
and Hole. Girl power (re-arrives) in Britain as the spice girls. Looses all
aspect of real girl power.
Subcultural signs, punk for example, are commodified and
mass produced, destroying the soul of the punk scene.
Women’s Own runs ‘Punks and Mothers’, featuring punks with
their normal mothers. Takes away idea of rebellion in punk scene, no longer a
real threat to tradition to readers.
In 21st century the hoddie becomes a badge of
baddassery, where you can be unidentifiable and look hard in front of your
friends.
Roger Mayne looks at the teddy boy culture. 50’s style.
Documentary Skins looks at skinheads, seen in This is
England, boy reinvents himself as a skinhead to fit into new area. Political
commentary on difference between style and infiltration of the National Front.
Combo returns from prison and splits the group. Beats up Milky. Links back to
the graffiti artist Primes comment on visiting skinheads.
Tuesday, 13 November 2012
STUDY TASK 3// PANOPTACISM// Religion and Online Gaming as a Panoptacism
Panoptacism. Before the invention of online multiplayer I enjoyed computer games. They offered a relaxation, away from the panopticon of the school system. I would argue that with the invention of multiplayer online, gaming created its own panopticon. In this scenario I see leading MP companies like EA as the central tower or controlling figure, building a system where gamers can see statistics about each other are are locked into an eternal struggle where they are in constant fear of judgement by other players, who has the highest kill/ death ratio, largest number of head shots etc. Performance is constantly monitored and recorded by the institution of electronic arts for anyone to see. This alters the behaviour of the gamer from someone who plays for fun, absorbing the scenario and engaging in the story to a player who is self conscious of his or her ability to play, the feeling of being under constant scrutiny leads to increased aggressiveness which is much more likely to develop into a real addiction.This benefits the institution of the game developers by locking their customers into the game, they become content with playing for hours and hours like docile bodies.
In organised religion and religion in general we see a similar thing, although on a much grander scale. The basic concept of an omnipresent god that can see you all day everyday, that controls the fate of every human and writes down the basis for law and morality, but cannot be seen, controlled or spoken too forms the institution of god. god is an entity or being that will judge our actions and reward us with heaven or punish us with hell. "Hence the major effect of the Panopticon [god]; to induce in the inmate [follower] a state of conscious and permanent [temples] visibility that ensures that automatic functioning of power. So to arrange things that the surveillance is permanent in its effects, even if it is discontinuous in its action [not really there]."
An organised religion takes the concept of a god and builds their own dogma on top of it, creating a a massive institutional power, backed by the institutional power that 'god' already demands. The purpose of any religious organisation is to exact power over a population of people, and by using a god or gods as an entity that sets their 'laws' or 'commandments' on how you should behave they lower the proverbial Venetian blinds on their own movements and practices, as the guards do behind the blinds of the Panopticon. By being 'always with us' an organised religions god of choice can make sure total social control can be enacted over anyone who believes them.
Of course for many centuries religion infected every aspect of human life, many of these traditions are alive today: from birth you are initiated through baptism, no choice of your own, 'confirmation' comes to enact further control over a young and impressionable mind shortly after. Foucualt would call the 'confirmation' a "system of permanent registration" this impregnates the idea that god is an all powerful and omnipresent being; a higher power that makes decisions for you. Once decisions are taken away the human becomes a docile body. They will say "thats fate" or "god moves in mysterious ways", a sign that the docile body has become self regulating. When the individual has decided that what they get is what they deserve and god puts them in their place, the church as an institution will never be challenged to power. The next step for the church to enact total control of the individual is by taking control of the institution of marriage, and by controlling the terms of marriage they can regulate the sex lives, and inevitable offspring of the individual. Furthermore by regulating the sex lives of the individual the church takes control of the most important (functional) part of a humans purpose; to reproduce. Then to finalise the unbalanced union between institution and individual your death is also controlled and regulated by the church. By holding the funeral you become institutionalised on death, the mourning family is then emotionally tied with the organisation that controlled this part of the individuals life.
Foucualt also writes of the aspect of control over renegades; When an individual or groups of minds speak out against the chains of religion, or believe in one of the other 28 million other gods in recorded history they are labelled as 'heratics', 'satanists', 'devil worshipers', etc. More importantly that these people should be considered abnormal, cast out and in the dark ages burnt at the stake. "The constant division between the normal and the abnormal, to which every individual is subjected, brings us back to our own time, by applying the binary branding and exile of the leper to quite different objects." Here in my example the leper is replaced with anyone who disagrees with religion.
By having control over Birth, Sex and Death organised religion can fully institutionalise the individual. Once the individual it told that 'god' is the authority and heaven and hell are the options he/she will become docile towards the institutional power of organised religion, allowing it full control over all aspects of life without resistance. In this way I could link organised religion to the plague that Foucualt spoke of "The registration of the pathological must be constantly centralised. The relation of each individual to his disease (belief) and to his death passes through the representatives of power, the registration they make of it, the decisions they take on it."
In organised religion and religion in general we see a similar thing, although on a much grander scale. The basic concept of an omnipresent god that can see you all day everyday, that controls the fate of every human and writes down the basis for law and morality, but cannot be seen, controlled or spoken too forms the institution of god. god is an entity or being that will judge our actions and reward us with heaven or punish us with hell. "Hence the major effect of the Panopticon [god]; to induce in the inmate [follower] a state of conscious and permanent [temples] visibility that ensures that automatic functioning of power. So to arrange things that the surveillance is permanent in its effects, even if it is discontinuous in its action [not really there]."
An organised religion takes the concept of a god and builds their own dogma on top of it, creating a a massive institutional power, backed by the institutional power that 'god' already demands. The purpose of any religious organisation is to exact power over a population of people, and by using a god or gods as an entity that sets their 'laws' or 'commandments' on how you should behave they lower the proverbial Venetian blinds on their own movements and practices, as the guards do behind the blinds of the Panopticon. By being 'always with us' an organised religions god of choice can make sure total social control can be enacted over anyone who believes them.
Of course for many centuries religion infected every aspect of human life, many of these traditions are alive today: from birth you are initiated through baptism, no choice of your own, 'confirmation' comes to enact further control over a young and impressionable mind shortly after. Foucualt would call the 'confirmation' a "system of permanent registration" this impregnates the idea that god is an all powerful and omnipresent being; a higher power that makes decisions for you. Once decisions are taken away the human becomes a docile body. They will say "thats fate" or "god moves in mysterious ways", a sign that the docile body has become self regulating. When the individual has decided that what they get is what they deserve and god puts them in their place, the church as an institution will never be challenged to power. The next step for the church to enact total control of the individual is by taking control of the institution of marriage, and by controlling the terms of marriage they can regulate the sex lives, and inevitable offspring of the individual. Furthermore by regulating the sex lives of the individual the church takes control of the most important (functional) part of a humans purpose; to reproduce. Then to finalise the unbalanced union between institution and individual your death is also controlled and regulated by the church. By holding the funeral you become institutionalised on death, the mourning family is then emotionally tied with the organisation that controlled this part of the individuals life.
Foucualt also writes of the aspect of control over renegades; When an individual or groups of minds speak out against the chains of religion, or believe in one of the other 28 million other gods in recorded history they are labelled as 'heratics', 'satanists', 'devil worshipers', etc. More importantly that these people should be considered abnormal, cast out and in the dark ages burnt at the stake. "The constant division between the normal and the abnormal, to which every individual is subjected, brings us back to our own time, by applying the binary branding and exile of the leper to quite different objects." Here in my example the leper is replaced with anyone who disagrees with religion.
By having control over Birth, Sex and Death organised religion can fully institutionalise the individual. Once the individual it told that 'god' is the authority and heaven and hell are the options he/she will become docile towards the institutional power of organised religion, allowing it full control over all aspects of life without resistance. In this way I could link organised religion to the plague that Foucualt spoke of "The registration of the pathological must be constantly centralised. The relation of each individual to his disease (belief) and to his death passes through the representatives of power, the registration they make of it, the decisions they take on it."
Saturday, 10 November 2012
LECTURE 4// Cities and Film
Cities and Film
The city in modernity
Urban sociology
As both a public and private space
City in postmodernism
Simmel (1858-1918)
-German Sociologist
-Writes about the effect of the city on the individual, how to negotiate your environment.
Lewis Hine (1932)
-The vulnerability of the human amongst the city.
Louis Sullivan
-Creation of modern sky scraper
-Fire damaged buildings from the war allowed urban regeneration.
Scheeler
-Celebrates the shape of industry
Fordism
-Mass production, the cycle of production and consumption.
Charlie Chaplin
-Comedy sequences where a man struggles with machines and is eventually swallowed by the machine.
A Flaneur:
-Rather than being swallowed by the city like the working classes, the flaneur could stroll the streets looking for experiences. The higher classes had more time.
Walter Benjamin
-Urban arcade or mall, is an experience of the city in an enclosed environment.
Janet Wolf
-Figure of a woman on the street is as a prostitute or a crazy bag lady. She thinks that a female is alone in the city.
WeeGee
-Took photos of murder victims in the streets, had a police radio to achieve this.
-Wrote a book called the Naked City.
LA Noire
-Uses the cities style, set in 1940's.
Ridley Scott
-Future dystopian cities are depicted in most films.
Despite being amongst millions in the city you are still alone.
Meyerowitz
-City bombards us with information
-There is a confusion of imagery and no subject in her work.
The city in modernity
Urban sociology
As both a public and private space
City in postmodernism
Simmel (1858-1918)
-German Sociologist
-Writes about the effect of the city on the individual, how to negotiate your environment.
Lewis Hine (1932)
-The vulnerability of the human amongst the city.
Louis Sullivan
-Creation of modern sky scraper
-Fire damaged buildings from the war allowed urban regeneration.
Scheeler
-Celebrates the shape of industry
Fordism
-Mass production, the cycle of production and consumption.
Charlie Chaplin
-Comedy sequences where a man struggles with machines and is eventually swallowed by the machine.
A Flaneur:
-Rather than being swallowed by the city like the working classes, the flaneur could stroll the streets looking for experiences. The higher classes had more time.
Walter Benjamin
-Urban arcade or mall, is an experience of the city in an enclosed environment.
Janet Wolf
-Figure of a woman on the street is as a prostitute or a crazy bag lady. She thinks that a female is alone in the city.
WeeGee
-Took photos of murder victims in the streets, had a police radio to achieve this.
-Wrote a book called the Naked City.
LA Noire
-Uses the cities style, set in 1940's.
Ridley Scott
-Future dystopian cities are depicted in most films.
Despite being amongst millions in the city you are still alone.
Meyerowitz
-City bombards us with information
-There is a confusion of imagery and no subject in her work.
Saturday, 27 October 2012
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
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:
-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.
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