Lecture two; Technology will liberate us.

Books to look at;

Digital currents

Art in the age of mechanical reproduction

Art in the age of mass media 

Simulacra and simulation

- Technological conditions can effect the collective consciousness.

- Technology triggers important changes in cultural development.

[insert pictures here]

- Anything that is copied isn't always the same as the original. 

Machine age; modernism

- Walter benjamin - the emergence of technology and art. 

- Photograms were the early experiments with photography. 

- Marx brings about the fact that technology changes the value of things eg. is a copy worth as much as the original. 

- Consumerism brings down the value in a sense. 

- Photography moves something into a new context which changes the value.

- Something that came with photography was kineticism , the idea of movement. 

- Richard Hamilton - using technology to re-create image. 

- How you style something determines if it rests within art of design.

Electronic age; postmodernism

- The computer is a natural metaphor.

- We consume the technology and create new techniques. 

- Collaborations between art and science. 

Simulation and simulacrum 

- Reflection of profound reality. 

(Jean Baudrillard 1981)

- It distorts reality and is confusing because its the decision of what is real and what is not. 

- Word of mouth masks the absence of what is real because we believe what we are told. 

- Nam June Pauek; uses technology as an art form. 

John Walker; art and mass media 

- Art uses mass media.

- At what point does art become design?

Digital age

- Digital potential leads to multimedia productions.

- New contexts.

- Used for installations eg. projections (Jenny Holser)

- New technologies make it easier to reproduce without going through a whole process. 

Seminar one - Panopticism.

- Panopticon; Jeremy Benthan. 
- The Panopticon is used more subtly in modern day eg. the lecture theatre. 
Key features;
- Isolation
- Invisibility/visibility
- Productivity


- Modern disciplinary society 'docile bodies' making people become productive, obedient and self regulating. 
- Physical ---> Mental control, as times have moved on there has become a shift in ways of control. 
- A modern day swimming pool is Panoptic as a safety feature because people are aware they are being watched by a lifeguard. 
- Power is a relationship that works both ways. It relies on one person not retaliating against the other. 
- The perfect life and body; advertising works in a Panoptic manner because there is the view we are constantly being watched in everyday life. 
- The relationship with your parents is Panoptic because there are certain things you would do around them and also certain things you wouldn't. 

Lecture one; Panopticism.

Institutions and institutional power. 

- The panopticon proposed in 1791. 

- Has the same principles of control as our society. 

- Michel Foucault (1926 - 1984) wrote about power and was a social theorist. 

- Madness and civilisation. 

- Discipline and punish: the birth of the prison. 

- The 'mad' were once socially accepted until about the 1600's. 

- Houses of correction were created to curb unemployment and idleness. Anyone who couldn't work was placed here and made to work by threat. The 'mad' corrupted the sane so more specialist institutions were created. 

- Thus came the birth of the asylum - the sane and insane were separated. They were treated like children and given rewards for good behaviour. This was a form of social control. 

- There become new forms of knowledge eg. psychology so technically the problem could be passed over to specialist people. 

- People were humiliated (the pillory) to show others that there are consequences for their actions. 

- The was a shift from physical punishment to mental 'control'. 

The panopticon

Traditional layout

The prisoners view

- The design of the Panopticon could be multi-functional eg. a school, hospital and prison. 

- The Tate britain is a Panopticon. 

- The layout of it meant that prisoners were taught to act a certain way due to the fact they could be being constantly watched so this was implanted on their mind which meant they would always behave well. It became a form of mental correction because eventually prisoners would just behave perfectly with this constant view that they were being watched. 

- It allows scrutiny. 

- It allows the supervisor to experiment on subjects. 

- Aims to make the prisoners productive. 

- Reforms the prisoners. 

- Helps treat patients. 

- Helps instruct school children. 

Thus was born

Panopticism... A NEW MODE OF POWER.

- The Panopticon is a model of how society organises power. 

- The open plan office is an example as you can constantly be surveyed by your boss. 

- Panopticism is you modifying your own behaviour based on the environment you are in. 

- Modern bars are usually open plan now because these spaces are easier control based again on the fact you can always be seen. 

- The library in the Parkinson building of Leeds uni is the same because a library is usually a controlled place. 

- Security cameras are more successful when visible because people tend to act a certain way due to the fact they know they are being watched. 

- We become 'docile bodies' - self monitoring, self correcting, obedient bodies. 

- Power is a relationship in which there can be resistance. 

Year Two.