Thursday 25 October 2012

Lecture 3 -Panopticism

Panopticism- Institutions and institutional power 

  • ‘Literature, art and their respective producers do not exist independently of a complex institutional framework which authorises, enables, empowers and legitimises them. This framework must be incorporated into any analysis that pretends to provide a
  • thorough understanding of cultural goods and practices.’ Randal Johnson in Walker & Chaplin (1999)

  • Lecture aims
  • UNDERSTAND THE PRINCIPLES OF THE PANOPTICON UNDERSTAND MICHEL FOUCAULT’S CONCEPT OF
  • ‘DISCIPLINARY SOCIETY’
  • CONSIDER THE IDEA THAT DISCIPLINARY SOCIETY IS A WAY OF MAKING INDIVIDUALS ‘PRODUCTIVE’ AND ‘USEFUL’
  • UNDERSTAND FOUCAULT’S IDEA OF TECHNIQUES OF THE BODY AND ‘DOCILE’ BODIES 

  • Michel Foucault
  • (1926-1984)
  • • Madness&Civilisation
  • • Discipline&Punish:The Birth of the Prison 

  •  THE GREAT CONFINEMENT (late 1600s)
  • ‘Houses of correction’ to curb unemployment and idleness.
  •  
  •  
  •  THe birth of the asylum 



The emergence of forms of knowledge – biology, psychiatry, medicine, etc., legitimise the practices of hospitals, doctors, psychiatrists.


  • Foucault aims to show how these forms of knowledge and rationalising institutions like the prison, the asylum, the hospital, the school, now affect human beings in such a way that they alter our consciousness and that they internalise our responsibility. 



  • If you are a deviant then the state will punish you physically, by beating you or hanging you, 

  • "That you be drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution where you shall be hanged by the neck and being alive cut down, your privy members shall be cut off and your bowels taken out and burned before you, your head severed from your body and your body divided into four quarters to be disposed of at the King’s pleasure.” 

  • DISCIPLINARY SOCIETY
  • AND
  • DISCIPLINARY POWER

  • Discipline is a ‘technology’ [aimed at] ‘how to keep someone under surveillance, how to control his conduct, his behaviour, his aptitudes, how to improve his performance, multiply his capacities, how to put him where he is most useful: that is discipline in my sense’ (Foucault,1981 in O’Farrrell 2005:102) 

  • “Panopticism” 

  • JeremyBentham’s Design The Panopticon Proposed 1791


  •  

  • Institutional gaze

  •  
  •  
  •  The Panopticon internalises in the individual the conscious state that he is always being watched

  • ‘Hence the major effect of the Panopticon: to
  • induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power.’
  • (Foucault, 1975) 
  •  
  • Allows scrutiny
  • •Allows supervisor to experiment on subjects •Aims to make them productive
  • •Reforms prisoners
  • •Helps treat patients
  • •Helps instruct schoolchildren
  • •Helps confine, but also study the insane 
  • •Helps supervise workers
  • •Helps put beggars and idlers to work. 








  • What Foucault is describing is a transformation in Western societies from a form of power imposed by a ‘ruler’ or ‘sovereign’ to........... A NEW MODE OF POWER CALLED “PANOPTICISM”


  • The ‘panopticon’ is a model of how modern society organises its knowledge, its power, its surveillance of bodies and its ‘training’ of bodies

    The way that an office is set up, shows this once again, it is set up so that everyone can be seen and so that everyone works instead of talking and messing around.



    RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN POWER, KNOWLEDGE AND THE BODY.
    ‘power relations have an immediate hold upon it [the body]; they invest it, mark it, train it, torture it, force it to carry out tasks, to perform ceremonies, to emit signs’ (Foucault 1975) 


    Disciplinary Society

    calls:- ‘docile bodies’.
    • Self monitoring
    • Self-correcting
    Obedient bodies


    Disciplinary Techniques
    “That the techniques of discipline and ‘gentle punishment’ have crossed the threshold from work to play shows how pervasive they have become within modern western societies” (Danaher, Schirato & Webb 2000) 


    • His definition is not a top-down model as with Marxism
    • power is not a thing or a capacity people have – it is a relation between different individuals and groups, and only exists when it is being exercised.
      • the exercise of power relies on there being the capacity for power to be resisted
      • ‘Where there is power there is resistance’ 




Tuesday 23 October 2012

The Gaze - Seminar

The gaze
Hans Memling 'Vanity" (1485)
The subject and the object
this image is equal and aimed a men, It shows control and domination swell as power over women, the submissive/passive/obedient female.

A man has painted this for a man, the fact that he has called it vanity, implies that she is vain, which mocks women even more, a ideal fantasy, which mocks and degrades women, a theme which continues in todays modern society.  Patriarchal ideal of femininity, where the fame is passive/ submissive and the males are active/ dominant.

At he time men were painters and women were not, therefore making art sexist/ bias,there were men who wrote about male fantasies of power, linking to female submissiveness. they wrote about the aesthetics.

Culture has determined how women are sexualised and seen as being submissive, as women have never had power and men always have had power.


Sunday 21 October 2012

Richard's Task 1

Task 1 
Ten of the most import ants points which re raised In Adam Curtis's Documentary 

1.  Encouraging Women to smoke
Many argued that it became so popular to smoke as a women drink this time as it gave women a sense of power and independance, The perception was often that smoking had a sexual link and cigarette were seen as phallic, and a replacement for a penis which they didn't have.   

2. Controlling mass groups of people Bernay's believed that it was much easier to control mass groups rather than individuals, when advertising o promoting something he would argue that it had to be done on a grand scale to attract as many as possible, and therefor sell the product or encourage the idea further.

3. Freud's ideas publishedFrued was bankrupt and as bernays was his nephew he published Frauds theories in the US creating controversy, and pulling him out of his bad financial situation back in Austria where he remained. 

4. Torches of freedom
Torches which were what cigarettes were names were the symbol of freedom and independence. A prime example of this is the Statue of liberty.


5. The use of Propaganda
Bernay's was convinced that he could turn Propaganda into a positive way of advertising and encouraging mass groups. The way that he used advertising was to make people way to invest and therefore made people have something to think about and work for, where as in the past proper gander had negative connotations, linking to the war.


6. Overproduction crisis
making people want spare products so companies don't go bust, too many products being made and therefore not all being sold. 

7. Advertising
Linking a product with a feeling or emotion, making the client want or need something unnecessarily, and therefore helping to promote and sell products.


8. Consumerism
The change in democracy changed the citizen to consumer, creating the current consumer culture we still have today.9. Product Desire
People were becoming convinced that things they wanted were actually in fact things they needed. and so investing on products when they don't need them. 

10.Bernay's skills
Covers very vast areas such as government, PR, stock markets, brands, publishing, economy etc.





I have decided to focus on these two advertisements for Joop Perfume,  it is aimed towards men and shows the male model in a very dominant role,  the women within the images is submissive, linking to sexual desire. This kind of imagery appeals to men as they believe that  by purchasing these products they to could be part of that kind of lifestyle. 





Thursday 18 October 2012

Lecture 2 The gaze and the Media

 LECTURE TWO - THE GAZE AND THE MEDIA
Hans Memling 'Vanity' (1485)
Constantly show the female body in a way that others can enjoy it, in the picture, the micro is held in the wrong angle, she is looking at herself but should in fact show the side of her face.
in other imagery the focus is always the most sexual part of the female body, there is often a very mythological perception of the female form, she looks sentimental and almost virginal, she is reclining on a wave, however she is covering her own eyes, there is only a small about of concentration on the face and more on the body, 
Sophie Dahl for opium
More contempory, than the others, seen as too sexual for a billboard or magazine, thy turned the image from horizontal to vertical so the image doesn't look to sexual, 











Titans Venus of Urbino, (1538), similar to MANET olympia (1863)
looks as if she is being spied on, she covers herself with her hand subtly, second image was thought as to be a prostate, she has wealth and flowers in her hair suggest she has been given a gift, she lifts her head as if she is addressing the audience,

GUERILLA GIRLS
Produced a poster which made the point of arguing about how many female portraits made it into museums versus how many male portraits get into 

MANET- Bar at the folies Berges
image shows a women standing behind a bar, however once again her reflection is shown in the wrong place 
Jeff Wall- Picture for women (1979) 
He includes himself in the image, and she is gazing into the image, the camera is placed very central and gives the illusion that it is a staged shot, its about the return of the Gaze. 
Coward, R  (1984) 
the camera in contemporary media has been put to use as an extension of the male gaze on women in the streets, 
Eva Herzigova (1994)
the image was placed on billboards and the idea was that drivers would be so distracted by the image that they would crash, 

There are images of men in a similar sense, however, the type of imagery, is mush more bold, most of the images the men are staring straight at the camera challenging the camera and the whole idea, there are only 60 examples of men being perceived in this way, compared to millions of women,

Women are accessories to action films, however the film  Lara Croft challenges this idea, in the sense that she leads the story line and has the power over men, however she is still ported in a sexual way.




Artemisia Gentilschi- Judith beheading holofernes (1620) 
women are perceived in a different way, its al alternative to the typical way women are perceive by the audience, they are strong and powerful, they have control over the man, and they even look slightly masculine.

Cindy Sherman- untitled film still
once again the image ha been turned round the take the focus away form the body and onto the face, her mirror is facing down and so we don't know quite what we have caught her in the act of, her hand is in a very unnatural place above her face.
Barara Kruger - your gaze hits the side of my face 
The fact that the images quotes "Hits" suggest more of a physical thing, more aggressive, and suggests violence, more confrontational and in your face 

Tracy Emin "Money Photo" 
she looks as if she is stuffing money inside herself , her art is about her self, and so is more personal, it is a more personal attack on the Gaze.

THe media , often publishes over exagurated stories, often making up quotes, for example the Amanda Knox case, where she was accused of being a which, articles were published before the case was closed and before the decision had been made about wether she was guilty or innocent. 
social networking is used to perpetuate the male gaze and the gaze of the media, the body is broken up in many images and therefore could be any female, this makes many images more personal to younger audiences. For example Princess diana is a good example, she had a very important image and the paparazzi, thrives of this. 
Victor Burgin 
     





Monday 15 October 2012

Psychoanalysis Seminar

Psychoanalysis -Unconscious  By Freud
The Century of the self

Found forces within humans being which can cause destruction,

Happiness machines 
1
powerful and aggressing feeling which originated from our animalistic pasts,suppressed for our own benefit.
ww2 proved Frued's findings and argued that this is how we should have expected people to behalf due to our animalistic behaviour.
Bernase was asked to promote america during ww2 in a peace conference. He used proper gander to promote peace, he became a public relations councillor.

He tried to encourage women to smoke as there was a taboo against it at the time, he found out what cigarettes meant to women. he found that cigarettes were a symbol of the penis, and power, and independence
he made suffragettes smoke in public at an event, they were called torches of freedom, it was said that women would smoke them as then they would have inderpendace and power, similar to what men had.

American decide that mens desires needed to over come his needs, consumer culture began, people started to own things they wanted but didn't really need, Bernase created a new type of american culture, he place adverts with film stars into magazines and dressed movie stars in clothes from other places he worked in, he organised fashion shoots in departments stores.

The Americans are no longer citizens they are consumers, he encouraged people to be involved in stocks and shares, by borrowing money from the bank.

Bernase argued that the public could easily be lead on the wrong path, The president agreed with bernase and argued that advertisers had created people who were constantly happy and optimistic, always looking into the future, Consumerism was seen as a positive thing,

Capitalism constantly expands and that was what happened i american, they invented better wasy to produce things faster, this all happened after the war, american quickly reached a place where things were being produced too fast and so people were not buying the stuff. they stared to create false needs for things so that people felt like they needed things when they didn't really need things. This all linked to sexuality and how many products had an attachment to different thing, for example cigarettes challenge male power, it gave women power which they never had, as well as independence and strength, by being a symbol of the penis.

In the advertising code of practice in britain, tobacco is no longer allowed to be linked to

  • Glamour 
  • Success in Business 
  • Sport
  • Masculinity of Femininity 
  • they are not allowed to actively persuade people to start smoking. 

Thursday 11 October 2012

Lecture 1- Psychoanalaysis

Lecture 1-Psychoanalaysis 
Simon Jones
simon.jones@leeds-art.ac.uk


  1. The development of the psyche from birth
  2. The development and role of the unconscious in our everyday lives
  3. The development o gender identity 
  4. Understanding the complexities of human subjectivity 
Not only a form of therapy, a theory of the mind, a way of categorising and understanding desire motivation and dreams. the idea that we are not completely in control of our mins and therefore actions. 

Sigmund Freud
  • Concept created in 1890's 
  • He treated hysteria patients using psychoanalysis, he did this by guiding them to discover and accept repressed thoughts or past events.
  • He also analysed dreams, looking for hidden associations and linking them to wish fulfilment. 
  • He observed infants and the link they had with their parents, 
The dynamic unconcious
Created through infancy to protect our conscious selfs from events, thoughts and ideas with are not acceptable
Continues to affect our conscience selves in some ways
the unconscience is chaotic, without or and without language.

Stages of development
Our development into wilful, conscience beings is full of confusing, contradictory and misapprehended thoughts and ideas,

Psycho-Sexual identity
Oedipus Complex
  • Sexual/love feelings towards mother and resentment of father, through childhood dependance and self catered world view.
  • Feelings of love, rivalry, jealously all mixed confusing feelings " to want" v' " to be wanted".
  • Develpoment of both masculine and feminine identities in relation to the penis/phallus
  • Castration Complex-
  • The boy fears castration while the girl accepts she has been castrated ( the phallus as a symbol of power
  • Penis envy
  • The girl experiences this when she releases she does not have a penis, not as a sexual organ but as a way of relating to the father. 
  • Presence/ absence- both create possible negative feeling, the boy fears castration and the girl feels as if she is missing something, 
  • The child must experience and overcome these mixed feelings in order to gain a sexual identity, within the order of language and wider society. 

The uncanny
  • unhomely 
  • something with is simultaneously unnatural yet familiar 
  • something which was supposed to be kept hidden but has come to the open.
  • where the foundry between fantasy and reality break down
  • analogies between the the unconscious and the uncanny 





Freudian models
  1. Id ego and superego, we are bio socio individual beings
Id inconcious - represents the biological/ instinctual part of ourselves
Unconscious, Preconscious and Conscious

Jacques Lacan
  • In the 1960's and 70's Lacan presented his own brand of psychoanalysis, claiming a "return to Freud"
  • He reconceptualises Freud findings throughout the theoretical model of structural linguistics. Signification. 
  • Lacan posited that the development of the psyche is entwined within the structures of language.  
The mirror stage 
the point at which where the child has recognition of itself in others, this created a split, throwns the child into a stated of alienation, before hand the child see's itself as the centre of the universe, this causes and eruption of the ego and it feels it has lost something, it has lost the centre of its universe, 
Our Ego is constantly struggling to fill up the gap in which we are missing ourselfe, there fore it creates a personality, in order to fill up the ga.
Captation is when the child is absorbed and repelled by the image of its own reflection due to the gap, "Who am I?" "Is this me?" We are obsessed how others see us

Lacanian Inconscious 
The unconscience is structural like a language 
Mataphor / metonymy 
Symtom - metaphor, a word is used to represent something else, which posses similar characteristics
Symtoms are translated elements of unconscience material adopting a metaphor style.
Lacian Phallus
Not the biological penis but a symbol of power attained through its associated `Lack the potential lack for male and the actual lack for female





The order of reality 
The real-where our most basic animalism selves exist 
The imaginary -the order before symbols 
The symbolic- exist outside ourselves  

Psychoanalysis and art criticism 
Subjectivity- what it is to be human, 
to help us understand why hints are as they are
to help understand artists/designers motivation


Edward Bernays- The godfather of Pr, Freud's nephew
Applied physchoanlysis to advertising and PR campaigns
Revolution in advertising by intro ducting manipulation techniques.
Promotong lifestyle rather than the product 

Conclusion 
Psychoanlysis provides up with a definition of the unconscious and a definition of logic and rationality
a tool to help umderstand motivations and meaning of art works, and how and why they affect ut.