Lecture 3 // Panopticism

Panopticism - institutions and institutional power.

Social Control and the way society effects our actions and emotions.

Panopticon is a building

Discipline

The Great Confinement (late 1609), there was no name for madness, people were accepted as happy fools, they were allowed to live with us, there was no separation.  A new sensibility emerged towards work and an anxiety began to emerge about people being useless to society/ a problem.  Houses of Correction started to get built, a bit like workhouses or prisons.  The mad, criminals, drunkards, diseased, single mothers, vagabondz, and they were put to work or they were beaten.  An exercise used as a moral reform to make the people better.

The houses of Correction, people began to think was a mistake because they all started to corrupt each other.  Specialist institutions replaced them - asylums, prisons and hospitals.  These worked in a different way to correct people, instead of physical abuse to get them to work they used minor tactics.  They were treated like children, if they behaved they were praised.  Subtly training people to behave - modifying attitudes and personalities.

New forms of specialist knowledge emerges at this time, biology, psychiatry, medicine - legitimise the practices of hospitals, doctors, psychiatrists.  In these institutions you take responsibility for your actions.  Punishment shows power of the state - a reminder to everyone not to do anything wrong.

New form of discipline 

Lecture 2// The Gaze and the Media

The Gaze and The Media
Helen Clarke
helenclarke@leed-art.ac.uk
The lecture introduces theories of The Gaze, through the writings of John Berger, Laura Mulvey, Rosalind Coward and Professor Griselda Pollock.
It proposes that The Male Gaze identified by Mulvey through film, and Berger through painting, is in fact synonymous with The Gaze of The Media in contemporary western culture.
The lecture provides readings which follow the message of the key texts and encourages the questioning of our contemporary privileging of the visual in the western construction of desire.
It also looks at the impact this has in the everyday, and how the prevalence of the male Gaze normalizes these perceptions of women and their bodies and is internalized by women themselves. This is a complex area of investigation, and rather than a simple ‘reversal’ of the Gaze onto the male body, the lecture seeks to address and question image makers as to the possibility of an alternative portrayal of the body.
FURTHER READING:
John Berger (1972) Ways of Seeing, Chapter3
Victor Burgin (1982) Thinking Photography
Rosalind Coward (1984) The Look
Laura Mulvey (1973) Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema Griselda Pollock (1982) Old Mistresses
‘The preoccupation with visual images strikes women in a very particular way. For looking is not a neutral activity. Human beings don’t all look at things in the same way, innocently as it were. 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. The photographic profession is no less a bastion of the values of male professionalism. While I don’t wish to suggest there’s an intrinsically male way of making images, there can be little doubt that entertainment as we know it is crucially predicated on a masculine investigation of women, and a circulation of women’s images for men.’
Rosalind Coward (1984) The Look 

‘according to usage and conventions which are at last being questioned but have by no means been overcome - men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at’   (Berger 1972), It's difficult for women to conceive themselves as not being looked.  Women constantly survey their idea of femininity.

Female body with a mirror showing reflection of the woman's face, this makes it more acceptable for us to look at her body because she's not looking right back at us.

Alexander Gabanel, mythical representation of a woman, sentimental and virginal painting, she covers her own eyes/face with hands, this is a device used in advertising and photography quite regularly.  Concentration on her body, not on her as a person.

Sophia Dahl for Opium, reclining figure, 3/4 picture plane taken up by the body.  Legs parted and hand on breast - more contemporary, not allowed for use on billboards, magazines etc so they flipped it on its side and more attention is drawn to the face.

Berger puts forward the idea that Titians's Venus of Urbino, 1538 is a much more passive painting.  Manet - 'Olympia' 1863  he identifies her as a prostitute, neck ties were common for prostitutes.

Contemporary artists have used similar poses to challenge old fashioned.

Manet - Bar the the Rolio Bergeres

Jeff Wall 'Picture for Women' 1979

Coward, R 1984 (1984)The camera in contemporary media has been put to use as an extension of the male gaze at women on the streets 

Eva Herzigova, 1994, THe Figure looking down

Coward R 1984, The profusion of images which characterise comtemporary society couldd be seen as an obsessive distancing a form of peeping tom 

With male bodies within advertising they challenge your gaze


Lara Croft, over sexualised object

Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith Beheading Holofernes, 1620.  Alternative characterisation of an active female role, the gaze is challenged.  Her arms are bulky and made to look strong.

Contemporary Artist challenging the idea of gaze, Cindy Sherman, "Untitled Film Still 6" 1977-79, we are looking at her face, she has a mirror in hand, Shermans work interrupts the gaze

Barbara Kruger - 'Your gaze hits the side of my face'  1981, turning away from the male gaze, the figure in the images in literally just turning away

Sarah Lucas - 'Eating a Banana' 1990 clearly implies sexual act, picturing here the self-consciousness.  The side glance is almost saying ' what have you got to say about this'

Self Portratit with Fried Eggs 1996

Tracey Emin 'Money Photo' 2001 self referential work is a self-critisism of herself.

The gaze in the media

Amanda Knox is a witch?  Sorry are we living in 1468? 

The idea that women are natural liars has a long pedigree. The key document in this centuries-long tradition is the notorious witch- hunter's manual, the Malleus Maleficarum or The Hammer of Witches, which was commissioned by Pope Innocent VIII. The book was written by two Dominican monks and published in 1486. It unleashed a flood of irrational beliefs about women's "dual" nature. "A woman is beautiful to look upon, contaminating to the touch, and deadly to keep," the authors warned. They also claimed that "all witchcraft comes from carnal lust, which is in women insatiable".
It's not difficult to see these myths lurking behind Pacelli's description of Knox: "She was a diabolical, satantic, demonic she-devil. She was muddy on the outside and dirty on the inside. She has two souls, the clean one you see before you and the other." The lawyer's claim that she was motivated by "lust" could have come straight from the Malleus, which insists that women are more "carnal" than men. 

Task 1 - Century of the Self

List the 10 most important points raised in Adam Curtis's documentary 'Century of the Self'

Relate these points to a critical analysis of one image from the mass media which, in particular, focuses on the nature of consumerism, desire and the unconscious.

To begin I shall list points and then decide which 10 are the most important and highlight them.

• Edward Bernays was the first to take Freud's idea's and use them to manipulate the masses
• Linking mass produced goods to their unconscious desires
• Showing/talking about feelings wasn't acceptable
• Freud's idea that hidden inside all human beings were dangerous instinctual drives
• Unearthed powerful and sexual thoughts that link with our animal past
• Bernays was employed to promote America's war aims in the press
• Propaganda portrayed Woodrow Wilson a man who could create a new world in which the individual would be free, a hero of masses
• 'If you could use propaganda for war, you could certainly use it for peace'
• Replaced the word propaganda with public relations
• Freuds theories about how the mind works are now accepted, unlike a century ago in Vienna the idea of analysing ones inner feelings was just not acceptable
• Freud managed to break the taboo against women smoking.  George Hill asked bernays to find a way of breaking the taboo to make their target market bigger.  A psychoanalyst (A.A Brill) told Bernays that the cigarette were a symbol of the penis and of male sexual power.  Bernays had to find a way  to connect cigarettes with the idea of challenging male power.
• Debutatnts lit 'Torches of freedom' - reference to Statue of Liberty
• Shaping a new mentality in America - mans desire should overshadow his needs.

Sky Vodka Advert

The range of Sky Vodka Adverts are a good example of the use of Freudian theories.  Bernays, the creator of consumerism linked products with our deep rooted emotion.  This particular image is mainly targeting a male audience, we can tell as he is situated above the women in the image representing power over the female.  The image makes the viewer believe that if they buy into the brand then this is the kind of life style they will achieve.  The gentleman in a suave suit, relaxing by a pool with a beautiful leggy blonde, I imagine, is a fantasy for many men in the world. 
Referring to Freud's theory about penis envy and male power over women, the bottle in this image could well represent the penis and the female will drink the 'vodka' from her cup which further illustrates the male dominance over her.  When a consumer buys into this product they are not just doing it for the vodka but buying into a lifestyle of relaxation and pretty girls.  The fact the woman is scarcely dressed and on a lilo in the pool and the man is fully dressed on the side shows the vulnerability of the woman.

Level 5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1// Psychoanalysis

Handout:

Psychoanalysis A: The development of the psyche from birth, B: The development and role of the Unconscious in our everyday lives, C: The development of gender identity (psycho-sexual identity), D: Understanding the complexities of human subjectivity

Psychoanalysis is not only a form of therapy but a study of human subjectivity. Psychoanalysis provides us with a theory of the unconscious, sexuality and the development of the Ego. It can tell us a lot about why we are the way we are giving us insight into our daily goings-on. It can also be a great tool for gathering a greater understanding of Art & Design. Key Psychoanalysts: Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, Melanie Klein, Carl Jung, Juliet Mitchell, Luce Irigaray, Julia Kristeva

The Unconscious: Created through infancy to protect our conscious selves from events, ideas and thoughts that are not acceptable to consciousness...Continues to affect our conscious selves in SOME* ways...The unconscious is chaotic, without order and without language...Makes itself present through ticks, slips and symptoms (e.g. Freudian slip)...Hysteria patients developed debilitating symptoms as a result of experiences or feelings that had become repressed.

Stages of development: Our development into willful, conscious beings is full of confusing, contradictory and misapprehended thoughts and ideas...An attempt to make sense of both our biological/instinctual self and our logical/thinking self...We create associations and assumptions through sense data...often incorrectly...The developing child goes through stages: oral, anal and phallic...Also, the child develops preconceptions that must be dealt with in order to develop successfully – oedipus complex, castration complex, penis envy.

Psycho-sexual identity: Oedipus complex – sexual/love feelings towards mother and resentment of father...through childhood dependence...feelings of love, rivalry, jealousy all mixed...confusing feelings ‘to want’ vs. ‘to be wanted’...Development of both masculine and feminine identities in relation to the penis/phallus (having or not having)...Castration complex – the boy fears castration while the girl accepts that she has already been castrated. (the phallus as a symbol of power)...Penis-envy – the girl experiences this when she begins to realise she does not have a penis...not as a sexual organ but a way of identifying with the father-figure...Presence/absence – both create possible negative feelings: the boy fears his castration (his powerlessness) while the girl feels that she is missing something.

The Uncanny: ‘Unhomely’...Something that is simultaneously unnatural yet familiar...Something that was supposed to remain hidden which has come to the open....Where the boundary between fantasy

and reality break down...Unconscious vs. Uncanny Models of the psyche: Unconscious, Preconscious, Conscious....Id, Ego, Super-Ego The Mirror Stage (Lacanian): The child’s recognition of itself in reflection (in objects or other people) signifies a split or alienation – it is seen as both subject and other....Rivalry – while the child may recognise it’s own image it is still limited in movement and dexterity....Thus...resulting in the formation of Ego which aids (and continues to aid) a reconciliation of body and image/subject and other....Captation – the process by which the child is at once absorbed and repelled by the image of itself (the specular image) The Lacanian Unconscious: ‘The unconscious is structured like a language’...That’s not to say that the unconscious has a language but its structure is LIKE a language....The unconscious is the discourse of the Other....Highlighting the ways in which meaning in encoded within linguistic signs – written or spoken words....Unconscious details are encoded in various ways as they slip into consciousness. The Lacanian Phallus: Not the biological penis but a symbol of power/order attained through its associated LACK – the potential of lack (male) and the actual lack (female)...Masculinity/femininity are not biological definitions but symbolic positions...Our interactions with the symbolic phallus provides a ‘speaking position in culture’ / within the symbolic order - a: relating to the signifying nature of the phallus b: our sexual identity informed through the phallus. Lacan’s Orders of reality: The Real - That which cannot be symbolised/signified...Where our most basic, animal selves exist. The Imaginary - The order which exists before symbols and signification...Where the Ego is born and continues to develop...No clear distinctions between self and others/subject and object. The Symbolic - ‘The order of the Other’...Exists outside ourselves – language exists before and outside of us...The order that allows us to exist within a culture of others.  simonjones@leeds-art.ac.uk

Notes from Seminar:

Psychoanalysis - a study of the unconscious human mind

Oedais Complex - repressed memories, emotions, repressed desires

Castration Anxiety - boys scared they'll get their penis castrated

Penis Envy - penis means power, girls envy the dominant male figure

ID - Primal Urges

Ego - Personality

Super ego - Controlling Voice

Consciousness

Pre-conscious

Unconscious

Edward Bernays - nephew of Freud was an advertiser, controlling the masses by convincing people they need something they don't by using the unconscious mind. 

President of American Smoking/Tobacco asked Edward Bernays whether he could make it acceptable for women to smoke, as that could double his target market.  Connecting cigarettes to penis envy.

Bermays organised for a group of debutantes/suffragettes to light up cigarettes while parading at the same time to represent 'torches of freedom.'

After the war, America was generating more and more goods and there was no market for the produce because everyone already had what they needed.  Bermays introduced people to desire - Mans desire with overshadow his needs.  The beginning of Consumerism.

To convince people to buy more, Bermays advertised things using the knowledge of his cousin, Freud.  

Cars - symbol of male sexuality

Clothes - a way of expressing your inner self

People were made to believe that they needed things, Bermays had created a new way of controlling the masses.

Capitalist societies need to keep improving and making more money or there becomes a recession.  American Consumerism - they believe they're free because they can buy things they want (commodities) and they think it will make them happy, like the beautiful pictures the advertisements paint.

Cigarettes are no longer allowed to be associated with glamour, sport, success in business, masculinity or femininity (marlboro man/suffragettes), also advertisements should not seek to actively persuade people to start smoking.

A good example of advertising without these are the one's for Silk Cut Cigarettes.  As the name sounds quite feminine they had to broaden their target market by using freud's theories within adverting to convince men to purchase the cigarettes.  You can see that all images are made quite sexual.