1. 1 Panopticism & subjection/subjectivation Lecture 12 December 2005 New Media New Citizenship Marianne van den Boomen Michel Foucault (1926-1984) Power & panopticism – Power & knowledge & subject formation

2. 2 Structuralism Academic school: theorizing society & relations between people (anthropology, sociology, philosophy, political sciences) Political world view: connected to social movements of students, women, gays, communist parties, prisoners, patients etc. Basic concepts: The formation of societies, cultures, individuals and groups are based on structures and structural relations

3. 3 Structuralists  Ferdinand de Saussure linguistics, semiotics Language & ideology Claude Levi-Strauss  anthropology, cultures, myths Jacques Lacan: psychoanalysis, symbolic order, split subject Louis Althusser: marxism, ideological state apparatusses Michel Foucault: institutions, archeology of power, micropolitics

4. 4 (Post)structuralist characteristics Structural relations between language & ideology Structures are historical and changeable History: not lineair but full of ruptures and contradictions The subject is not unequivocal autonomous and selfdetermining

5. 5 Human subject: myth or truth? Critique on the notion of the free autonomous subject with implied reason, transcendental mind, & no material bodily constraints (Cf. Barlow, Habermas) The paradox of the subject: ● This subject is a myth - subjects are subjected to structures ● This subject is true - subjects are (re)produced by structures

6. 6 Double structure of the subject Freedom/unfreedom, myth/truth, individual/social: split subject, decentered subject Not a unity, not a center as in humanist world view: theoretical anti-humanism The word ‘subject’: Subject  object Area of study: ‘the subject of this course’ = ‘the object of this course’ Citizenship: ‘we are subjects of our government’ = subjected to & in charge The subject = the ruler & the ruled

7. 7 Foucault on modern power Power is not a possession – power is exercised and distributed in a grid (dispositive) of institutions, instruments and classifications Power is not repression & prohibition – power is productive Power is not violence – power works by discipline & surveillance Power is knowledge, knowledge is power When there is power, there is also resistance, counterpower Power, knowledge and resistance produces the double edged subject

8. 8 Panopticism & the Panopticon Bentham’s design: dicipline, surveillance, internalisation subject positions of guard+prisoner

9. 9 The Panopticon as metaphor Prisons, hospitals, schools, workplaces, laboratories: soft optic 'mind' power (instead of physical bodily power) discipline and surveillance (instead of violence and repression) individual compartimentalisation (instead of managing unordered masses) classification, normalisation and correction (instead of punishment and prohibition) social inclusion and exclusion (instead of authoritive seclusion, exile or extermination) internalisation of subject positions (instead of visible external authority)

10. 10 Internalisation of subjection The historical birth of the modern subject: - individuals with an inner life and conscience - able to give an account of one’s actions Panopticon? Prisoners! Powerless poor people! Privacy invasion! Never forget the double effect of the Panopticon on the subject Bentham: discourse of humanization, liberation and civilization Total? Only when embodiment is ignored

11. 11 Digital subjection 1 Negative view: the total digital Panopticon with total surveillance Every citizen becomes a suspect subject: Spy satellites Global Positioning Systems GSM: mobile phone location State databases (birth, marriage, tax, insurence etc.) International surveillance (Echelon) Non-state databases (data mining and profiles, Internet cookies, spyware) IP-numbers, Internet Service Providers WebCT: tracking students

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13. 13 Counterpower: rights Global/universal rights: Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948 UN) International Convenant on Civil and Political Rights National Constitutions Right on privacy, protection of the private sphere, regulation of recording personal data Digital civil rights organizations: Electronic Frontier Foundation (www.eff.org) Bits of Freedom (www.bof.nl)

14. 14 Problems with digital civil rights Rights addresses states - but the Internet surpasses state bounderies - global Internet regulation? but by whom? Privacy invasion also comes from the market - but subjection by contract or free choice Based on a clear distiction between public and private - but on the Internet the distinction is blurred or useless

15. 15 Digital subjects 2 Positive view: digital Panopticon enables new counterpowers The counterpower of communication - no isolating walls between individual subjects - talking as comfort and tactical insubordination The counterpower of knowledge - digital technology can be hacked - easy distribution of individual knowledge The power of counterpublics in a digital public sphere - digital communities of fans, consumers, women, cultural groups - public opinion, exchange & action - diversity in public-private mixtures

16. 16 Digital (in)visibility tactics Making the subjects/suspects invisable or untracable: Peer-to-peer networks (Kazaa) Free PGP encryption software Anonymizing software Making the power & knowledge visible: Art/activism projects on tracking surveillance camera’s http://www.camerakijken.nl/index.php?item=3 http://www.camerakijken.nl/index.php?item=3 Reproducing and distributing secret government reports Witness projects of human rights violations Daily updates of local speed control and flash camera’s Sites with maps of public buildings and institutions Manuals of how to make fireworks or bombs

17. 17 Poststructuralist/postmodern subjects? not based on unitary subjects, but on relations, exchanges and communication: decentered, distributed subjectivity not private and autonomous, not collective and transcendental, but a hybrid mixture flexible mix of collective and fragmented elements public-private co-construction