What is good? Asics

ASICS, is an acronym for the Latin phrase 'Anima Sana In Corpore Sano', which means, 'sound mine in a sound body'.

The forerunning company to Asics was Onistuka, started in Japan in 1949 by a Mr Kihachiro Onistuka. From 1950 the company became known as Onitsuka Tiger, which is still a part of modern Asics.

From the 1964 Olympics until present day various athletes still wear Onistuka Tiger or Asics shoes. 

The Tiger Mexico 66's were the first shoe to sport the stripes of Asics, made in 1966 in preparation for the Mexico Olympics in 1968.

In the 1980's Asics introduced the GEL cushioning system which boasts the ability to absorb shock by 'dissipating vertical impact and dispersing it into a horizontal plane'. In modern Asics, the GEL technology is at the forefront and sole of every shoe, literally.

In 2011 Asics launched a Global campaign titled 'Shedding'.

  The 45 second advert features runners running through a variety of terrain. All of the runners are perspiring and 'shedding' non physical attributes such as; stress, tension, worry and doubt. The words are used in a variety of different languages and appear to fall off the individuals in a typographic form. The whole motive for this campaign is show the world that Asics shoes are supreme in the sense they can relieve tension, stress, doubt and worry. Of which they can in the sense that the consumer utilizes the shoes to their full potential in whatever sport they partake.

Panopticism

Institutions and Institutional Power

Discipline is not just punitive, but also productive
Michel Foucault (1926-1984)

The great confinement (Late 1960s) – ‘houses of correction’ curb unemployment and illness

Middle ages – village idiots - No division in society between the sane and insane.

people judeged a "socially useless" sent to "houses of correction" (Mad, criminals, drunks, vagabonds, diseased, single mothers)
- Forced into labor if not

the birth of the asylum – specialist institutions

Discipline was used as if inmates where children – good = rewarded / bad= punished – no physical violence

Pre modern – physical punishment control
Institutional experts used - legitimate the institution – knowledge – rationalizing institutions – effect human consciousness / alteration/correction

Institution aimed for person to begin to take responsibility for their own behaviors and conformity in society

Pre-modern punishment – acted as a warning to others of the power

"Disciplinary society"

Discipline is apparent in every aspect of our lives
 
Jeremy Bentham's design The Panopticon proposed 1791

Institution design – more so used for the concept of prisons or asylums.

Panopticon - A cell is open from the front and lit from the back.
Decided for perfect functionality

inmates cannot see one an other, only central watch tower and supervisors – he is always being watched = fear = control
- reformation – confine – study insane – supervise workers – make work

Surveillance of bodies and training of bodies

Office structure, one way mirror people can see out but not in – fear of being watched so they work – blinds to hide if someone is inside or not

 Makes people more productive – fear increases work

- - -

Institutional Gaze

Modern discipline use of mental control - panopticism  - Understand/ thinks you are being watched.

Aspects in everyday life – cctv e.t.c

recording of behavior, we alter out actions to behave and conform – fear of punishment if not
 
e.g. attendance records – expectation to conform and be there – guilt if not/fear of punishment – monitoring – productivity increases due to fear/guilt knowing that you are monitored

records of employment – monitoring of emails and internet usage, clock in clock out cards

Disciplinary society creates 'docile bodies'
- Self monitoring
- Self-correcting
- Obedient bodies

- Docile bodies work more

soldier – docile body

Mass docility:
'The cult of health' – images and ‘guidelines’ humans use of what bodies should look like – begin to feel uncomforted and guilt for not being able to conform to ‘ideals’

Tory government in power – rising of retirement age – no reward for good health

TV – panopticon – told what to do and how we should act in society through programmes aim to unconsciously influence
 
Power is not something someone has
Power is a relationship between different individuals and groups, and only exists when it is being exercised.

Power will only exist while people allow it
'Where there is power, there is resistance.'

Key points

•Michel Foucault

•Panopticism as a form of discipline

•Techniques of the body

Docile Bodies

How Can I be Anonymous on the Internet

Amongst the guides to internet anonymity, there are guides for people who aren't so technologically experienced, promoting the use of proxy servers and the such.

This screenshot was from one such article, with the basic principles of internet anonymity.

The Gaze

‘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)

Hans Memling

 ‘Vanity’

(1485)

The female body – presented so that the female body cannot gaze back

The eye focuses on the womans body, not her as a character

MANET - Bar at the Folies Bergeres

Self portrait – looking out

Skewed perspective.

A sadness/unhappiness/not part of the group goings on

Role of women - disaffected, no longer the passively available, sexualised

Jeff Wall ‘Picture For Women’(1979)

-the gaze is reflected by the camera

the way nudity on banners and in magazines is the norm

-       sunglasses act as a way to stop women gazing back

Peeping Tom 1960 Films her death for voyeristic purposes

Nudes are not the same for the representaion of men – more nude females

Male – active

Women – passive/ looking back

Lara Croft - A visual spectacle
An overly sexualised object
Pleasure in the fantasy of her distraction

Social Networking is used to perpetuate the male gaze/ the gaze of the media – the judgement of body ‘ideals’ for women, and the objectification of specific parts and how they should look

Reality tv shows

-       offering ‘all seeing’ power to the public like the gaze

-       editing of the shows means that reality is lost

-       contestants featured are aware of their representation

Looking is not indifferent. There can never be any question of 'just looking'.

Victor Burgin (1982)

------------

Reading List

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

Existing Publications on Anonymity

There are an abundance of books available and internet guides to being anonymous on the web, but the problem is how effectively the information is delivered to the reader. The books available look very formal in some instances and on the opposite end of the scale they just look unworthy to be read.

Internet guides seem to have adhered to a simple approach to teaching the reader, but sometimes they are dull and boring, hard to understand and lengthy.

I understand, through my research, that even people reading about becoming anonymous online are worried of being tracked reading such articles. This can be avoided by reading my publication and using the tools that come with it to access anonymity minimizing and connection to the end user and the product, some of which have to be downloaded.

My aim, unlike some of the other published articles, is to provide free information to the reader. Required programs will be supplied via memory stick and a short publication to outline anonymity and how to go about acquiring said status.

I need to compile what the key elements to anonymity online are and put them in a manageable manor to communicate clearly to the reader.

Sneaker Events

During research towards an event that I could hold in Leeds, I looked into other events on offer globally and found that the majority are located solely in the USA.

Complex magazine has a dedicated part on it's site for sneakers and recently posted an article of their '10 Sneaker Events To Attend in 2013'

10   Sneaker Friends - Charlotte, Atlanta, USA
9     Crepe City - London, England, UK
8     Sole Con - New York City, USA
7     Cleveland Got Sole - Cleveland, USA
6     Sneaker Swap - Connecticut, USA
5     Sneaker Con - New York City, Los Angeles, Atlanta, USA
4     Sneaker Pimps - various locations, USA
3     Baltimore Sneaker Show - Baltimore, USA
2     Dunkxchange - Southern California, USA
1     H-Town Sneaker Summit - Houston, USA

Crepe City do something similar to what is possible to achieve, but they have a sweet venue in Nike 1948 store, but due to the location are limited on the trainers they can exhibit/sell.

The London Vandal review Crepe City

   HypeBeast TV coverage of Crepe City    

Psychoanalysis

- Understanding of the psyche

- The role of the unconscious - everyday living

- Gender development - sexual identity

- Human subjectivity understanding

Study of human subjectivity

Psychoanalysis - form of therapy - human subjectivity - study psyche

Theories of the unconscious

- Human sexuality development

Understanding human desire/motivations/dreams

Human control is not all through the mind

-Unconscious thoughts are vital part I day to day reactions

- Sigmund Freud, Jacques lacan, lemanie klien, Carl Jung, Juliet mitchelle, Lucie irgaicay, Julia kristara

Sigmund Freud - conceived the idea late 1890s

-       Through the treating of hysteria patients the use of psychoanalysis – guidance to accept thoughts once repressed due to thoughts/events

Dream analysis – analysis of his own

-       Unconscious – ‘wish-fulfilment’

Infant observation – associations with parental/motherly figures

Establishment of dynamic unconscious

The dynamic unconscious

Through early human development as an infant – as a means of protection – unacceptable thoughts and behaviours to the conscious.

-       These early developments continue to effect the self in SOME ways

-       Unconscious is chaotic without order without language

Freudian slip – unconscious thoughts from early development made known through ticks/slips/symptoms.

-       Hysteria patients developed symptoms due to early repressed thoughts - experiences

Developmental stages

Development – wilful, conscious beliefs – full of confusing, contradictory, misinterpreted

Thoughts and feelings

- Human development – attempt to make sense of biological/instinctual self

                                    - Logical/thinking self

Development of associations and assumptions through out judgement of data – often misinterpreted

Developmental stages as a child

-       Oral

-       Anal

-       Phallic

Oedipus complex – sexual/love feelings towards motherly figure – resentment of father – stems from childhood dependence on mother – self centred view on world

Love/jealousy

-       Feelings to want / to be wanted

Development of preconceptions – Oedipus complex/castration complex/penis envy

-Oedipus complex – sexual/love towards motherly figure – resentment towards father – self centred view on the world

-Development of feelings – love/rivalry/jealousy – become mixed and confusing

- Development of male/female identities in relation to penis

-Castration complex – boy in fear of castration = loss of power

                                    - Girl accepts – she has already been castrated

Phallus – symbol of power

-Penis envy – girl experiences when she realises she is without – relation to father figure

-Presence/absence – negative feelings

- Boy fears loss of power – castration

-Girl fears she is missing something

Child must experience and overcome feelings and misconceptions

-These misconceptions/contradictory ideas continue throughout our lives – unconscious

The uncanny

‘unhomely’

Unnatural – familiar

Something to remind hidden – come to open

Boundaries of fantasy/reality break down

Analogies – unconscious (psychology) – uncanny (aesthetics)

Freudian models

Id

Ego

Superego ----- iceberg

Unconscious

Preconscious

Conscious

Id – represents biological/ instinctual part of us

Ego – represents individual/personality

Super ego – represents the part of ourselves in relation to others

Unconscious – hidden / repressed unacceptable feelings stored

Preconscious – unconscious buy not repressed – memories/words/recollection of this

Conscious – self/personality/identity

Jacques lacan

1960s-1970s presentation of psychoanalysis

Reconception of Freud’s findings – structured linguistics – signification

Lacan – development of the psyche – formed with the structures of language – ‘mold the self as we mold it’

The mirror stage

The Childs reflection

-       Child sees itself in the mirror for the first time – split/alienation

-       Seen as the subject and the other

-       Rivalry – child may recognise the image is its own

-       Identity of itself outside of itself – sees mirror as ‘other’

-       - Formation of the Childs ego – boy image/subject/other

Specula image

Captivated – child is absorbed/repelled by own image

Lacan unconscious

Unconscious is structured like language

Meaning is encoded with linguistic signs

Metaphor/metonymy

Symptom

-       Metaphor – representation of something else which possesses similar characteristics

-       Symptoms – translated elements – metaphor style coding

Desire

-       Metonymy – part used to represent whole or the whole represent small part

-       Displaces all on sales of associations

-       Desire for objects (inc people) displacement of desire for what cant be obtained

Lacan phallus

Not the biological penis – object of owner association

Through the potential LACK

Masculinity/femininity are not biological

Definition – SYMBOLIC positions

Phallus – ‘speaking position in culture’

-Relation to nature of the phallus – signifying

- Sexual identity

Orders of reality

-       The real – cannot be symbolised/signified

-       The imaginary – ego is born and developed

-       The symbolic – the other

Subjectivity

-       Human motivation desires – unconscious

-       - Understanding of why things are

-       Understanding of designers/artists creativity

Model based theory

Edward bernays – Freud’s nephew

‘The godfather of PR’

Applied theories to advertising and pr

Manipulation techniques

Embedding desire within products

Torches of freedom

Conclusion

Psychoanalysis provides definition of unconscious

Subjecthood outside logic/rationality

Understanding of motivations and art

How art and design effects us and why