Surveying Style: The Image-Based Self

Much of how we interact is based on images and visual culture. We see how technology and modernization of society encourages our lexicon to become increasingly symbolic, rendering lengthy prose irrelevant and too time-consuming in our fast-paced existence. Visual presentation has always offered people a chance to represent themselves.  As our interaction becomes increasingly dependent on the eye, the fashioning of the self has in turn become increasingly dependent on the role of the surveyor.  This shift has led those in the position of “surveyed” to take measures to ensure a spectator’s glance; it is an interesting subversion of Berger’s claim that women are the object of the gaze in a way that is inherently disempowering.
Instead, meditating interaction via technologies like Tumblr provides Millennials a platform to exchange images they have collected.  I posit that the new currency of identity is self-making via images and the desire for surveillance to occur is synonymous with the desire for self-making to occur. In Daphne Merkin’s New York Times article “The Politics of Appearance” she posits that appearance has become the coin of the realm.  Merkin sees it as “the locus of our conversation” and this fits nicely with the idea I hope to explore that surveillance in modern society is a visual barter system.  Through my experiments I set out to prove that the validation of the self now contains the prerequisite of visibility and the power to shape ones identity is dependent on the context of the surveillance. 
 In my field experiments I explore the use of Tumblr as a technological platform that satiates the desire to survey others and assemble an image-based self. Tumblr provides a place to put all the amassed images, along with the option to archive these images in order to view the curator’s holistic image-identity.  In my experiment I find myself drawn to two types of images: those I can relate to my “self,” my friends, or my life experiences and then those I can not directly tie to my current reality but can tie to an emotional response that I report gives me a sense of rapture.  If it feels good and I know I will want to look at the image again later (or in the aforementioned case when I tie it to my current life)—I reblog, “like” or save the image.
By interacting on Tumblr and observing the way others organize meaning within their claimed domain I note how surveillance can empower the “seer” and expand horizons of how we define the self.  I recorded notes from my first weeks using the micro-blog site saying: I can do what I want with my space and find myself feeling more free the more time I log on Tumblr. In this way, self-fashioning is empowering if we have control to conduct the appropriate image-management when we know the Other’s gaze on us.
This freedom of expression via visual presentation is a characteristic that also renders street surveillance rewarding for us.  Interaction between the surveyor and the surveyed becomes a sort of information game that encapsulates a "cycle of concealment, discovery, false revelation and rediscovery"(Goffman, 8).  It is this chance to shine light on certain aspects of the self while blanket other areas in darkness that excites the ego.  When I conducted my second experiment to explore in-person surveillance in urban areas, specifically visiting the ever-crowded Midtown and Wall Street neighborhoods, I found a universal craving to express oneself: a often acted upon objective to become the object of view.  I discover from my street observation that the excitement spurring people to be visible stems from the chance to be validated socially in a way specific to surveillance, which is as important as it is intangible. From my experience I found it challenging to capture the “moment” of the surveillance, which within street interaction been expedited to the same elapse time as a blink.
 Here is a picture of a man who I felt was using my image-clues as a sort of currency, I say: I feel as though this one Asian man (who I snapped a disappointing picture of, he looked down when I pointed my camera-phone in his face) represents how I tried so hard to capture these moments in photos but my inability to do so led me to the aforementioned insight.

Midtown-- Spectator

These moments are fragile and while they hardly last long enough to snap into immortality via film, they leave an impression on the one surveyed that cuts to the very identity of her being.
 During this experiment I develop a sub-argument that the street is a platform for Goffanian masks to be interchanged and power is in what images we pay attention to. Power rests in the discipline of the eye. I posit a sort of training occurs as we navigate the world.  Especially in our “Age of Information” with the overflow of data hitting our eyes while walking on street we need to exercise restraint to select meaningful knowledge. We have begun to browse people the way we browse websites.
Website browsing involves “implicit” data gathering, which is how I experienced the gaze of one man on the subway platform waiting for a train. I noticed that the subway was the site where the browsing felt most invasive because on a crowded train there is no way to release the pressure by physically removing oneself. As Sarah Berry explores in “Fashion and Personalization of the Web” the customization we have on the web is “fraught with privacy problems.”  The same goes for the platform. I found one man surveying me and then when our gaze met he would browse on his phone (assuming he somehow had service), which is a perfect example of how the media we interact with impacts the mode in which we interact with others.

People Browsing

I proposed that the website browsing trained us to person-browse when on the street.  To extrapolate this theory I imagine a sort of search engine optimization process occurs as we survey others. I think the underlying reason for this is that exchanging image-currency has caused us to view ourselves as a commodity to sell.  The way web-sites research for the best way to sell their product, street surveyors research through monitoring others clothing choices and style of dress, in hopes for leveraging the look-based information in the future. Bauman’s statement that “identities are projects” fits modern mundane surveillance since the task is approached with the dedication a student has to a reach paper, seeking sources wherever that spark of inspiration strikes.  The street and Tumblr are platforms for expression that mirror Alison Lurie’s notion that we can express ourselves via fashion, if “trimmings and accessories [can be seen] as adjectives or adverbs.”   The expression is an obvious and culturally accepted occurrence, but the role of who correctly interprets the expression is what interested me initially with my surveillance studies.
As I conducted my experiments I learned that the correct-read is less important when compared to the ever-switching roles of who is decoding the trimming and pairing it with an adjective and who is standing as the made-up self—awaiting the gaze of the spectator.  The roles of surveyor and surveyed dominate every social interaction since we can only orient ourselves to how we look through literal mirror-use or through the interaction with others--- we see ourselves through the other’s gaze.  So while we may "speak glitter" or "mumble in flannel" the language of our clothing will become irrelevant if there is no one to hear their utterances.  Feedback motivates the surveyed to subject himself or herself to the risk of being misinterpreted or cast aside like a boring ad in a magazine would be passed over without remorse. Feedback drives us to seek ways to increase our visibility and manage our visually represented persona. 
From my third experiment I learned that receiving feedback when the visual presentation of the self is dictated by other sources could be disempowering.  I chose to work within the context of the modeling world since it is a prime location to study how the fashioning the self connects to surveying others because all interactions have a built-in clause of surveillance. While most models find it invigorating to gain entry to this elite world there is no denying that it is stressful, because the commodification of their body leaves them in a state where they are constantly on-view. Sam explained:  “I was so super self-conscious and obsessed about my skin and in Hong Kong the dirty city was making me break out and so I freaked out.”  Sam reported she was nervous that she was going to be unable to go to castings and if she did go it would hurt her name.  Models are “simultaneously promoters of commodities and the commodities they promote” so if her skin was breaking out she would be rendered unfit for the job and flounder in the marketplace.
I discovered that the non-stop surveying of between models and bookers (mainly among models) has a purpose unrelated to shaping an identity, but instead dedicated to by turning the models into commodities.   My most tangible evidence of surveillance impacting the fashioning of the self is the “Model off-Duty Uniform” because it demonstrates the function of this socially attuned vigilance in a concrete and culturally praised form of visual presentation.
The “Model Off-Duty” uniform also supports the goal of turning the girls into a notable commodity that are easily identified by outside groups. In this way, the model becomes a strategically plain commodity (by those responsible for her visual presentation) with hopes of becoming an elaborately decorated and handsomely paid one in the future.

Model Off-Duty Uniform

It is a dream that Bauman talks about of “turning into a notable, noticed and coveted commodity, a talked-about commodity, a commodity standing out from the mass of commodities, a commodity impossible to overlook, to deride, to be dismissed.” This dream for a model is only possible if she is willing to engage in a sort of negative surveillance where she shadows the established girls, copying them as much as possible and rebranding herself based on what other surveyors (agents, clients) want.  This negative surveillance is done in companies to cut out the flawed and leave only “the resourceful and eager players” which is a lot how the modeling world functions, with a sort of “Panopticon-style surveillance in reverse.”  The girls who master this type of surveillance are demarcated by the signature “Model-off-duty” style and rewarded by becoming more visible via magazines and blogs—perpetuating the cycle of surveying within the modeling world. Based on my interviews I learn that combing through blogs for inspiration pictures is considered a part of the job. Chloe told me that if you aren’t curious about the success stories and their style then “you aren’t going to get the look right and this industry is based on looks.” The blogs they scour serve as a technologically meditated extension of the in-person surveying that occurs at castings and go-sees and backstage at fashion shows.
As a result of the modeling world’s strict management it is easy for models to find one another on the street.  It is through checking out other people we learn who we want to align with since "even if we are never introduced, clothes tell about class status, age, family origin, personal opinion, taste, current mood or even give information about erotic interest and sexual status."  On the street, in an effort to receive feedback that helps us place ourselves in the world picture, we choose to speak through our outfits.
Where or not we realize the amount we share about ourselves via self-presentation we certainty all obey a set of systematic rules that guide our interaction on the street and Tumblr.  One example from my Tumblr research is Laurie Beth, who blogs at talkpreppytome and lists her love for preppy fashions from J-Crew to Ralph Lauren and her image selection reflects that. Laurie refrains from posting images that deviate from her theme on her carefully curated space. 

Screen Grab from Laurie's Tumblr

Goffman describes how seemingly “inconsequential events” convey impressions that could shift the audience toward skepticism.  In Tumblr terms, you see someone blogging a bunch of fashion images and follow them, but when they sprinkle in images of skiing and outdoors and personal images of friends you “unfollow” because these images are not consistent with the over-all definition of the person.  The successful Tumblrs are curated by those like Laurie Beth, who loves to consume images and craves new ways to experiment “self-making.”
The people who really invest in the meanings of their images draw in followers on Tumblr.  In our increasingly visual society the surveyors who grasp the importance of presenting a stable “signature” style become the tastemakers.  On Tumblr the meaning(s) of each image depends on the context; context and predictability in our persona’s presentation (i.e. the appropriateness of the way one outfits the self) matters. To succeed on Tumblr one must learn to read the ever-shifting messages of the images they select.   To succeed in our society and harness power one must learn to reappropirate the styles of the day for the context they inhabit. 
The work indicative of this type of consumption links fantasy with a postmodern sense of making new bundles of commodities; it is also a bridge that connects the technologically mediated surveillance of Tumblr with the manufacturing of “it girls.” Appadurai speaks about “new resources and new disciplines for the construction of the imagined selves and imagined world” so we can see both Tumblr as a new way to present the self in visual terms and the strategic visual presentation of a model as a blank slate (as a result of surveillance) as a construction of self emerging from new resources.
  The ample resources available to models, along with their culturally praised appearance may lead an observer to think they are the ultimate empowered surveyor of style.  Yet, upon inspection of this environment, I discover that the modeling world has the most clear-cut systematic rules and restrictions placed its participants—disempowering them by disqualifying them from self-making in a way that represents their multi-faceted identities. 
Since the modeling world is the site with the highest value on the visual, it didn’t completely surprise me when informants spoke about their experience learning to decode the specific “ethnographic algorithm” making it possible for them to fulfill their role as model both off and on-duty.  When doing my interviews with my two models, Sam and Chloe, I learned that the majority of surveillance occurs between models.   I expected the agent to survey the model and for her to be aware that her pictures are being surveyed.  But according to my informants the identity of a model is only kept in place by stepping into the ring with other girls and working as a group (despite knowing they are ultimately competing) to dismantle and reassemble their visual self. The need to investigate the competition and judge them so you can improve your own brand—the product of ‘You” is stressful because it makes the girls feel like they need to pass a test they cannot study for and if they pass they will be recast into a new mold as a product that is capable of drawing attention to itself and the new “it girl” model.  From my interviews I learn it is seen as a self-invigorating activity to be involved in the modeling world.  The studying of the current “it girl” inspires models to enhance their style and treat themselves to new products at sephora or new silhouette tops.  
While the modeling world is limited to a few remarkably similar settings: castings, go-sees, backstage and off-duty, the cyber sphere of a Tumblr and the city pavements of the New York streets offer various contexts that inform the meaning of the visual clues or images that are encoded during the surveillance.  Lurie says, “The meaning of any costume depends on circumstances.”  Tumblr is an exemplary place since it offers the chance to reproduce a stream of images, like writing a narrative of ones likes in a line—so like a permutation in mathematics the order of the group becomes very important. “The reproduction becomes a reference point for other images. The meaning of an image is changed according to what one sees immediately beside it.”  To use Tumblr is to use a form of technology as a platform to play out the different cinematic versions of the self.
The curator of the images in this visual presentation is also a surveyor.  There is a cybernetic quality of surveillance – the capacity to feed personal data about individuals back into the mechanisms of social control that distinguishes it from earlier techniques of monitoring.    There is also a sense of “land enclosure” that enters proprietary concerns into the transaction of surveying.  The territory one claims, whether it is their url or their body, is manicured with a montage of visual clues that are dependent of the land’s context for proper interpretation.  Here it is also important to consider that with the absence of verbal exchange the information that is received is purely implicit and visual—circumventing a dialogue.  Images are more readily accepted as truth, historically.  As Ernst Gombrich explains in his essay The Visual Image the value of an image is its capacity to convey information that cannot be coded in any other way .  Besides the issue of illustrations communicating through subjective means, other mediums like language became less reliable to people of the 19th and 20th centuries upon their exposure to image-based communication.  Once communication was left it up to the receiver of the information to accept or reject the image as truth, a power was given to the eye that once belonged to the brain.
 We have become, in short, a society of viewers.  The key in this dynamic is that people get pleasure from scrutinizing others and expect to see a greater range of backstage behaviors. Berger’s “Ways of Seeing,” is what initially inspired me to examine surveillance and I think about the issue of power within these interactions and realize that in our “Image Culture” paying attention is paying in an invisible but powerful currency of the eye.
To try to explain this powerful urge to “practice watching” David Lyons turned to Lacanian theory and suggested the concept of scopohilia.   When I tried to explain this phenomenon I came to the conclusion that it is vital to our development to see ourselves as others see us and to learn where we fit in the world picture. This system feels like a more sophisticated way of imagining how we interact-- replacing the image of a security camera standing in for the male gaze “eye” zooming in on a girl with a less one-dimensional abstraction.  For example, in my street experiment I recorded that I felt a sense of connection with the Suits despite my causal attire—the feeling that we were a group: all heading off to work. I felt a sense of being a part of that group, but simultaneously not a part of their “group” due to my “slang” attire of a printed dress and denim shirt.  It is interesting that a part of the surveillance is done onto the self, while the spectator is examining. Surely the Suit didn’t know I had a denim top on under my coat, but his glance triggered self-reflection.   Hodkinson described Goth subculture communication as starting with an “exchange of glances, a clear sense of our shared identity” which I felt most when about to enter the Conde Nast building—smiling shyly to fellow ‘coworkers” at the fact that we are all heading toward that same building: a common destination.  The models I interviewed also felt a sense of comfort when they spot other models saying they can spot each other based on the Model-off-duty uniform. Chloe and Sam both say that besides the book sticking out of a girls bag you know she is a model because “we all dress ridiculously similar!”14  I see this type of adornment as “playing the game “correctly. The only way to nail it, according to Chloe, is to “constantly be checking out other girls when you are on castings and when you are backstage, so even though it looks relaxed it is a studied thing.” The studying is what we can understand as surveying.  This echoes what Lipovetsky says that “fashion and custom are two great forms of imitation; they allow for the assimilation of the individual into society” (227).  The mimicry of the other girls will allow them to demonstrate they understand the space. Chloe says: “I feel like everybody is always talking about and copying the model-off duty look in magazines but it is more of a thing for us models.”
We began making snapshot judgments and relying more and more on visual means for news and information transmission and group identification. This shift impacted our collective psyche in my opinion and we began to seek information about each other increasingly via surveillance. I think that the drive to consume is conditioned and fashion is our way of preparing for surveillance-- it is the free speech given to each of us before we are thrust onto the platform of social observation.
In this age of social observation we are all subject to the pressure of conformity. The goal of being a commodity has led models to internalize the surveillance process in order to be marketable and ready to please as many people as possible. The “blank slate” is the best way to embody what Richard Sennett mentions that when “everyone has each other under surveillance sociability decreases, silence is the only form of protection.”  This may explain the goal for models to appear like a “blank slate” because visual silence may ease the harsh judgment they experience.

Chloe as a Blank Slate--Casting Photo

The model’s choice to appear as blank as possible may strike an outsider as strange given the fact that in order to exchange images in a meaningful way, for any form of surveillance to impact identity formation, we need to be paying attention.  While it may feel like their strategy is in direct contrast to Berger’s  “we only see what we look at” sentiment it is actually a clever advancement of surveillance politics; these girls know they will be looked at in these spaces so they are confusing the eye but subverting the typical techniques practiced on the street (and in other spaces) to attract attention (Berger, 9).
In our ever more fragmented life the lexicon of images fills our need to communicate with one another and express ourselves. We survey these images because there are tremendous personal benefits. According to Hollander and Lurie, the actual fashion choices, which “convey a whole spectrum of social and personal information” (Hollander, 20) are our chance to assert our identity by joining a subgroup.  From my observational experiment of being surveyed on the street I think it is through this interaction of watching others and knowing we are being watched that we cultivate more than just taste. We are cultivating ourselves. 
So much of our personal data is visually displayed and we view ourselves based on these images.  In the modeling world we see the unintended and negative dimensions of mundane social surveillance; my interviews illuminate the stark difference between appearance of social power and the reality of social power.  The use of Tumblr to create an image-based identity ironically empowered one of my informants, Sam, to curate an identity that fit her specifications. One could suggest collecting meaningful images, a mosaic of your interests, and saving it to a private file on your laptop, but the need for feedback drives people to find outlets where the surveyor will be both present and kind.
The alignment with the surveyor can lead us to visual-presentation that mirrors the subgroup we identify with—the Wall Street Suits come to mind from my street surveillance.  The French word “Surveillance” literally means to watch over, embedded in this direct translation is the implication of a power dynamic. The one who is surveying is in a position of authority.  Within a political sphere we see the distribution of power with greater clarity. Within social spheres we adapt ourselves to this “watched over” effect but often without conscious consideration of the ways surveillance enables and constraints our image management and how it is embedded in our grooming, dressing and self-recognition rituals.
 In our society which is increasingly stripped of personal privacy I think we would be hard-pressed to find a moment that is not tagged or watched by a surveyor so understanding surveillance and its impact can position us to utilize its clairvoyance as a instrument for self-expression and guard against its potential to enforce conformity.




WORKS CITED:
Appadurai, Arjun. Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization, Public Worlds, Vol. 1. Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press, 1996. Pp 82

Arendt, Hannah. The Human Condition. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1958. pp 199-208.

Bauman, Zygmunt. Consuming Life. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2007. pp. 3-83

Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting, 1977. 8-36. Print.

Ericson, Richard Victor., and Kevin D. Haggerty. The New Politics of Surveillance and Visibility. Toronto: University of Toronto, 2006. Print.

Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: the Birth of the Prison. New York: Vintage, 1995. Print.

Goffman, Erving. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York [N.Y.: Doubleday, 1990. 4-47. Print.

Gombrich, E. "The Visual Image." Scientific American Journal (1972): 1-4. PDF4me.net. Aug. 1978. Web. 3 Apr. 2011. <http://www.pdf4me.net/view.php?url=http://www.hunfi.hu/nyiri/Nyiri_Chemnitz_talk_with_pictures.pdf>.

Lipovetsky, Giles. The Empire of Fashion: Dressing Modern Democracy.  Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994. Pp. 3-241
Lurie, Alison. The Language of Clothes. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2000. p. 4-36.

Lyon, David. Theorizing Surveillance: the Panopticon and beyond. Cullompton, Devon: Willan Pub., 2006. Print.

Magnet, Shoshana, and Kelly Gates. The New Media of Surveillance. London: Routledge, 2009. Print.

Sennett, Richard. The Fall of Public Man. New York: W.W. Norton, 1996. 8-15. Print.

Staples, William G. Everyday Surveillance: Vigilance and Visibility in Postmodern Life. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000. Print.
Geertz, Clifford.  “Thick Description.”  The Interpretation of Cultures.  New York: Basic Books, 1973.

“Surveying is Part of the Job”—Models on Style and Self

Chloe, Cover ZINK Magazine

Chloe waiting for the 6 Train-- "Off Duty"

The Space: The Modeling World
I set out to explore the relationship between being hyper-visible and surveillance. I want to explore this relationship in the context of the modeling world—which I see as a prime location to study how the fashioning the self connects to surveying others (or how social interaction has a built in clause of surveillance and to see if this is amplified in realms of heightened visibility). 
The Modeling World seems to do what sociologist Zygmunt Bauman claims in Consuming Life our society does by turning consumers into commodities with their “girls.” I will explore how surveying other models results in the “Model off-Duty Uniform” because it is a form of branding that commodifies the self.

Surveying and Being Surveyed: Impacts?
I came to the conclusion in other journals that visibility helps us create our identities and we use our roles as people on the street or our professions or access to technology to collect a currency in the form of a personal visual archive that we feel represents us.
Models are typically at the age when self-making is developmentally occurring; they are all very tech savvy and their profession is based on visual presentation (almost requiring them to at the very least survey themselves prior to going on jobs).
 I want to see how the experience of working as a successful model encourages surveying “the other” and what the impacts of this are. I will answer the question, through my informants, and determine if this act empowers or disempowers them as they participate in the constant surveillance
I would also like to define the roles within the surveillance taking place in the modeling world: asking my informants using full-disclosure in a clear question: if she sees herself as the surveyor or the surveyed and the frequency that she embodies these roles.

FIELD NOTES:

Models:  Meet Chloe and Sam

Meet Sam

I plan to interview 2 models who are all signed to different agencies and have had 3 plus years in industry.   I ask Chloe Callahan whose mother agency is Chantale Nadeau Model Placement and her other agencies are Premier Model Management and New York Model Management (she was also represented by Supreme) if she would sit down and talk to me. She agreed and we met at a starbucks in union square west on Wed April 13, 2011.
I ask Samantha Folb (who was with Elite when in Hong Kong but now focuses more on school) for an interview and we chose to sit down at a Chipotle, (April 15th) which is one of her favorite places for Mexican in NYC—proving models eat!  I conducted the interviews writing down all the answers and then typing the notes for an appendix.

Meet Chloe

I attempted to build a comfort level with the girls and maintain eye contact, since as the interviews progressed I realized they were sharing their vulnerabilities as a result of being surveyed and the pressure they feel to survey other models to compete and I wanted them to feel comfortable trusting me with these statements. I also asked for permission to post their photos and quote them—they agreed.

Uniformity of the Interview:
I wanted to make sure I uncover their opinion of how surveying factors into their lives as models so I ask them the 10 questions (which I will post here) without deviating much from the “script.”  During the interview present them with a printed hard copy of an image of them I pull from the Internet that I dub to be a very public (highly circulated campaign or image of them) and then one image off their personal albums of facebook. I will ask them to comment on which fashioning of the self, to see which “self” feels more authentically them and why (to gauge the impact of hyper-visible and identity, basically asking them to survey the avatars of their selves). 
To test the issue of interaction encouraging surveillance I have tailored my questions to focus on the idea of “model off-duty” and each girl is going to explain her understanding of and embodiment of the trend.  I will ask her about her image-management and grooming and how much of her visual presentation is inspired by other models she interacts with.  Through my sit down interviews (each will be considered a site) I hope to see how self-perception and self-making is informed by surveillance.

The Questions:

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS:

1.    what do you typically wear on castings? (strategies….play to the surveyor?)
2.    What do you typically wear when backstage at a show/off-duty?
3.    Do you feel like the experience of being under surveillance has led to the trend of model-off duty “uniform” which is ironically often photographed for magazine street style blogs?
4.    Do you feel comfortable in front of the camera lens, the agents eye and the public gaze and enjoy using visual presentation as a tool to signify your identity to the world? Are you comfortable using “accessories and trimmings as adjectives and adverbs” to describe yourself?
5.    When on a job what was the craziest costume or look that you have been asked to wear?
6.    Do you take more style notes from other models or from out of industry influences?
7.    When I present you with an image of you from facebook (of you with friends hanging out) it is from your private/personal realm…if we compare that to the work images from a public realm what are the differences in your identity markers?
8.    How important is visual presentation to you?
9.    The way you present yourself to the world in today’s culture is increasingly image-based (using tumblr/tech and street interactions) Do you strongly agree with this statement and why?
10.    How do you cope with the level of importance placed on your visual presentation?
Permission to further disseminate images (yes)

Reflection/Analysis:

Model Off Duty Look (Chloe's inspiration)

Style Notes: Checking Out the Competition
After my talks with both girls I learn that visual presentation of a model becomes a form of conformity to the existing expectations. Chloe says, “I take huge notes from other girls (models) and I am constantly on blogs and seeing who is wearing what and how things look I think being curious about the way other models look is part of doing your job.” The way that they talk about it as an obsession and a part of their job to be shadowing or scrutinizing other girls it feels like they are exhausted by it and simultaneously intrigued by it.  Chloe said she is always on blogs looking at Model-Off-Duty style and I have elected to include a series of images documenting the Model-Off Duty look.

Chloe as a "new girl" at Supreme

Blank Slate: “Looking Clueless is an Art”
Sam giggles and says “I see these girls on the street with a map and they are obviously from Russia and 15 and look clueless but rather than feel bad for them I know if they wander to that casting they will get booked so they make me nervous!” I am shocked by this and ask her if when she is surveying the “new girl” she wonders about the skill of posing and how she will measure up and Sam explains it is really all about looks with new girls.  Chloe says that the modeling world uses “Model off Duty” fashion to create a moment of looking “ a mess” and the whole goal is to look clueless and careless.  Chloe says to me “think about it, what does fashion love? They love to have a vision and discover stuff.” This makes me think about Lipovetsky’s explanation of fashion mottos, which in his measure always encapsulate the sentiment “everything new is beautiful” (227) and the newness of the girl is a factor she tries to hold onto as long as possible—demarcating her self with visual signs she is untouched—makeup free and still dressed like a high schooler!  The reason is because they are playing to their surveyor and know that the novelties have prestige and being of the current moment is more galvanizing than being last season’s girl (227).
Chloe continues saying, “ the goal is to be ready to be discovered, which is kinda stupid I will find myself walking down the street all deer in the headlights and be like why and I doing this? It is because I see all the other girls looking confused—they want us to.”  This is a typical desire of a consumerist culture according to Bauman in Consuming Life where the introduction talks about a product launch as luring people in “just because it is the latest, a brand new” thing it will draw in the most attention (2). When Chloe was at Supreme they bleached her eyebrows and put her in clothing from goodwill and took her picture for her Comp Card. She hates the look but it is playing to the surveyors who will see her as a new strange alluring type of beauty.

Sam in a Model Off Duty Look

Castings: Scan the Room
  When on a casting both girls say it is a chance to study the style of the other models there and get tips “for how to better pull yourself together.”  They both also confess to surveying the other girls in the same harsh way that they fear and detest when standing in front of the client.  The reason they are surveyors of the other girls is because they say they use that surveillance to gauge if they will book the casting and to figure out how to visually present themselves for the future. Sam says “I mean the agency isn’t going to hold your hand, call you in the morning and dress you, it is up to me to figure out how to play it right so I don’t look crazy when I get to this random address!” When I ask the girls about playing to the surveyor in the interview they both say that that they dress to look like a blank slate for castings. The key to being a blank slate is to be ready for whatever look they want to project onto you.
In this way, the self becomes a strategically plain commodity, with hopes of becoming an elaborately decorated and handsomely paid one in the future. It is a dream that Bauman talks about of “turning into a notable, noticed and coveted commodity, a talked-about commodity, a commodity standing out from the mass of commodities, a commodity impossible to overlook, to deride, to be dismissed.” (Bauman, 13). This dream for a model is only possible if she is willing to engage in a sort of negative surveillance where she shadows the established girls, copying them as much as possible and rebranding herself based on what other surveyors (agents, clients) want.  This negative surveillance is done in companies to cut out the flawed and leave only “the resourceful and eager players” which is a lot how the modeling world functions, with a sort of “Panopticon-style surveillance in reverse”(Bauman, 4).

On their way to castings, checking each other out.

 Chloe complains that newer girls will bring high heels to change into, whereas the established ones will just wear 3inch stacked heels. (Chloe used to complain about lugging around her 6inch heels to casting just a few months ago and now I notice she is almost chastising the girls who haven’t been “in industry” long enough observe this.) Clearly, observation is the ticket to staying marketable.  Sam compliments the models she surveys saying, “these girls are beautiful and if I am are sitting around them and feel self-conscious I look at them mainly in hopes that they will not survey me and ask themselves: why is she here?!”
They both say they know that everyday they are going to be stared at (citing height as a factor) and while they will be noticed by the masses, their goal is really to be noticed when on a casting. I ask why they don’t wear something to standout and they give me virtually the same response that they need to look like they are a blank slate.  Models must rework their look to fit this mold and adorn themselves in the Model Off Duty look to have a chance of standing out at a casting.  The “Look” is the I-know-I-am-being watched-uniform. I wonder if Hollander’s statement that “dressing up is more risky than dressing down” comes into play here (176)?


Model Off-Duty→ Uniform and Security Blanket
This idea of a blank slate is echoed by the model-off- duty uniform which is plain and inexpensive looking clothing that a punkish/grunge girl would wear—plaid shirts, black skinny jeans and converse with ratty goodwill tees underneath. 
The adherence to this code is what sets models apart and makes it so that they are noticed as part of the in-group.  Chloe and Sam both say that besides the book sticking out of a girls bag you know she is a model because “we all dress ridiculously similar!”  I see this type of adornment as “playing the game “correctly.
The only way to nail it, according to Chloe, is to “constantly be checking out other girls when you are on castings and when you are backstage, so even though it looks relaxed it is a studied thing.” The studying is what we can understand as surveying.  This echoes what Lipovetsky says that “fashion and custom are two great forms of imitation; they allow for the assimilation of the individual into society” (227).  The mimicry of the other girls will allow them to demonstrate they understand the space. Chloe says: “I feel like everybody is always talking about and copying the model-off duty look in magazines but it is more of a thing for us models”
The “look” is a security blanket for the girls because it means that they are belonging and that is a huge factor in consumer culture.  For a model to stay in their “style pack” there are certain “visible markers” they adorn themselves with to show tribal membership (Bauman 83). The leather jacket tops off the Model Off Duty uniform and that along with her book (portfolio of her work) will signify to other models (who are actively surveying the space) that they have found a member. The sense of belonging is renewable but not permanent and as Chloe says when I ask her why she thinks it is such a trend: “We are probably doing it because we have underlying insecurity and it can be rationalized to wear it and be a part of the group like I can’t look stupid if everyone is in this too.”


Image Management in Modeling: Identities are Projects
If the modeling world is the clearest example of Bauman’s statement that “identities are projects” then the task is approached with the motto mimicry makes perfect (110). The amount of time and energy dedicated to this could be see as narcissistic because the resources allocated to the “cause” are alarming when compared to non-models.  Baudrillard says that “managed narcissism [operates] on the body as in colonized virgin ‘territory’, ‘affectionately’ exploring the body like a deposit to be mined in order to extract from it the visible signs of happiness, health, beauty… which triumphs in the marketplace of fashion” (Baudrillard, 131). Chloe says she invest lots of money in her look and as a result of modeling she acts on interests in hair and clothing without guilt because she says she needs to act on it to compete with the other girls.  There is a beauty imperative in modeling that encourages girls to invest and turn the body into a product as a means of gaining an advantage over others (Baudrillard, 133).  Since Chloe is a full-time model she told me during our interview she claims her grooming expenses on her taxes. The investment in the self is acted on because they feel they need to act (to compete in the visually driven industry).  As Sam says “the girls are as young as 14 and obviously have a fresh face since they are babies!”  But both Sam and Chloe say that they feel they are hyper aware of their visual presentation and while they both strive to look like they don’t care they care immensely and spend “obscene!” amounts of time getting ready!

Sam says basically the new girls are looking to the established ones and surveillance informs their self-presentation from the minute they enter the modeling world to the minute they leave. Even after you leave, she muses, you still behave like a model checking the “Uniform” on the forums (like fashion spot) and blogs.  The comparisons are constantly drawn between the new girl and the existing (on these blogs) so facial features distinguish the girls. It does two things in her view: it pressures the existing girl to keep up her look, maintain the weight and skin so she isn’t replaced. It also inspires the new girl to survey the existing model and copy as much about her look as possible and then with her agent do one think to set herself apart that is trend right.

A model in between shows

 The established girl is “diligently performing her task” of maintain her identity by trolling the blogs for current styling’s and asking other it girls where they get their hair done and eyebrows waxed etc (Bauman 110).  I realize that the agent surveys the subgroup heavily and is influenced by her/his network of clients and suggests changes for Chloe based on who “works” and shifts the look of his girls to mimic that look.  The entire industry is based on seeing the girls as commodities and surveying the market, then altering the girl to fit it.


Investigating Styles: Visual Presentation Informed by The Other
The amount of surveillance between models is what shocked me so much, as I expected the agent to survey her and for her to be aware that her pictures are being surveyed. But the identity of a model is only kept in place by stepping into the ring with other girls and working as a group (despite knowing they are ultimately competing) to dismantle and reassemble their visual self. Both Sam and Chloe say it is a self-invigorating activity. (111).  Both girls also say they feel pressure. Sam explained her trip to Hong Kong and I got the sense that a model’s identity is a project that almost requires her to become an expert surveyor of her competition and fashion herself after them. The focus is on the outer shell and it can be a confusing experience. It is also a thoroughly modern experience as Baudrillard discusses in "The Finest Consumer Object: The Body," the triumph of the body over the soul in our consumer society is a commonplace occurrence (136). Sam explained during her time working full time she was feeling the pressure of being on view all the time. She tells me, “I was so super self-conscious and obsessed about my skin and in Hong Kong the dirty city was making me break out and so I freaked out.” She was nervous that she was going to be unable to go to castings and if she did go it would hurt her name. Models are “simultaneously promoters of commodities and the commodities they promote” so if her skin was breaking out she would be rendered unfit for the job and flounder in the marketplace (Bauman 6).
She also said that during this time was heavily influenced by the girls she lived with.
“I would see what was in her cart and seeing how little the girls I lived with ate was a huge factor on what I would buy/eat.”  The behavior and social interaction of a model is also influenced by surveillance, meaning the impact of observing one another cuts deeper than simply mimicking the dress code.

Sam Editorial

She explained that there is a lot of jealousy and “you want to step back and say it is not ok to keep looking over your shoulder, but living with them makes it impossible to not be the surveyor.”  The need to investigate the competition and judge them so you can improve your own brand—the product of ‘You” is stressful because it makes the girls feel like they need to pass a test they cannot study for and if they pass they will be recast into a new mold as a product that is capable of drawing attention to itself and the new “it girl” model.


Brand of You:
This extreme importance placed on the personal brand reminded me of how the modeling world is like an extreme version of our society. When Lipovetsky describes how fashion is in the driver’s seat for society he mentions that “attractiveness and evanescence have become the organizing principles of modern collective life” (6).  Sam feels like the knowledge that you are always going to be surveyed and judged harshly based on your visual appearance and perceived attractiveness can be very disempowering and distracting.
She said that it made her feel like she had dedicated all her energy to the outer shell and was more comfortable showing that than her inner self. At this point she realized she wanted to focus on school and get some hobbies. This is evidence that the constant surveillance can shape a world-view that expects the “trivial to predominate” and in these spaces the expectation was one must be comfortable using the body as a vessel or craft project (Lipovetsky, 6).   The issue with constant surveillance and extreme importance on visual presentation is that the girls are preparing their “self” the way one would package a product to advertise it for a specific demographic—which is the opposite of creating a personal brand. Instead you are seeing your self as a product to promote and you have to wake up ready to be consumed as an object of pleasure or be rejected by a surveyor as unsavory.

Chloe "work" photo

Image Archive to See the Self?
I had posited that we crave the visibility because we want to collect a personal image archive that we feel represents us.  Both Sam and Chloe tell me that their work photos (while some are favorites and others are horrifying to them) do not represent their view of self at all.  They see themselves as separate from the campaign images and yet suggest they are at their most culturally fit (to borrow from Baudrillard) when they are conforming to the uniform of model off duty (with little makeup and plain clothing that highlights their self as a product with good features).
I would say that social interaction does a built in clause of surveillance and it is amplified in realms of heightened visibility within modeling in a way that can hinder rather than a help those participating form an identity.

Reality Depends:
According to Hannah Arendt the feeling of reality is dependent on existence in a public realm (51). But Sam and Chloe have a myriad of existences in a public realm that utterly mis-represents them visually. They confide in me this can be distressing while one attempts to form a secure sense of self. Sam explains that for the younger girls especially, they learn that how they look is really important and then are surveying themselves constantly trying to anticipate what they can do to improve their “product” and then as they book things they are dressing up in ways that have nothing to do with how they see themselves. This can be a confusing world to be in due to the extreme difference in the appearance vs the reality. Sam and Chloe see reality as being internal and private and not always going to match up with their public self. This is in direct contrast with Arendt’s notion that “for us, appearance – something that is being seen and heard by others as well as ourselves – constitutes reality” (Arendt 50).

Works Cited:

Arendt, Hannah. The Human Condition. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1958. pp 199-208.

Baudrillard, Jean. The Consumer Society. California: Sage Publications, 1998. pp. 78-98, "The Finest Consumer Object: The Body"pp. 129-138.

Bauman, Zygmunt. Consuming Life. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2007. pp. 3-83

Hollander, Anne. Sex and Suits. New York: Kodansha International, 1994.

Lipovetsky, Giles. The Empire of Fashion: Dressing Modern Democracy.  Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994. Pp. 3-241

Street Sights: Surveillance in the City

I am interested in exploring the ideas of visual sociology of self-presentation through a field experiment where I dress in two separate (deliberately easy to digest) image-selves and observe the impact of the gaze on my experience on the street. Does this constant surveillance motivate women to keep their outer appearance culturally fit? Also, within the jurisdiction of “cultural fitness” what are the acceptable norms? How does being surveyed impact the way we dress? (Borrowing from Lurie that the way we choose clothes is how we define or describe ourselves) (Lurie, 5).

 I want to play with the types of self presentation we can offer the world and what types of feedback we receive. The idea of developing our self through the exchange of images seems dangerous in some ways.  The process of seeing one’s own self through others leaves a margin of error that is impossible to gauge.  I have noticed as a New Yorker that the cosmopolitan experience engenders a sense of inner surveillance; it encourages a sense of individuality.  I posit that the internal structure we develop resembles the external structure of Bentham’s panopticon. 

To ground the experiment, I plan to outline the outfits and the two locations in advance. I will then open myself to the experience of observing and hopefully capture a few moments via camera. I will also document the “looks” from inside my apartment so that the reader of my experiment can experience the viewpoint of the spectator as well as my viewpoint when I point the camera at the spectators. 

I found that one neighborhood at a time is not enough, and so I decided to extend the experiment’s “locations” taking a subway line from the Fulton Street stop up to Times Square as a part of my experiment.  It is the ultimate people-watching joy ride. 

I also became concerned that the two areas were similar and added a cite (meatpacking district) which I visited in Look 1, at night. 






Planning the Looks  (some underlying factors): 

My Two Looks:

Look 1

Look One: a blush tiered dress and black stockings and black boots (for day) with a slight switch for the meatpacking night extension (supplement heels) with a leather jacket and natural but full makeup: blush, mascara and tousled hair. 

Look Two: is much more causal and has a less trendy/edgy feel to it. I wanted to skew the age younger so I wore tinted moisturizer and chap stick and grey nubby tights (with a cable knit print) and a Betsey Johnson floral dress, with a denim shirt and a brown leather waist-belt and oxfords.  Hair down and naturally straight.

Look 2

*A fun note is the blush dress is actually belted by the same belt—I think it is interesting to assert how differently I can present myself visually while incorporating one piece in both looks.

Also, my apologies for doing a bathroom picture for the second look—I forgot to snap my picture since I was so consumed trying to capture moments of surveillance with my blackberry camera, then realized while at work I should take my own picture so you could see how this look appeared to spectators. 

In crafting the two “looks” or masks I plan to use for my experiment I notice how the norms of what culture dictates through magazines and other forms of media weigh heavily on my decisions. I want to attract the gaze so I have something to study—but I realize that I am creating these looks based on something other than my own inner voice. I am subconsciously asking myself what pieces in my (and my roommates!) closet will elicit the most attention? I am answering this by reflecting on past street interactions.

I realize before even stepping outside to conduct the experiment that the knowledge of being seen dictates more in the fashioning of the self than even the weather for the day! I also am struck by the power held by mass culture (even in a city as highly individualistic and rebellious as New York.)  So I want to explore if a person’s presentation of a self mirrors (to varying extents) what kind of “performance” their society favors. 

Spectators of Midtown: 

As I am walking through midtown (being jostled by a group of tourists I feel a mix of annoyance and pride, since I can group myself as a New Yorker when compared to them)…I realize that we cannot see ourselves whole ever: we must use a mirror to this day to see the full body, head.  So as I imagine what they think of me, since they are staring blatantly at me as I make my way from Broadway toward 8^th Ave.

 I became aware of the Teen Vogue shopping bag I was toting and my mostly black outfit (since the dress is covered by the leather jacket and I have black stocking and boots on) and realized that they probably thought I was a super cool New York girl working at Teen Vogue (or maybe they were smart enough to realize I am a broke college student intern whose knowledge of midtown exceeds theirs by a measly three block radius from her office space!) Either way, I could feel a difference between the way I occupied the space and the way New York visitors did.

I felt like there were levels of energy that separated me and other mid-morning commuters from the tourists. Perhaps there are visual clues that indicate a comprehension of a space’s “systematic rules,” which impact who we want to survey (Geertz, 11).  I found the tourists more interested in being spectators. I think they were trying to decode “an ethnographic algorithm, which, if followed, would make it possible [ for them] to operate, to pass (physical appearance aside) for a native” (Geertz, 11).  I notice the urge for me to reciprocate the stare; to be allowed to play the role of “seer” and “seen” overpowered my ability to remain in my role of “observer of spectator” but I think that in order to fully analyze the interaction I need to experience both.

Times Square

Walking though Midtown in particular I notice that people’s minds seem governed by their visual observation. The reactions to me were indeed very simple (ranging from the “elevator eyes” of the up and down stare to the total ignoring of me in the space). I wonder, of the two, what is the more powerful position?

 I am guessing that taking up the space is the powerful role but I feel like that is not a “true” power position since these people were manipulated; it was not my true self as much as a mask of my “self.”  I know Goffman says that the masks we wear are versions of our true self but I can’t help by feel like these quick visual exchanges don’t capture my essence as much as they demonstrate a issue of privacy and the power of fantasy in fashion and in street interactions.

I feel as though this one Asian man (who I snapped a disappointing picture of, he looked down when I pointed my camera-phone in his face) was using my image-clues as a sort of currency. He was collecting information about me, presumably noting the Teen Vogue shopping bag I carried and adding in the fact that we were standing at the cross streets for the Conde Nast building.  These image-clues guide me as an observer but as the observed they give me a chance to define where I would like to be placed in the “world picture” by my spectators.  If I was wearing a beachy-hippy outfit and looked unfit to walk into the Conde Nast building he would probably stare at me for entirely different reasons—not connecting me to that institution.  I could feel him gathering information and according to Lurie “the information becomes a part of our unconscious as we form our judgments” (Lurie, 3).

Spectators of Wall Street:

The experience of being aware of the gaze changed the way I walked down the street in the financial district.   When I was in my "polished" or more adult look in this location I noticed that both men and women (particularly girls about my age) intrigued by me.  I tried so hard to capture these moments in photos but my inability to do so (see above!) led me to a great insight. These moments are fragile and while they hardly last long enough to snap into immortality via film, they leave an impression on the one surveyed that cuts to the very identity of her being.

 I think that the setting of New York City allows people to look at one another without pretending to be doing anything else.  But the information that my surveyors take in invariably changes based on the image that I present.  I feel the difference when I am in my more dainty floral dress when compared to my more edgy jacket look. Unfortunately, there is no way to document this difference nor a way to get inside my surveyor’s minds-- and attempting to infer thoughts would be inaccurate and ineffective. 

In the first image I tried to capture the "unlikely surveyor" which is a category I created to bucketize those who seem uninterested in fashion, or reserved, serious and/or stern (someone who you wouldn't expect to get looped into the seer/seen dynamic (but inevitably do).  This man was staring into my eyes, which caused me to experience more discomfort than the typical "up to down" survey.  I noticed that the walk to the Fulton Street station in the morning was more intimate and the seers were more brazen-- when compared to Midtown.  

This man in the red jacket was  staring at me as he walked down “hill” on john street near a food market and I walked up “hill” toward the subway stop. We had one of my longer interactions so I attempted the picture, but he quickly turned his gaze from me to straight ahead. I think he was really allowing himself to engage in the fantasy of fashion through me. He seemed to be considering me, but not as a person as much as a type—it seems we have all developed a form of socially accepted heuristics that guide our visual presentation. 
I begin to draw boundaries and categorize the icons and images that float through my world picture--- I can spot the Wall Street “Suit” (men who walk briskly in wing-tips and freshly pressed dinner jackets while barking into blackberries about ROIs) whether they are on Wall Street or in Midtown. I think surveying the street teaches us about subcultures.

I notice a few things right away (when at my Wall Street location) I start to pick up on a drive that pluses within me and my “audience” and within every seen/seer interaction.  I see a drive that compels us to observe others, to consume others and ourselves be consumed as an image. As different cultures prefer different qualities, it has been a necessary for the “suits” to put on an un-official Wall Street uniform—which sets the scene for me as a context where I stand out a lot.  Perhaps the more “brazen” seers are just being more responsive to me on Wall and John Street because I am not in the uniform of the suit that surrounds me.
  

 Reflections on The Mirror of Identity: 

I think that the drive to consume is conditioned and fashion is our way of preparing for surveillance-- it is the free speech given to each of us before we are thrust onto the platform of social observation. In Daphne Merkin’s New York Times article “The Politics of Appearance” she posits that appearance has become the coin of the realm.  Merkin sees it as “the locus of our conversation” and this fits nicely with the idea of an exchange of images being a visual barter system.  This system feels like a more sophisticated way of imagining how we interact-- replacing the image of a security camera standing in for the male gaze “eye” zooming in on a girl with a less one-dimensional abstraction.  In order to exchange images in a meaningful way, for street surveillance to impact identity formation, we need to be paying attention.  That said, “we only see what we look at” (Berger, 9).   
Berger’s “Ways of Seeing,” is what initially inspired me to examine surveillance and I think about the issue of power within these interactions and realize that in our “Image Culture” paying attention is paying in an invisible but powerful currency of the eye.

One of my objectives, during the experiment, was to test how native New Yorkers, tourists, construction workers, subway riders and street vendors all responded to me. But as I started the experiment I realized I was interacting with them in some cases as much as they were interacting with me.  As Sarah Berry explores in “Fashion and Personalization of the Web” the customization we have on the web is “fraught with privacy problems” (Berry, 50). 

Subway Platform: Browsing Me and His Phone

The idea of website browsing involving an “implicit” data gathering seems very similar to the person-browsing we do when on the street.  As web-sites research for the best way to sell their product, street surveyors research through seeing others ways to better sell the self. The subway was the cite where the browsing felt most invasive because on a crowded train there is no way to release the pressure by physically removing oneself.  The same goes for the platform. I found one man surveying me and then when our gaze met he would browse on his phone (assuming he somehow had service) which is a perfect example of how the media we interact with impacts the mode in which we interact with others.

I suppose the dominance of visual clues is what I learn in this small example. I would say that in New York City in my experiment I found what Merkin exposes to be true: in our image-saturated, relentlessly scrutinizing Visual Age we trade images of ourselves based on how we fashion the self—this can be subliminally or overtly (3).  I chose to appear as a downtown young “party-ready” girl in a blush tiered dress black tights and heels and a leather jacket and was received as such (asked by two different promoters if I would like to go to various lounges in the meatpacking area). I was received based on my appearance that night and during my two-day locations (Wall Street and Midtown) I can assume similar assessment took place even if the judgments didn't prgoress to verbal action.  Merkin sees this assessment as timeless saying “you were assessed then as we are largely assessed now, by your projected style, by the way you wear your self” (2).

I think keeping my hair loose and down created a natural movement (from the breeze) and perhaps driving more attention to me. I also notice that people pay more attention on Wall Street (regardless of my “look”) leading me to posit the context of the space dictates the level of surveillance.  On Wall Street there were less people on the street, offering a surveyor a better chance to digest an image in its entirety.  This led me to question how do the surveyors digest an image, or decode a person? Borrowing from Lurie’s idea of clothing having a language I imagine the visual clues as parts of a sentence that forms the very syntax of my identity. 
This identity is one phrase on the page of people mingling within a cityscape.  In keeping with my theory I will proceed to dismantle my outfits considering my “trimmings and accessories as adjectives or adverbs,” to imagine what my spectators would have described me as if I had asked them (Lurie 10).  I imagine the jacket giving off downtown vibes of a girl who is free-spirited and fun—but read with the blush tiered dress—it forms a picture of a classier and worldly girl, less punk more polish.  But the idea of me being a party-girl really only came across to me (and my spectators) when I was in the meatpacking district. I attribute this to location I was in (and the heels!)

I notice on the street that people who are surveying me are considering the conditions that surround this mask for me they are imagining them.  Lurie says “the meaning of any costume depends on circumstances,” and the circumstances include my context and my demeanor. I think the impression I “give off” when standing on the street at night with friends is more carefree than the one I emit when rushing to work dodging tourists in midtown-- so these judgments are more accurate than I perceived initially.

I also felt a sense of connection with the Suits despite my causal attire—the feeling that we were a group: all heading off to work. I felt a sense of being a part of that group, but simultaneously not a part of their “group” due to my “slang” attire of a printed dress and denim shirt.  It is interesting that a part of the surveillance is done onto the self while the spectator is examining. Surely the Suit didn’t know I had a denim top on under my coat, but his glance triggered self-reflection.   Hodkinson described goth subculture communication as starting with an “exchange of glances, a clear sense of our shared identity” which I felt most when about to enter the Conde Nast building—smiling shyly to fellow ‘coworkers” at the fact that we are all heading toward that same building: a common destination (Hodkinson, 1).

While context influences interpretation, the key player according to Hollander and Lurie, are the actual fashion choices, which “convey a whole spectrum of social and personal information” (Hollander, 20).  I think it is through this interaction on the street watching others and knowing we are being watched ourselves that I think we cultivate taste.

The Stage/Cite of Surveillance/City Street

I realize we can only orient ourselves to how we look through visualization of that form, either through literal mirror-use or through the interaction with others--- we see ourselves through the other’s gaze. So while we may "speak glitter" or "mumble in flannel" the language of our clothing will become irrelevant if there is no one to hear their utterances.

"Even if we are never introduced, clothes tell about class status, age, family origin, personal opinion, taste, current mood or even give information about erotic interest and sexual status," Lurie said. To that, I say I guess we share more about ourselves on the street than we realize, in an effort to receive feedback that fuels the way we will choose to speak through our outfit tomorrow.

Works Cited:

Berger, John. Ways of Seeing;. London: British Broadcasting Corporation, 1972. Print.

Goffman, Erving. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Double Day, 1959. 

Geertz, Clifford.  “Thick Description.”  The Interpretation of Cultures.  New York: Basic Books, 1973.
Hodkinson, Paul. "Reworking Subculture." Goth: Identity, Style and Subculture. Oxford: Berg, 2002. 1-20. 
Hollander, Anne. Sex and Suits. New York: Kodansha International. 1994.

Lurie, Alison. The Language of Clothes. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2000. p. 4-36.

Merkin, Daphne. “The Politics of Appearance.” New York Times, August 26, 2007.