Philosophy: Fashion, Fear and Phobia
I can't seem to run away from it.
As much as I say I dislike philosophy and all those people who are so 'immersed' in it (I find some of them so incredibly full of themselves as if nothing else mattered but head knowledge and there is this disregard for aesthetics) I've realized my entire semester IS BASED ON PHILOSOPHY. I also don't read up on that stuff because I find it really hard to apply it to situations in reality. Yeah but the stuff I'm taking is better than Aristotle. Someone is going to shoot me for saying that. :P
Today I had my Body: Aesthetics, Politics and Culture discussion class and we were discussing Michel Foucault's famous Panopticon essay which I only half understood but the good thing is, I understood the main points.. and that's all that matters. He's this French philosopher historian who wrote many famous books like Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison and some book on sex, talked about this power machine that someone devised up. Bear with me:
Imagine a tall tower created from reflected glass. Around the periphery is a circle of prison cells which are back lit and have large windows facing the tower. In each cell is a madman, a school boy, a patient and a policeman (?). Whoever is in the tower can watch all the prisoners doing their daily things but no one can see into the tower. Thus every prisoner learns to self-watch his own activities because they don't know if anyone is watching from the tower. The greatest tool about this tower is that if the prisoners are left unsupervised, they'd still behave because they don't know if anyone is watching them: being seen by the unseen. The prisoners themselves becomes the bearer of being the watch guard. I think this quote perfectly summarizes this idea,
So to arrange things that the surveillance is permanent in its effects, even if it is discontinuous in its action that the perfection of power should tend to render its actual exercise unnecessary.
And isn't that like our world today? Like Facebook (no I don't have it so forget trying to stalk me) now records your every doing from writing on someone's 'wall' to who's space you checked.. this is what I heard from Facebook users and I find that really creepy- it shows your every move! It's exactly like Foucault's idea of the Panopticon! And the small things now such as how shopping sites like Amazon track what books you like and offer suggestions. It reminds me of Minority Report.
Yeah so now my next reading is about Laughing and Crying and why we do it as bizarre it sounds and how we're on a higher level compared to the animals.. My prof said it was really philosophical so I pray that I'll understand it.
And then I flipped through my course pack and there are articles on the 'female body experience' and 'throwing like a girl'. Really neat stuff but I'm not sure if I'll be able to understand it.
After class, the cable man came by to set up the tv and internet and I was kind of scared because I was in the apartment alone and people keep telling me these things so I just started talking to this six foot black guy. I told him about Parsons and when I told him I was in fashion and sustainability, he raises his eyebrows and said he's never heard those two words together before. I said that's exactly why. Yeah and he asked me if I spoke french and I told him I was considering going abroad and all. He said he spoke french and creole and he was from Haiti (you mean the place where they deforested the entire land and now it's practically dead?? HAHAHA.. world issues, man). I told him about HK and he said I must have liked shopping there. And I thought, why are you judging me like that. I felt very self conscious inviting this stranger into my apartment where my entire space is my bedroom- and every part of it speaks of me... and I know it seems extremely 'girly' with pictures of fashion images and art images and a picture of Gong Li... and I had all these shopping bags lying out because I think Pat left them all in my apartment.. He touched a nerve there. Anyway, Allie came over 15 minutes later while he was still working and I gave her some cheesecake.. he didn't want any. Yeah so after dinner we went to Forever 21 and H&M to buy clothes for her PR interview tomorrow.
I must say, I was tempted. I want a pair of opera gloves. There was this bright red coat Tania hates but I think is brilliant (because all pretty things are essentially useless..lol) so I carried it around the entire store though I didn't buy it. Why do I want so much? Bad. But I got to see Allie spend $200. lol. I'm training to psyche myself to buy less. It's been going quite well. But the consumer culture is insane here- shops don't close until 10 and I was surprised that there were so many people shopping even until 10pm!! Crazy.
Production is driven by consumption- the one good point I got out of that useless Walkman essay.
As much as I say I dislike philosophy and all those people who are so 'immersed' in it (I find some of them so incredibly full of themselves as if nothing else mattered but head knowledge and there is this disregard for aesthetics) I've realized my entire semester IS BASED ON PHILOSOPHY. I also don't read up on that stuff because I find it really hard to apply it to situations in reality. Yeah but the stuff I'm taking is better than Aristotle. Someone is going to shoot me for saying that. :P
Today I had my Body: Aesthetics, Politics and Culture discussion class and we were discussing Michel Foucault's famous Panopticon essay which I only half understood but the good thing is, I understood the main points.. and that's all that matters. He's this French philosopher historian who wrote many famous books like Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison and some book on sex, talked about this power machine that someone devised up. Bear with me:
Imagine a tall tower created from reflected glass. Around the periphery is a circle of prison cells which are back lit and have large windows facing the tower. In each cell is a madman, a school boy, a patient and a policeman (?). Whoever is in the tower can watch all the prisoners doing their daily things but no one can see into the tower. Thus every prisoner learns to self-watch his own activities because they don't know if anyone is watching from the tower. The greatest tool about this tower is that if the prisoners are left unsupervised, they'd still behave because they don't know if anyone is watching them: being seen by the unseen. The prisoners themselves becomes the bearer of being the watch guard. I think this quote perfectly summarizes this idea,
So to arrange things that the surveillance is permanent in its effects, even if it is discontinuous in its action that the perfection of power should tend to render its actual exercise unnecessary.
And isn't that like our world today? Like Facebook (no I don't have it so forget trying to stalk me) now records your every doing from writing on someone's 'wall' to who's space you checked.. this is what I heard from Facebook users and I find that really creepy- it shows your every move! It's exactly like Foucault's idea of the Panopticon! And the small things now such as how shopping sites like Amazon track what books you like and offer suggestions. It reminds me of Minority Report.
Yeah so now my next reading is about Laughing and Crying and why we do it as bizarre it sounds and how we're on a higher level compared to the animals.. My prof said it was really philosophical so I pray that I'll understand it.
And then I flipped through my course pack and there are articles on the 'female body experience' and 'throwing like a girl'. Really neat stuff but I'm not sure if I'll be able to understand it.
After class, the cable man came by to set up the tv and internet and I was kind of scared because I was in the apartment alone and people keep telling me these things so I just started talking to this six foot black guy. I told him about Parsons and when I told him I was in fashion and sustainability, he raises his eyebrows and said he's never heard those two words together before. I said that's exactly why. Yeah and he asked me if I spoke french and I told him I was considering going abroad and all. He said he spoke french and creole and he was from Haiti (you mean the place where they deforested the entire land and now it's practically dead?? HAHAHA.. world issues, man). I told him about HK and he said I must have liked shopping there. And I thought, why are you judging me like that. I felt very self conscious inviting this stranger into my apartment where my entire space is my bedroom- and every part of it speaks of me... and I know it seems extremely 'girly' with pictures of fashion images and art images and a picture of Gong Li... and I had all these shopping bags lying out because I think Pat left them all in my apartment.. He touched a nerve there. Anyway, Allie came over 15 minutes later while he was still working and I gave her some cheesecake.. he didn't want any. Yeah so after dinner we went to Forever 21 and H&M to buy clothes for her PR interview tomorrow.
I must say, I was tempted. I want a pair of opera gloves. There was this bright red coat Tania hates but I think is brilliant (because all pretty things are essentially useless..lol) so I carried it around the entire store though I didn't buy it. Why do I want so much? Bad. But I got to see Allie spend $200. lol. I'm training to psyche myself to buy less. It's been going quite well. But the consumer culture is insane here- shops don't close until 10 and I was surprised that there were so many people shopping even until 10pm!! Crazy.
Production is driven by consumption- the one good point I got out of that useless Walkman essay.
1 Comments:
based on philosophy??!
i'm extremely jealous.
but then again, i woud probably dread the writing assignments.
oh, i'm sure you can handle philosophy.
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