Arantxa: Hybrid text

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Constant Surveillance

The Panopticon has always stood for total surveillance discipline and control. It has been a metaphor for all surveillance, from just the building, to the idea of surveying your friends’ behavior. The Panopticon building stood for the Utopian ‘perfection of society’. A circle, where in the middle was a lookout post, where the lookout person has constant vision over the prisoners. Which in turn subordinates the prisoners, as they think they are constantly watched and therefore on their best behavior. It was said to be a better procedure because it involved no physical abuse or real enlockment. But it turned out to be just as cruel as the original prison cells; the long lasting effect was the same to the individuals. This is one of the main reasons the Panopticon was not applied into other institutions, and not further developed.
The Panopticon was seen as a place where morels, health and discipline could be adjusted to the will of the ones with power.
 It was part of the disciplinary system, in which surveillance was the main tool to train individuals to be judged within the Normal. When the 'Power of Writing' came into play we were not only judged within the Normal, but also documented within that judgment. With each new form of power there will be a new way of becoming judged and surveyed within The Normal.
The surveyment, or, surveillance, used to have a stationary form. It was within the building, unmovable. It was exectuted by the authorities. Today, our new surveillance system: The human tracking system - can be applied anywhere and by or for anyone.

Surveillance – as part of the disciplinary of the norm – was the beginning of The Normal. Because of surveillance disciplinary power became an integrated system. Surveillance rests on individuals, its functioning is that of a network of relations from top to bottom. Within disciplinary systems are penal mechanisms at play, with their own law that consists within an already existing law. It works with levels and abilities. Disciplinary penalty acts in a field of good and bad points. In this way it is possible to create an arithmetical economy within the disciplinary perspective. What was needed was an intense continuous supervision, carried out not only by the master, but also by the clerks, supervisors and foremen. As production became more complex and the number of workers increased, supervision became more necessary and difficult. This meant there was special function with trained supervisors, different from the others. 
Surveillance is decisive economic operator in the production machine and disciplinary factor. The training for discipline ‘makes’ the individuals; the individuals are regarded as objects and instruments. The training power is modest and gradual, with eventually a visible effect on the subject – the person.
The disciplinary architecture is not only about being seen, about surveillance, but has to permit detailed screening and control, and be able to transform individuals. Disciplinary power is invisible but the effect on people is visible – the visibility enables the power. Because of the examination that surveillance brings individuals, they are engaged – the Power of Writing - in more documents that capture and fix every individual. These formalization examinations include: The physical code of signaling, the medical code of symptoms, the educational or military code of conduct or performance. It gave people pressure of trying to be like each other – act towards the same model of the Normal.

The societies of control are about to replace the disciplinary societies. 

Adaption of the disciplinary standards are vital in order to keep functioning within the society.

 New ways of surveying and controlling are constantly created, it is said to be reformations, but in fact these ‘reformations’ are already planned and finished. Control is the new monster, and this new monster is our future. Control is short-term but continuous and without limit, while discipline was of long duration, discontinues and infinite. 
Control operates in modulation and a system of deformation, changing form constantly. ‘A man of control is in continuous network.’
In the controlled society the corporation replaces the factory, and then becomes the spirit. The spirit wants to instrument social control upon individuals. Power individualizes and masses together, constitutes those over whom it exercises power into a body and molds the individuality of each member of that body. We don’t deal with the mas/individual anymore… the individuals are dividuals or masses itself.
The disciplinary society had the signature that designates the individual within the masses, and the numeration that indicates his or her position within the mass. In societies of control what matters is the code. A password. The numerical language of control is made of codes that mark access to information or reject it.
We – as the participants within the controlled society – work with these codes. We are part of the machine. We give, and we take. The spirit of the corporations influence us, we are being moulded as we speak. This power is subtle and only visible on the subjects of its power. Individuality is constructed, born into a disciplinary society and is defined by it.

The spirit that hierarches social control influences us in how we see ourselves – what we need, what we think of our individuality. We invest in ourselves, make our body and mind a utility that accomplishes with the Norm that the spirit generates. In short, we participate within the surveillance. We feed the surveillance ourselves when we share our thoughts and information. We are in constant performance to keep up with the Normal within the surveillance of the controlled society, and therefore we are now in a performance society.
It is the way we have record of truth, of our existence, our visibility. Look at Instagram, Facebook etcetera. Everybody generates information and connectivity. We are constantly under pressure to represent ourselves. It is a penetenatry – a place where you look into yourself. When we think we are being watched we regulate our behavior, this means we are always presenting ourselves, performing.

The idea of constant surveillance used to be a warning, a fear amongst the society. The book about an overall Big Brother, from 1984 (George Orwell) was one of these warnings. But having gotten used to the technology, enjoying its many benefits, people have become blind to the fear.
 The reality tv show 'Big Brother' is a powerful example in this. The phenomena what was used as a warning, creating fear, was now the biggest entertainment program in the world.
The Super Panopticon is perceived as a good thing because it is - as they say - used for the solution of crimes for example. Because of the high benefits the public appeal to the Super Panopticon is greater then ever. People forget that this is changing society, because its power is invisible. The effect of the power is visible when its subject realizes it. The fact that anyone can be tracked and controlled, by anyone, makes the Super Panopticon a kind of social experiment. Equals and no equals can be equally powerful.

The Human tracking system / Super Panopticon is approved more then its predecessors because its less visible and therefore less frightening. On the one hand it gives you 'security' and 'safety'. On the other hand its more frightening then ever because the system can be emplaced on anyone and everything. The 'inspector' can be anywhere, in the public or within privacy.
 Equals and no equals. This gives the Super Panopticon more possibilities of power and benefits. Should we fear this?

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