Deleuze and Guattari: An examination of space

Deleuze and Guattari explore the term “space” by using a dichotomy between smooth and striated space. In this section of “A Thousand Plateaus,” the authors examine the difference of these two terms by drawing comparisons between nomadic and sedentary objects and bodies.  While smooth and striated space are two individual concepts these “two spaces in fact exist only in mixture: smooth space is constantly being translated, transversed into a striated space; striated space is constantly being reversed, returned to a smooth space”  (p. 474).  In order to understand the concept of space, one must remember that they can change quickly as they interact with or acted upon.

Perhaps the easiest way to understand the analogy provided in chapter 14, is felt and woven fabric. Felt is made by pressing woolen fiber together to create a material of any shape or size. Felt would represent smooth space and woven fabric would represent a striated space. A woven fabric has three characterizes that make it striated space. First, fabric is made using two elements that run perpendicular two each other.  Second, each element has a specific function, one is fixed in position while the other moves to create the weave of the fabric and third, while fabric can have infinite length it cannot have infinite width (p. 475). 

Smooth space often is found between striated space “but being ‘between’ also means that smooth space is controlled by these two flanks, which limit it, oppose its development” (p 384).  The authors use the example of the forest and now the nomads will use the forest and will create farms. While the forest represents smooth space as the nomad changes the environment it shifts to striated space.

Smooth and striated space is in direct opposition with each other. While some spaces like the desert or sea are smooth space that doesn’t mean that everything within the space is also smooth. “It is possible to live striated on the deserts, steppes, or seas; it is possible to live smooth even in the cities, to be an urban nomad” (p. 482). With these three concepts it is easy to see how the concept of space is fluid and takes shape based on outside actions. 

A pocket panopticon

Bentham’s Panopticon offers a modality by which we can examine the growth of mobile media devices that allow users to upload media directly to web sites such as CNN and YouTube.  In the past decade, concepts such as viral videos and iReporter allow anyone to capture interesting, funny, or alarming videos for the world to consume in just a few simple steps. 

While the concept of citizens as journalists is certainly not new in America, the ability to offer uncensored videos to the world at incredible speed certainly is a recent development. The freedom of the press is outlined in the United States Constitution but the application of Foucault’s Panoptic Lens may offer additional insights to this growing trend.

To use a local example, less than one week ago and fiery crash occurred near the USU campus.  While traffic accidents between cars and motorcycles are not uncommon, this particular example has three unique factors. First on an upper floor of the Eccles Business Building, a professional videographer was working on a Huntsman School promotional video, and he was able capture almost 25 minutes of quality video footage. Second, his video footage was quickly shown on national and international outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Canadian Broadcasting Company and CNN. Third, these outlets allow anyone to post a comment about their news stories on their web site. 

It is the unique combination of video, outlets with a large following, and allowing user comments that create a modern day Panopticon, where each of us play the roles of inmate or inspector. The ability to be an armchair commenter on the latest situation 24/7 while having relative anonymity and limited repercussions for comments allow us to observe others and make note of any behavior contrary to social norms, conventions, and in some cases laws.

I wanted to test my initial assumption of Panoptic characteristics of our local example. I have completed a quick and dirty content analysis, with almost 1100 articles and stories published on the accident, I selected stories from The New York Times and CNN and read 850 comments left by users.

The vast majority of comments had three similar elements, an expression of amazement, “WOW,” and “There are real heroes left in America.” A resorted faith in human goodness “we can all be proud as a human being,” “It is refreshing to see people help out a stranger in need.”  Third, expression of hope for the motorcycles injured, “I glad Brandon is doing well,” “These people saved his life.”  While these comments are nice and the groups’ actions are heroic, in a panoptic lens we are reinforcing action we deem as good. 

But another underlying theme of the user comments has a very different tone. A growing number of posts identify a large man in a suit who was in the driver of the BMW.  Many of these users wondered why he did not help, others criticized him for driving a BMW, his weight, and yet others called his professional competence into question. In less than 13 hours of user comments the driver was identified by name, department and position at USU. Quickly some comments began calling for his resignation and others deemed him unfit to teach young people.

While I am not seeking to condone or condemn his actions, I would argue that readers who are presented with a single video source without audio might be operating without all of the facts.  In terms of personal privacy and boundaries, technologies like smartphones, web-streaming cameras, and blogs and posts, have allowed us all to act as syndics who are willing to report anything and everything to magistrates (the public) and who are willing to keep us confined in place or face harsh penalty.

As we place cameras in more locations and smartphones continue to offer even more sophisticated technology, we may need to wonder who is watching the watchers. With a few simple additions like face recognition technology and ways to connect multiple data streams together we could create world that looks a Panopticon and less like the Information Age.

Maybe 1980s R&B artist Rockwell had it right and when he sang, “I always feel like somebody’s watching me and I have no privacy.” Thanks to mobile media and the growth of video streaming, his song might prophetic of the world in which we find ourselves.  

Rebecca Black, Real Housewives, and Reality Television

After this week’s reading, the bulk of my questions focused on what Horkheimer and Adorno would think about the current state of the American Culture Industry. In sampling the pop cultural du jour, I believe their critical reception of entrainment in the 30s and 40s would be magnified after watching television and cruising around YouTube for a few hours. 

How often do we consume media and think, “movies and radio need no longer pretend to be art. The truth that they are just business is made into an ideology in order to justify the rubbish they deliberately produce” (Horkheimer, and Adorno, 1944 p.120). Performers no longer need skills or natural ability to sing; digital tracks can be manipulated, and with the marvel of technology, millions can have their 15 minutes of fame. In fact, Auto-Tune is directly responsible for viral video sensation Rebecca Black.

There are few genres that could be defined as “ideology in order to justify the rubbish they deliberately produce” more than reality television.  For example: Real Housewives - women who tolerate each other, but frequently gather to cause drama; The Amazing Race – teams that race around the world while promoting companies and products of all sorts, and The Food Network, DIY, and Fine Living are devoted to the consumption of food, goods, and materials. Most media choices are carefully crafted to promote a lifestyle or ideology, especially that of consumerism. 

For example, a cooking contest often offers an eco-friendly vehicle as an award, yet the chefs cook Chilean Seabass as the main entrée, a species subjected to overfishing, often caught illegally, and contains high levels of mercury.  While the host proclaims the benefits of driving a hybrid vehicle, no one mentions that the chefs use unsustainable fish.

Even sitcoms provide viewers an ideology to be imitated. Just in a brief examination of nightly program, many sitcom characters live in McMansions, drive the latest model car, and enjoy a lifestyle foreign to most Americans.  While these TV families are portrayed as average, they are far from ordinary Americans. 

While we are far removed from the Golden Age of Hollywood, witnessed by Horkheimer and Adorno, in some ways corporate influence on the media is less veiled and more overt. If placing a Mini Cooper, Reese’s Pieces, or FedEx as a supporting character in a movie can lead individuals to have positive feelings toward, and in many cases buy, a product, we have created the ultimate propaganda machine.

Horkheimer, M, & Adorno, T. (1944). Dialectic of enlightenment. (69 ed., Vol. 98, pp. 120-167). New York: Continuum.

Technology autobiography

I am too old to technically be considered a digital native; I would however feel comfortable being called a digital immigrate. For me the difference between these two groups is if you experienced a time in your life without the use of digital technology but you are extremely comfortable using technology you are a digital immigrate.

However, I believe a digital native has never lived when they did not have access to multiple computers, carried a cell phone from an early age, or did not communicate with friends via text, chat, and Facebook.

I grew up with over the air television, building blocks, and an imaginary friend. While this a can be true for a digital native, I also remember a time without a computer in my home, classroom or library and a time before cell phones, DVDs, and the internet for personal use.

It was not until the third grade that I interacted with a computer. It was a Macintosh with a small green screen.   The only thing the teacher knew about it was that we could play the Oregon Trail game. I am sure as a teacher waiting to retire letting her students play with the computer is the only thing that saved her personal sanity.  

However, despite this rough start, I quickly entered the digital age and did not look back. My father got his first cell phone, a DynaTac 8800x, in 1987. It was a brick of a phone that required a near direct line of sight to a cell tower. It weighed more than even the largest laptop currently on the market. This was also the same year my parents bought a home computer, a Macintosh II, with a 20 MB hard drive. Most smartphones now have more memory and a more sophisticated operating system than my first computer.

Even though I am now surrounded by modern technology, I own a Wide Carriage Royal Typewriter from the 1930s. I still send Christmas and birthday cards via snail mail. I have also kept a rotary phone from my grandparent’s home. While I hope I never to write a paper for any length on a typewriter, give up my four email accounts in exchange for the USPS, or ever use a rotary phone, I believe it is important to understand the past in order to appreciate the present.

Before I became a poor graduate student I was often an early adopter of new technology. I recently sold my iPad 1 and I am waiting for the iPad 3. I am hoping the bloggers are right and there will be an October release. I am also looking forward to an iPhone release for the Sprint network. 

I have owned an Apple before it was cool. But the recent renaissance at Apple has been a very good thing for me.  While I typically use a Mac for the almost everything, I own a PC I can connect to virtually and us screen scraps for programs and application that are native to the PC platform. 

On a typical day I carry my MacBook Pro, iPod, cell phone, and an iPod Touch that I am using as an e-reader until I get the iPad 3.  I do not often carry any paper or a pen or pencil.

 

I have been using technology to leverage my skills for most of my professional life. In the last few years I have learned a few tech languages including VBA, SQL, and I am proficient in Oracle. These tech languages have allowed me to quickly access large amounts of data and quickly provide analysis for complex situations.  I also think understanding how a specific aspect of how a computer works, moves one for a casual user to an advanced operator. So in the area of database technology I would say I am an expert user.

While I would like to think that all of the above reasons would make me the “technological literate” person I know this is not the case. I have friends who work in new product development at Apple, a former roommate who is a founding partner of a crowding sourcing startup. And I also have a good working relationship with a former Chief Database Security officer at Oracle. These relationships have taught me two major lessons about technology: first, if I have a problem with any piece technology call them and second, early adopter with the right attitude are more successful than those who resist change.

I do not see my digital love affair ending.  I love the challenge of learning a new computer language, discovering a new application to make me life or work more efficient or being the go to guy to find an elegant tech solution for a complex problem. 

I am a digital immigrate who is giving most digital natives a run for their money with my consumption of technology. Few people native or not can say their life’s work requires 1.5 terabytes to store.