2000 Word Essay - Idea and possible title...

I found panopticism really fascinating, so I think this is the best starting point for me, although as I know already it's far too general.

I've been reading through 1984 as it's a classic I've never read, but also because it couldn't be more relevant to panopticism, so I know already I want to write my essay about panopticism in modern society and culture.


The Railway Station - 1862 (William Powell Firth)

 Considering the panoptic situations I experience everyday on which to draw from for inspiration, the most obvious choice would be a focus on Leeds Train Station. The entire waiting area is flooded with CCTV, and often with police. As the busiest train station outside of London it also seems rich in examples...

CCTV under the guise of public protection - is there an agenda beyond keeping people safe?

William Betts' intricate acrylic
reinterpretations of CCTV stills
commentate on the state of the
post-modern society and the
presence of the panopticon.

How people behave under the gaze of closed circuit tv in the station - how people behave around each other and what is normal.

Where does supervision and safety end and mass control begin?

The introduction of biometric face recognition technology?

Commuters carrying a collective conscious...

Collective effervescence and collective behaviour

Books:

Orwell, G (1949), '1984', Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd, UK.
           
Foucault, M (1975), 'Discipline and Punish', Editions Gallimard, France.
           
Ericson, R.V and Haggerty, K.D (2006), 'The New Politics of Surveillance and Visibility', University of Toronto Press, Canada.


Weibel, P (2002) 'Ctrl [space]: rhetorics of surveillance from Bentham to Big Brother', The MIT Press, Massachusetts.


Le Bon, G (1994) 'The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind', Cherokee Publishing Company, USA


Lyon, D (2006) 'Theorising Surveillance: The Panopticon and beyond', Willan Publishing, USA


Lyon, D (2003) 'Surveillance as Social Sorting', Routledge Publishing, UK


Lefebvre, H (2005) 'Critique of Everyday Life: Volume 3', Verso Publishing, UK & USA


Lefebvre, H (1991) 'Critique of Everyday Life: Volume 1', Verso Publishing, UK & USA


Lefebvre, H (2003) 'Key Writings', Continuum Publishing, UK & USA


Online sources:


Gray, M (2003) 'Urban Surveillance and Panopticism: will we recognize the facial recognition society?', http://www.surveillance-and-society.org/articles1(3)/facial.pdf

Watkins, F.M (2008) 'The Truth About CCTV', http://freebritain.wordpress.com/2008/04/26/the-truth-about-cctv/

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Possible essay titles: