Abstract

The creation of easily portable cameras and film recorders (primarily cell phones capable of recording digital images) has made it easier for nearly everyone to quickly record, document, and share images and events that would normally go unseen or unnoticed by those not immediately affected by their occurrence. Such technology, especially in conjunction with egalitarian systems of mass transmission like YouTube or Google Video, allows any and possibly every event to be recorded and distributed. Behavior deemed inappropriate by one person is widely distributed (for potential communal judgment) to his/her community. Regulation of behavior, potentially even behavior that is personal and/or private, quickly becomes possible. In many situations, this has a seemingly positive effect. Recent images of police brutality in California, USA and irresponsible behavior at the hanging of Saddam Hussein have both been recorded on camera phone and distributed through the internet have drawn attention to troubling situations that would otherwise not be afforded to them. Like the passive user of media who becomes, through its production, an active user, citizens can take an active part in the regulation of behavior by distributing images and recordings of events. But if every citizen is armed with a portable digital recording device and ability to widely distribute almost all of the events he or she is able to record, how far away is a community from creating its own version of the establishment fears most, the Big Brother himself?

Full Proposal

On 30 December 2006, Saddam Hussein, charged with crimes against humanity, was hanged in front of Iraqi television cameras. The officially recorded images show a quiet Hussein with a relatively respectful team of executioners, and is well edited, ending neatly as he is executed. The official news cameras, however, were not the only cameras in the room. A guard with a cell phone camera was able to record a full image (accepted at this point by sources as legitimate) that includes a loud Hussein exchanging sectarian insults with the guards and a hanged Hussein, swinging violently as the guards abuse his corpse. If the officially released version of the execution acts as a constricted media feed to its subjects, the cell phone video, discreetly recorded and released, then acts as a subversion of such a constriction and represents new advances in a participatory media democracy.

The creation of easily portable cameras and film recorders (primarily cell phones capable of recording digital images) has made it easier for nearly everyone to quickly record, document, and share images and events that would normally go unseen or unnoticed by those not immediately affected by their occurrence. Such technology, especially in conjunction with egalitarian systems of mass transmission like YouTube or Google Video, allows any and possibly every event to be recorded and distributed. Behavior deemed inappropriate by one person is widely distributed (for potential communal judgment) to his/her community. Regulation of behavior, potentially even behavior that is personal and/or private, quickly becomes possible. In many situations, this has a seemingly positive effect. Recent images of police brutality in California, USA and irresponsible behavior at the hanging of Saddam Hussein have both been recorded on camera phone and distributed through the internet have drawn attention to troubling situations that would otherwise not be afforded to them. Like the passive user of media who becomes, through its production, an active user, citizens can take an active part in the regulation of behavior by distributing images and recordings of events. But if every citizen is armed with a portable digital recording device and ability to widely distribute almost all of the events he or she is able to record, how far away is a community from creating its own version of the establishment fears most, the Big Brother himself?

Jeremy Bentham created the idea of the panopticon, a device that allows prison guards to view their prisoners without being seen themselves; thus eventually creating a system by which the prisoners monitor themselves. Michel Foucault explores this idea further in Discipline and Punish, theorizing a community whose members monitor themselves from fear of being monitored.

What makes this new technology drastically different from its predecessors in surveillance technology is its widespread availability. On first use, the discreetly portable camera enables the active user to subvert a government system that restricts the flow of information to its subjects. Such use of technology seems like a productive and democratic way to participate in community justice. However, extended use of such devices may lead to a community that monitors itself and its neighbors, resulting in a self-monitoring society that needs little political structure to govern its citizens. Persons seeking to monitor their state (to, perhaps, “keep it in check”) are themselves monitored by their neighbors, and so on. How might such a system of egalitarian image production and distribution find a balance between a participatory democratic community and community-imposed totalitarian surveillance?

Firstly, and perhaps most concretely, this “paper” explores and analyzes videos and images that have been recorded and distributed (for example, the Saddam Hussein hanging and other videos of police brutality). Secondly, and perhaps most broadly, this “paper” explores how the production and distribution of images from participatory media can promote idealistic goals of active democratic participation while avoiding the threat of constant self-monitoring of communities. Finally, and perhaps most experimentally, I hope to set up and record various situations that feature surveillance as it may potentially become; a scenario by the various technologies that may be potentially exploited as the community member, starting as the monitored, becomes the monitor, and then again becomes the monitored.

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