Seminar 2: Culture and Popular Culture

Culture (Elite Upperclass ) and Popular Culture ( masses working classes)

eg.
Classical Vs. Pop
Shakespeare Vs. Harry Potter
Poetry Vs. singles


'culture' is seen as more important

Seminar 1: The Panopticon and Foucault

Lecture 4: Communication Theory

Lecture 3: The Gaze

Lecture 2: Critical Positions on the Media (Culture)

The Church: An example of Panopticism in contemporary society.

An example of Panopticism in contemporary society.

Michel Foucault wrote ' Discipline and Punish', a book about disciplinary in a society focusing on the idea of Panopticism. In short, it is a concept the emerged from an architecture called the Panopticon designed by a philosopher called, Jeremy Bentham. The concept is that an individual is always in a conscious state that he is always being watched and therefore behave in the way in which he/she is expected of. An example of a contemporary panopticism is the church, both in terms of the physical building and the religion itself. The idea of religion is abstract but the ideology of that is enforced through the church, an actual physical Panopticon. The church is used as a mechanism for religion to keep their believers in a disciplinary society: 'The Panopticon is a marvelous machine which, whatever use one may which to put it to, produces homogenous effects of power'.( Foucault in Thomas, 2000, p.66) One of the effects of the panopticon is the idea that one is always under surveillance and is constantly visible causing one and society to self regulates without any physical enforcement. The Church is a great example for this as God is the ultimate surveillance. One has to believe that God can see anything an everywhere and only God can see them, never the other way round. 'He(the subject) is seen, but he does not see; he is always the subject of information, never the subject of communication(p.65). God is visible and unverifiable. We see constant reminders of the existence of God through signs such as the cross, images of Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary and et cetera. But we never see God himself.

"Power should be visible and unverifiable. Visible: the inmate (believer) will constantly have before his eyes, the tall outline of the central tower from which he is spied upon. Unverifiable: the inmate must never know whether he is being looked at any one moment, but he must be sure that he may always be so.”(p.65)

Referring back to the church being a perfect mechanism for a disciplinary society. In church, as it is believed to be the house of God and also, the typical architecture of churches are normally panopticon-like, one is not only visible to God but also to the priest and all the other believers. Alters are normally at the front of the church and raised so the priest can see everyone in the building. Some churches even place the alter in the middle which is even more panopticon-like. Also, there is often a large round window at the front of churches letting a lot of light it signifying the presence of God: 'Full lighting and the eye of a supervisor capture better than darkness, which ultimately protected. Visibility is a trap'(p.64) The attendees become docile bodies through self-regulation. There are certain behaviors that one immediately excludes, or include when one is in church. There is a certain dress code, everyone has to sing hymns and there is no swearing in a church. Anyone who doesn’t follow those certain rule are seen as the leper.

“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. So, to arrange things that the surveillance is permanent in its effects, even if it is discontinuous in its action……..the inmates should be caught up in a power situation of which they are themselves the bearers.”(p. 65)

Lecture 1:Surveillance and Society (Panopticon)