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.
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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.
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People Browsing |
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.
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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.
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Screen Grab from Laurie's Tumblr |
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.
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Chloe as a Blank Slate--Casting Photo |
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.
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