Social Control and Surveillance of the Modern Society in Relation to Panoptic Theories

Finding Personal Information

There are many reasons to want online anonymity be it for the content you're looking at, private emails, purchasing goods or illegally downloading amongst many others.

I decided to look into how easy it is to gain information on other people online.

As an example, I have used a site called whois.domaintools.com, I looked how easily I could acquire information on somebody else. Once on the site, minus the www, you can search for the information linked to a certain domain, Greg's was my example to hand.

I felt the need to not post Greg's full home address although I found it within seconds. From this information posted, I could track down Greg through a variety of online resources such as Facebook, Twitter and Google Maps. Anyone could watch over Greg through these ways and use the information how they saw fit.

"When buying a domain, if it's unallocated – meaning that it's free to be sold by any domain registration company – it's a good idea to pick a registrar that will register it on your behalf. Their address will then appear in the domain's Whois record."

 This seems as though it would be beneficial to anyone looking to have their own website, but with privacy considered, if that was required by the owner.

"You may be tempted to get round this problem by using a false address. However, the one that appears in the Whois record is usually the one you gave when you entered your credit card details to buy the domain. Because of this, it pays to ask if you can use a PO Box number to cover your tracks.
This service currently costs £63 per year (or £51 for six months) from Royal Mail. If you only need the address to register the domain, you can let the PO Box lapse afterwards."

 Another solution would be to register a PO Box as suggested, to bypass any privacy issues.

Your Online Life, Permanent as a Tattoo

Recently I've been watching a lot of Ted Talks, on pretty much anything that seems interesting such as someone who is insanely good with a yo-yo, but this talk really got my attention.

It runs with my theme of internet anonymity, although more focused on how you build up an internet identity, teaching you that everything you do online is logged forming, as Enriquez says an 'electronic tattoo'. He goes on to suggest that we should be very wary of what is posted online as it can't be retracted, it gets added to the pool of data already present, which will be present for years.

He also references immortality in his talk and relates that to the Ancient Greeks, which I found very interesting and hadn't thought about the information in the sense it will be available forever.

Globalisation, Sustainability & the Media

Definitions of globalisation:
Socialist - Transforming local or regional phenomena into global

Capitalist - The elimination of state-enforced restrictions on exchanges across borders

Americanisation of the world – arab spring revolution
 
McDonaldization

Marshall Mcluhan - Technology / human abilites.

Centripetal forces - bringing the world together in uniform global society.
Centrifugal forces - tearing the world apart in tribal wars

3 problems of globalisation:
         - Sovereignty

-       Accountability

-       Identity

-      

Manfreif Steger - 'pessimistic hyperglobalisers'
Cultural imperialism – to force your culture onto others
Time Warner - Own everyone

Companies divide the world into important markets:
1) North America
2) Western Europe, Japan & Australia
3) Developing countries
4) Rest of the world

US media - new form of imperialism.

 
Propaganda Model - 5 basic filters:
Ownership, Funding, Sourcing, Flak, Anti communist ideology

- today this related to anti islamic
the news is fact – or so people assume – thought you can only report what you're allowed, so it is monitored what we see/know
funding for advertisement is greater so they can be more substantial take over than the news
Global Climate Coalition (GCC) - Funded by Exxon, Texaco and Ford
 
Al Gore - "An inconvenient truth"
Brundtland commission (1987)  - Greenwashing - making a harmful product seem green and harmless.

The Silk Road & Bitcoin

The Silk Road has received an abundance of negativity due to it being an online marketplace where nearly anything can be bought. I found an article on the Guardian which talks to the creators of the online currency known as Bitcoin.

"Bitcoins are a currency controlled by no government, no company, and no group, but rather by maths: a series of complex cryptographic calculations rule how many Bitcoins are in existence and how many are traded."

The fact that there is no intervention from the government or another group is an obvious instant appeal to anyone performing illegal activities or someone who is very worried about their privacy.

"At the currency's birth, Bitcoins were almost worthless – five cents each. Today, a single Bitcoin trades at $70 (£46) – and the total value of all the world's Bitcoins has topped $800m (£500m). On the face of it, this makes Bitcoin the fastest-growing currency in the world."

Bitcoin is the faster-growing currency in the world due to it's structure and the way it is operated. Even the developers aren't making much money from it due to the fact, they claim, that there will be a cap on Bitcoins when there are around 2 million in circulation.

Although there is a lot of scrutiny about buying drugs online, let alone drugs in general, the Silk Road serves as a middle ground and has been described as place for 'connoisseurs'.

"Johnson said his view was that Silk Road was a site for connoisseurs: an easy way to track down better quality – not cheap – drugs. The site "isn't easy to use", but doesn't require particular expertise: "If you can set up a direct debit and follow a recipe for risotto then you'll work it out."
Once you're in, it works much like eBay: sellers' reputations are verified through feedback, building trust. Money is typically held in an escrow (a trusted middleman) until delivery, with missing packages qualifying for partial refunds.
In all, he concludes, the quality is more consistent, the sale is safer, and the experience better than trying to find a street dealer. Johnson even claims the site helps combat addiction."

 Public perception of the site is a lot different to that of the authorities. The Silk Road is built on a base of trust where the buyer can purchase what they what they want directly from the original seller, as opposed to a sketchy individual on the street. It keeps a distinct boundary of 'on a need to know basis' where the buyer and seller both remain unknown to one another, which highlights the fact that it's strictly business.

Online Anonymity

From my research so far about online activism, notably anonymous, I decided to look further into privacy issues as a direct response to my essay. The privacy issues I plan to look at are internet privacy, due to the internet being the largest weapon of free speech, many feel this is coming to an end.

"Why stay anonymous online? In today’s society there are people and automated devices that are recording your deepest, most private thoughts and activities. Each day we voluntarily divulge the most intimate details of our lives through social networking accounts, email, banking apps, online games and more. In addition, governments and corporations can censor and block our traffic based on whatever standards are in place that day."

 From a post on Activist Post which had a lot of information about how you're hacked and how to evade certain people/corporations from infringing on your privacy.

"Whether you’re browsing the Web, signing up for a new online game, or simply checking your email, you are constantly leaving tracks and giving away information to anyone with access and the knowledge to analyze the traffic. Once the data is compiled the attacker can build an incredibly accurate profile of not only your online life but your real-world life as well." 

 Any action served on the internet leaves a traceable route which the user took. This route and the data along the way are called 'traffic', anyone with hacking knowledge can access this information with the user knowing little to nothing about it. Is this a problem?

"“Why would hackers want to hack into my life? I am not that important.” You have to understand that these “intruders into our lives” are scanning huge blocks of Internet addresses at a time. They don’t care who you are. Your computer is simply another target IP address as they scan through thousands of computers and devices in their search for more information. Once collected they take all the information and funnel it into databases where they can search through it later for high-valued loot."

 The fact that huge amounts of data are collected and scanned is known nowadays by most of the generation who grew up around the rise of the internet, if they don't then that's a naive outlook.

Similarly to the way that the Government, or any other corporation, tracks people through the use of private investigators, corporations are doing the same online. Hiring hackers to analyse information required is a further breach of our human rights, but what can we do?

Celebrity Culture

Julia Margaret Cameron – celebrity photographer late 19^th centaury early 20^th

Soft focus, enhancement of beauty – acting mythical scenes

Photographed – beautiful, educated, cultured women

Men where photographed differently

Louis aime augustin – inventor of the moving picture

1988 – first moving image

The artist – 2011 film created in the first moving picture style, a silent movie with over played sounds

Josephine baker – dancer – muse for art deco / contemporary painters

Influences – celebrities, glamour, music, fashion

Beyonce costume in reference to Josephine baker

Golden age for Hollywood – 1927-1960

The jazz singer- feature length moving picture with synchronised dialogue

Clarke Gable – ‘king of Hollywood’

Bette David – played unlikable characters

Marilyn Monroe - actress, singer – sex symbol – known for relationship with the Kennedy’s – image preserved by a young death

-       Andy Warhol endless repeat print

Andy Warhol factory – developing pop art using icons of the time

JFK president – pop

Advent of television – 1926 demonstration of televised moving images

‘Golden age’ begins late 40s

jacksons – brand

Own cartoon in which they would play themselves

Michael Jackson – appearance alteration – reaction to childhood abuse from his father – didn’t want to resemble him

Lady gaga - post post modern – reinvention of herself – looks/personalities?

Meat dress- fashion/feminist

You tube – allow regular people to become ‘famous’

Barac obama – pop president – hired Shepard fairey to create election posters – appeal to pop culture

Celebrity deaths – televised ceremonies – mass mourning

Parody photographs – shame celebrities – enhance their status – god like?

Social media – enable the following of celebrity – people can relate to and feel close to

Creative Rhetorics

Talking about creativity

'different artists often have quite divergent conceptions of what they are doing'
Harrison-Barbet

The blank sheet project

Renzo Rosso creative rhetoric –practise to begin, best idea is always your next one, make mistake and be stupid, collaboration
 
Mimesis – platos problem - critique of democracy
Art mimics - sensory world – denyed that creativity was knowledge producing

Westwern civilisation has roots in east and eygypt, which the geeks took influence…It did not begin with the greeks
classicism – roman greek
 
Academics - banaji (2006) 9 'rhetorics of creativity'
18^th C – romanticism – artist role became creators – no immitation
 
First art academy C14th  italy

Online collaboration/research
FutureEverything 2012
'people can collaborate...across networks to create...or participate in social revolutions'

Estudio is to create a space that mimis a professional studio

Study
75% agree media has given rise to collaboration
81% agree discussion/chat rooms support idea generation

87%/93% agree working online through teams is valuable experience

Communities of practice

'Little c' creativiy
VCOP eg. Websites, Blogs, Social Networks.
VCOP lifecycle - interest is built and then lost

SHOWstudio - Nick Knight – media visuals over all formats of creative

CSR-Corporate Social Responsibility

Flow - Psychological condition of being creative

Identity

Essentialism – who we are/biology

Relates to racism –

Post-modern theorists disagree

Historical phases of identity

•Pre modern identity – personal identity is stable – defined by long standing roles

•Modern identity – modern societies begin to offer a wider range of social roles. Possibility to start ‘choosing’ your identity, rather than simply being born into it. People start to ‘worry’ about who they are

•Post-modern identity – accepts a ‘fragmented ‘self’. Identity is constructed

Phrenology
Quack science - shape of the head can indicate what you may be like personality wise
Based on European people
Hitler used this as justification -(blonde hair, blue eyes)

Physiognomy - Intelligence - facial features.

Hieronymous Bosch

Chris Ofili – black Virgin Mary depiction

Pre modern identity - defined
Modern identity - choice
postmodern identity – you construct

Douglas Kellner:

Pre-Modern – marriage, church – depicts your identity

Modern -  'flaneur' (gentleman-stroller)

Leisure class - Rich enough to not work – displays of wealth openly to others – to flaunt

Fashion - Upper class use clothing – in turn the lower class follow using like for like items but cheaper

Simmel - being alone in a crowd - Alienation

Post-modern identity discourse

Foucault – identity is formed through age class gender – discourses – ‘otherness’

Humphrey Spender, Worktown project 1937
Martin Parr - The Last Resort 1983-86

Nationality
Alexander McQueen - highland rape – suggestive and about the taking of Scotland or ‘rape’  - Vivienne Westwood - Anglomania

Las Vegas – imitation of the world, in one city. Dream like.
 
Race/ethnicity
Chris Ofili - artists are white Europeans – assumption – uses his ethnicity in artworks - Captain shit - His response to a lack of black superheroes.

 
 Femininity  - Tracy Emin - Everyone I have ever slept with – names of people she had ever slept next to, people judge as sexual

wonderbra – hello boys, objectification of women, sex sells?

Post-modern condition – your Identity formed through social experiences throughout early life and throughout the rest
Geoffman - Life is a 'theatre' we act and put on performances as it where, we can choose who we want to be each day.

Subculture and Style

Subculture – separate from style it is reaction to environment

 Dogtown and z-boys (2001) zephyr skateboard scene, Vans sponsor the film. Creating cult images e.g. abandoned swimming pool as skate bowl

Ian Boarden - 'performing the city' – way to break barriers on city
Parcour/Freerunning – urban ‘escapist’ activities

Graffiti is a defining of space – owner ship claims – no discrimination McDonald - Female

Girl subcultures come second to male – male association is greater

Girls are seen as add on, not as great in the changes that a subculture is trying to create – always girlfriends or mother - accessory
 
Mod culture – women and men have similar styles – cult Quadrophenia (1979)
Hippy girl developed through 60s and 70s

Riot Grrrl – the following began from female rockers in 70s/80s – policical – making of home made zines-artwork

Brand styling to represent stereotypes of women at the time – spice girls

Self-publication of music and literature
punk begins to become commercial

Action against women in the 50s having to conform and behave in society

 
Skinheads follow on from mod culture - This is England (2006)

Popular Culture

Critically define pop culture

Contrast ideas of culture – pop culture – mass culture

What is culture?

-       Intellectual/inspirational/aesthetic development/ of a society at the time

-       A way of life

-       Intellectual and artistic works

Reality of society? – BASE

Capitalism produces culture

Base -> determines the content and form of superstructure

Base<- reflects form and legitimises superstructure

Ideologists – system of ideals/beliefs

Raymond Williams – 1983

Definitions of popular

-       Well liked by many, inferior work, culture made

E.g. graffiti when placed in an art gallery it becomes acceptable to society

Matthew Arnold – 1867 – culture and anarchy

Culture

-       Stud of perfection

-       Attained through reading/writing/thinking

-       Pursuit of culture

Cultural policies – culture is a disease

Pop culture is unreal – strive to CREATE something

Culture – substantial happening/timeless

Frankfurt school

Theodore adorno/max Herkimer

‘‘All mass culture is identical’’

‘‘The products indoctrinate and manipulate they promote false consciousness’’

Authentic culture vs. mass culture

Real, European, multi dimensional, imagination, individual creation

Culture industry – reality TV – exploits people

Pop culture – able to be a critic of all

Keep Your Email Secret

My personal email account has over 5000 emails in my inbox, and I would have an guess as to maybe 80-90% of them would be spam and a mere 47 in my 'Junk' folder. Email addresses are frequently sold on to 3rd party companies, even when sometimes the website you're signing up for states they won't pass on personal information, who sell it on again and so forth.

When I was at school, we used to sign people's emails up for, what we considered hilarious, variety of websites.

Nowadays, I receive a lot of spam of this nature...

Now, I have no idea why these companies started pursuing me or how they got my email, but an educated guess would be that somewhere among my internet activities, I have signed up for a website/newsletter and my information has been sold on.

"Your email address is a big part of your online identity. It's also a valuable source of revenue for people whose business involves supplying spammers with live addresses.
If the sites you register with aren't secure, hackers can access the database containing all the user credentials, and the email addresses are sure to be sold on.

It's also an unpleasant fact of online life that some website owners lie when they say they'll never give your email address to anyone else. This is predominantly a problem for users of adult sites. Your email address may be sold on to sites with similar themes, which then spam you as well as selling your address on to others.

When an online business folds, the owner might also decide the list of registered users is an asset worth selling."

So how can we stop this from happening?

You could simply have a separate email for when times like this are needed, as I have, but sometimes you forget and whatnot and now I have 3 email accounts with a ridiculous amount of emails in each.

The best solution I found depends on whether or not lengthy correspondence is required with whoever it was that was requesting your email. This involves signing up for a temporary email address, such as GuerillaMail which offers a 60 minute time frame, to do such business without your email account suffering.

City and Film

City modernism

Urban sociology – city a public / private

-       Postmodernism city = individual relation to the crowed

Greg Simmel – 1895-1918 - Metropolis and mental life.

The effect a built environment has on an individual

Herbert Beyer 1932

Lewis Hine photography

- Individual resistance to the city

Architect Louis Sullivan (1856-1924) – creator of modern skyscraper

"Form ever follows function"

Guaranty Building layout 

Skyscrapers – to represent power/the American dream and opportunity – big building big company ‘aspiration buildings’

Manhattan (1921)- Paul Strand and Charles Scheler – photograph of Ford Company at river rouge.

Fordism: - effect of factory on workers? Paid enough to buy goods?

Modern times - Charlie Chaplin (1936)

Society – his body is consumed by machine – the working age

Stock Market crash (1929) – lead to the great depression

French masculine noun flâneur—which has the basic meanings of "stroller", "lounger", "saunterer", "loafer’’

A person who walks through the city to experience it - Art captivation

Walter Benjamin - adopts urban observer concept

‘Arcades project’ -1927-40

The photographer as a flaneur

-       Susan sontag – photographer – especially in street photography photographer is ‘urban observer’

flaneuse

Invisible flaneuse – women and modernity

Susan buck-Morris = the dialect of seeing – arcade project

Text is suggestive that a woman on a street is either prostitute or bag lady

albus/hopper – photographs of women sitting alone – lost/trauma

Failure – despair – feelings of failure – a lonely woman – prostitute?

Don't look now 1973 - Nicholas Roeg. 

Hiring of detective but subject reverses role to lead to poiniont places of reference

Lorca di Carcia Heads (2001) NY – illumination of individuals – setting out from the crowd – creates drama on that person

Alone in the crowd till singled out some way

A lawsuit was brought against him for exhibiting a photo of someone without his or her permission.  The judge dismissed it as protected by the First Amendment.

Surveillance city – heightened security after 9/11

Sneaker Events: Birmingham

Sneaks&Peaks, is a new event based in Birmingham, as covered by article ''Sneaks&Peaks' Meet Up Event' by the Daily Street.

The event as a whole looks like it has potential to be the best sneaker event the UK has seen, that I'm aware of at least, but the branding as a whole isn't too great.

The top image shows the behind of a tattooed lady straddling a skateboard and the smallest part of a shoe that could be shown. I feel this doesn't really represent the scene, culture or what it's actually about. It reminds me of Tumblr and the way I guess in which sneakers have received a lot of coverage and exposure to the new base of customers.

The mint colour used with the branding isn't that significant a colour within sneakers and I don't know why it was picked, other than the colour being used a lot recently described as 'fresh'.

What is good? Stores

Kith, New York City, USA

Kith and Kin, known as Kith, comprises of two stores in NYC. One in Manhattan the other Brooklyn, but still both keeping the items it sells as exclusive as ever.

It is nigh on impossible to obtain certain items from Kith, let alone if you're an international customer. Recent releases have seen just in store releases and no online sales, making sneakers that are already super rare, even rarer!

 

Asics x Ronnie Fieg GL3 'Super Green'

One of my favourite sneakers of the year definitely has to be Super Green's. They're an ideal shoe in flattering tones of grey accented by different materials all over and lime green branding. The GL3 is one of the cleanest silhouettes when it comes to Asics.

This sneaker happens to be unbelievably rare, not even seeing a limited release to the public, this sneaker was handed out in Haiti to help people with no/battered shoes. Soles4Soles was the charity Kith worked with to achieve this feat, and although as nice a gesture as it is, the prices these could have sold for could have raised unreal amounts for the charity. These sneakers would easily sell for around $1000.

Hanon Shop, Aberdeen, UK

Hanon is one of the best, if not the the best, retailers in the UK. The staff are really friendly and make everyone and anyone feel welcome. Hanon boasts an impressive collection of collaborations with such brands as Asics, Adidas, Saucony and Puma to name a few.

Hanon, one of 3 UK stockists for the Nike Air Yeezy, is where I had to go to to pay for and collect the Yeezys that I won. Definitely worth the 7 hour train journey each way, but that's what it's all about.

Asics x Hanon GL3 'Wildcats'

One of my all time favourite sneakers are the Wildcats, the blocks of colour separating the sneakers into levels of solid colour shows how beautiful the silhouette for sneakers is. The burnt orange on top works in contrast with the burgundy lower section, paying homage to a dying species which calls Scotland it's home.

The Wildcats were released late in 2011 when I had insufficient funds, they stay as my all time favourite release.

24 Kilates, Barcelona, Spain

24 Kilates is one of the best European stores related to street culture, boasting collaborations with Asics, New Balance and Reebok to name a few. Collaborations result in a better customer experience and end product, usually with a wooden box, containing other accessories such as a bottle of wine.

Asics x 24 Kilates GLS 'Las Trez ZZZ'

The presentation and photography of the products is second to none. Well composed and suitable for the target audience. The whole package shows that you can get more when it comes to sneakers if you know what you're looking for.

Footpatrol, London, UK

Footpatrol is probably the most notorious shop in the UK for street culture and exclusivity. I have attended ques at the store for a release from 6am, other people had been there since the night before. I love the sense of community when there's a release, obviously there is a lot of people getting jealous and trying to push in etc, but overall the atmosphere is always good.

The store gets pretty much any release that's hard to get hold of, except store collaborations from other stores. Footpatrol is only a small location and when you walk in to the second room, you feel really homely, it's as though you were in a log cabin.

Asics x Footpatrol GSII

Boasting collaborations with Asics, Reebok, Le Coq Sportif and Adidas, which have all been sell out shoes. These limited Asics saw ques of over 100 people to obtain the shoes, started at around 6/7am. They came in a wooden box numbered to 100 and each had a screenprinted cotton drawstring bag to mark the release.

What is good? Asics

Asics has seen a lot of popularity over the past few years with sneaker collectors and more recently an explosion of hype coming from such sources as Tumblr.

Ronnie Fieg is one of the most notable characters associated withing exclusive Asics, and other sneakers, dropping at his store Kith in NYC and on their online store in super limited quantities, making them almost impossible to obtain.

The recent explosion in hype over trainers has resulted in resellers getting hold of rare pairs and selling them on for incredible mark ups.

One of the most sought after collaborations between Ronnie Fieg and Asics is the Salmon Toe.

Salmon Toes were released September 2011 instore, limited to 72 pairs and online in a similar quantity. The shoes were included in a 'collectors edition' which saw the shoes presented in a wooden box, with a Kith x Asics tee and some Kith x Asics dogtags.

The release was a success, despite prior thought as to the shoes not selling, the shoes sold out in minutes and now see resell value from $140 retail, or $200 with the box, sell for up to and over £1000.

2012 saw some release which also reached 'grail' status, such as;

Asics GT-II x Kith NYC 'Rose Gold' March 2nd 2012 release at Kith instore and online in limited quatities as usual. They sold out in seconds for the retail price of $130 and now sell for around £500.

Asics Gel-Lyte 3 x Kith NYC 'Total Eclipse' November 10th 2012 release at Kith instore and online as usual. In seconds they sold out at $145 and resell close to £500.

Other Asics collaborations this year have had huge success and none other than the Uk's finest sneaker store, FootPatrol stands out as much.

FootPatrol and Asics worked together on the Gel Saga model to produce a clean, high quality in both materials and construction, visually pleasing sneaker. The sneaker dropped only instore at FootPatrol in London which saw an exclusive release of 100 in 'collectors edition' wooden boxes, which retailed at £115, and saw ques exceeding the 100 on the morning of release.

The shoes resell for around £3-400, depending on whether the wooden box is owned.

People who buy these shoes, well, hope to own them and wear them are people who are looking for that little something extra when it comes to what sneakers to own and wear. Releases like these collaborations take sometimes years of planning and prototypes before they finally reach the market for that rush of excitement at the store or the disappointment of the 'sold out' sign appearing over the sneakers on the online store, seconds after they were released. The shoes are sold in ridiculously small quantities to make them extremely rare and are constructed by some of the best materials available adding an extra layer of luxury, as does the extras i.e wooden box or a screen printed tote bag, somewhat justifying the price and adventure/ballache to get them.