Rancière: Spectator
Jaques Rancière considers spectatorship and looking a bad thing, “being a spectator means looking at a spectacle” (Rancière, 3). He argues that “looking is deemed the Opposite of knowing”, and acting (Rancière, 4). Rancière suggests that “being a spectator means being passive” (Rancière, 4). One cannot identify the history or state of the spectacle, and one “lacks power of intervention” by simply looking at a spectacle. Rancière also uses Plato’s conclusion about the idea of the theater for his argument. “The theater is the place where ignorant people are invited to see suffering people” (Rancière, 4). He firmly believes that spectatorship, having spectators participating, could blur the lines between the active and passive.
Lanier: Flatness
Lanier believes that “flatness, as applied to human affairs, leads to blandness and meaninglessness” (Lanier, 2). He also suggests that a “flat global structure suggests a happy world” to those in new media. He senses a ‘staleness’ with internet culture, and uses Wikipedia to emphasize his point. Lanier suggests that Wikipedia is one that lacks creativity in lieu of the fact that it is a representation of a source that already exists, an encyclopedia. With that in mind, he makes a point about how creativity is lost in the world, through the idea of a “distinction between first-order expression and derivative expression”, which is lost. A first-order expression is something innovative; “a work that integrates its own worldview and aesthetic.. something genuinely new in the world”. A second-order expression is something that is adapted by something original, and with that said, the encyclopedia would fall in the category of first-order expression, and wikipedia as second-order expression. This analogy applies directly to his views on new media. He believes that people should be creative with technology, rather than digitizing something that already has existence. For instance, there is a lot of original music out there, but people tend to sample those tracks with different beats, and call it their own. People should be creating their own music, not experiment with music that someone else created. There should be more first-order expressions than second-order expressions, for the second-order expression “distracts the potential for learning how to bring it into conversation in new ways” (Lanier, 21).
Foucault: Panopticism
Foucault’s idea of panopticism is based on Bentham’s Panopticon principle, which is “the architectural figure.. based at the periphery, an annular building” (Foucault, 4). Basically, the Panopticon exists “to induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power” (Foucault, 5). Foucault’s main focus is his creation that allows for a sense of watching/being watched at all times. His creation could be used in places that require surveillance systems, which he mentions places such as public places, hospitals, schools, or even psychiatric institutions. His fool-proof surveillance system “aims to strengthen the social forces - to increase production, to develop the economy, spread education, raise the level of public morality; to increase and multiply” (Foucault, 9).
