Final Evaluation...

          This project began with the idea of surveillance, specifically surveillance within society driven by the idea of a Perth Panopticon.  Being completely honest and reflexive about my project, at the beginning of my research my mind seemed biased towards a discursive analysis of the phenomenon of surveillance, with Foucault’s notion of surveillance within society in mind; whereby Foucault builds on Jeremy Bentham’s mechanisms in the prison and illustrates the function of discipline as an apparatus of power.  The panopticon style of architecture may be used in other institutions with surveillance needs, such as: schools, factories or hospitals.  The ever-visible inmate, Foucault suggests, is always “the object of information, never a subject in communication” (Foucault 1995:202).

               

            My first photographs were taken to represent how things like a play park or leisure centre fit in with panopticism, however during the process of taking photos other elements within society caught my eye...

            During my research I was finding ever more evidence of a different type of surveillance, a hidden surveillance and during the process of viewing my first batch of images I realised that I had embarked on a process of finding threads within the topic of surveillance, following these and discovering more threads that eventually led to the discovery of repeated phenomenon and a variety of different, however related, hidden forms of surveillance.

    In this discovery I realised that I was in actual fact using a grounded theory approach and decided to just roll with it and clear my mind of any existing discourses and just really see what was out there.  I endeavoured on a process of the four stages advocated by Glaser & Strauss (1967), the founders of grounded theory and embarked on a process of abductive reasoning.   At first I stumbled upon access gates that required membership cards to pass through, this lead to the idea of access and the different types we are faced with and what we need to gain access (the divulging of our personal information), this led to access and membership cards containing all our information, then this led to cards in general: loyalty cards, membership cards, bank cards etc, all of which build a web of information that leaves traces of our lives in a hidden form of surveillance. In terms of hidden surveillance this led onto such things as smart phones and digital media and how we can all be traced through these, for example the new iphones have a built in GPS that cannot be turned off? GPS can be access by authorities at any time if they have just cause, however not many people I spoke to with smart phones were aware of this.

    This really is the gist of this project and this project concludes with the themes of Traces; Webs of Information and Hidden Surveillance as a jump off point to further explore and eventually develop a theory about.

    The weaknesses identified within this project firstly start with my own bias as a researcher and that if I had gone with my original plan I would really have been purposefully seeking out data that fit my theory.  The decision to use solely grounded theory I believe has produced something that would have undoubtedly been missed and the most fascinating thing about these hidden forms of surveillance that we all consent to, is that when I was taking further images of peoples wallets and purses and the amount of different loyalty and membership cards they possessed that leave all these traces of their lives and create a mass web of information regarding the individual, the people I asked to begin with were not keen on letting me take a photo of what they deemed to be private, their purses.  After taking the pictures I explain what I was doing and every person I talked to hadn’t realised just how many different things their purses contained that exposed what they deemed as private , their lives, their movements, their purchases – a picture of who they are, where they went, what they bought, and how often...

    This is what I now see as one of the major strengths of grounded theory that to step outside of the given frameworks of discourse is one of the most powerful tools to identify something that we didn’t yet know existed, to create a wholly new theory of something or just gain a different or untainted perspective of something; that may have been staring us in the face all along but we could not see it for the veil of prescribed discourses.

    In conclusion I really have to say I was pleasantly surprised by my findings and the discovery for me of an approach that can offer real objectivity to social phenomenon if utilised with discipline and objectivity by letting the data take you instead of you taking the data...

    Finally, the traces and webs of information left by these forms of hidden surveillance, how much are these traces and webs a construct of us and who we are, and how much of them are shaped by the influence of the power these cards have over us, louring us back to the same places with the promise of gain? Without these cards would the traces we leave be profoundly different?

       To return to Foucault's notion of surveillance, this form of surveillance is hidden or implicit but still manages to control how we act, in that it constructs the traces we leave by binding us to certain locations and places, thus controlling where we go and constructing our webs of information... 

REFERENCES

Foucault, Michel. (1995)  Discipline and Punishment. Vintage Books: New York

Glaser, B. G & Strauss, A. L (1967) The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Stratagies for Qualitative Research. Aldine Publishing Co: Chicago.

Visual Sociology:

A Comment on Validity and Reliability…

Firstly the terms Validity and Reliability must be defined: Reliability is the degree of consistency between two measures of the same thing (Mehrens & Lehman, 1987) and shows the measure of how stable, dependable, trustworthy, and consistent a test is in measuring the same thing each time (Worthen et al., 1993). Validity is related to truthfulness: Does the test measure what it purports to measure?; the extent to which certain inferences can be made from test scores or other measurement (Golafshani 2003:597; Mehrens & Lehman, 1987), and the degree to which they accomplish the purpose for which they are being used. (Worthen et al., 1993). 

There are several types of validity, concerning visual sociology and photography, content and construct validity would rate quite highly.  Content validity refers to the extent to which the content of a test's items represents the entire body of content to be measured. Context validity refers to abstract ideas that humans construct in their minds to help them explain observed patterns or differences in the behavior of themselves or other people or what they may observe (Davies & Dodds 2000:281).  A construct is an unobservable, postulated attribute of individuals created in our minds to help explain or theorise about human behavior. Since constructs do not exist outside the human mind, they are not directly measurable (Cresswell & Miller 2000:129). However in the vein of visual sociology and photography in general content and construct validity of images can be determined through reflexivity. So in conjunction with reflexivity, validity in this statement refers to what Prosser (1998) notes should be “interactive, dialectical, collaborative logic” (Prosser 1998:104). Thus reflexivity seeks to make explicit the process and functions involved in the production of visual data and their subsequent findings, in an attempt to produce validity and add reliability to the visual measure of images used for data (Chaplin 1994:1).

                

       So from this it can be seen that gaining these valued measures (by some) within this type of research is difficult and criticisms of this method mainly lie in the views that because of the nature or the equipment and close proximity involved in getting the data, this automatically alters social phenomenon, particularly behavior.  However, even within the hard sciences and social science the laboratory experiment can be said to have the same problematic criticisms. One the other side of the coin value judgments and personal (however sub-conscious) bias, along with an influential factor in selective knowledge can all have an effect and play a part in the creation of an image (Winston 2002:  ). So locating where the ‘self’ is in social practice, language and discourse is vitally important to the research process. This all falls back to the notion that reality is distorted by and for artistic reasons and this is true, however as in many other practices purpose must be separated and defined.  Using a camera does not automatically denote artistic pursuits…

Image-based Research has been argued to be more subjective and therefore less valid and reliable and more prone to manipulation than 'word-orientated' qualitative research. However, Prosser (1998) explains that this is certainly not the case, and that in fact both research types are confronted by the same issues(Prosser 1998:97-9).  As discussed above the laboratory experiment faces generalisation to the wider population issues and all research no matter if visual of written depend how the evidence is interpreted by the researcher, and there are always more than one way of seeing things not matter how objective the researcher aims to be.  Thus, the researcher conducting word based research – which depends on texts, interviews and various kinds of evidence – can look at a subject from various perspectives, selectivity here is produced by the choices the researcher makes when choosing which sources to use.  These different sources, all containing their own interpretations, contributing a variety of interpretations, which the researcher will then surmise their own. Perhaps the summarised conclusions of various written texts compared to a picture is more malleable in terms of interpretation? Regardless, the point being that visual methods can be as reliable and valid as any other type of method, using reflexivity to increase awareness and objectivity.  An important point to note is that a good piece of research depends wholly on the researcher choosing the most appropriate method to conduct it.

     The level of validity and reliability in image-based research can be effectively increased by using multiple visual data to provide evidence of repeated occurrences of social phenomenon, and a wide breadth of techniques to ensure an allowance of possible differing interpretations of a single phenomenon.  However, reliability will always be an issue in qualitative research society is not stable, and as culture evolves over time, so do ideas, customs and relationships (Winston 2000:66).

REFERENCES

Creswell, J. W. & Miller, D. L. (2000). Determining validity in qualitative inquiry. Theory into

Practice, 39(3), 124-131.

Davies, D., & Dodd, J. (2002). Qualitative research and the question of rigor. Qualitative Health

research, 12(2), 279-289.

Golafshani, N. (2003) Understanding Reliability and Validity in Qualitative Research. The Qualitative Report Volume 8 Number 4 December 2003 597-607

Mehrens, W. A. & Lehmann, I. J. (1987). Using standardized tests in education. New York: Longman.

Prossor, J (1998) Image Based Research: A Sourcebook for the Qualitative Researcher. Abington: RoutledgeFalmer.

Winston, B (2002) ‘The Camera Never Lies: The Prtiallity of Photographic Evidence’, in Image Based Research: A Sourcebook for the Qualitative Researcher. Ed, by Prosser, L. (1998) Abington: RoutledgeFalmer, 60-68.

Worthen, B. R., Borg, W. R., and White, K. R. (1993). Measurement and evaluation in the school. NY: Longman.

Track-able GPS...

Every time you log on to a computer it is logged against the I.P. address of your location, this is also traceable, not to mention the content you are browsing on the internet...

Other Forms of Surveillance...?

This picture needs to be retaken, however it is a web page that will not give you access to blogger unless you give them your mobile number...

Bar-coded items, such as books that are attached to memberships that contain all your personal details...

To use public computers we must sign in and leave our details and this is recorded and logged...

All of these occurrences are linked to some form of membership that alone or together create a web of information and details about your day to day...moment to moment movements....

Memberships that track what we eat, how we look after ourselves, how much we spend, where we spend it...even what we and if we recycle...

Not only is surveillance by sign...

but surveillance of what we recycle...

Via scanning of ever growing loyalty and club cards...

A membership of loyalty or surveillance...???

Visual Sociology:

A Comment on Photo Journalism...

Nicely put Becker (1986) states that the difference between Photo Journalism, Documentary Photography and Visual Sociology is how the image is received (Becker 1986, cited in Prosser 1998:84).

A photo journalist may construct a context to convey a particular message; a documentary photographer’s job is to document the reality of what is there.  However, Visual Sociology is capturing a series of images and events that can be collated to act as data where themes can be extracted and analysed.  Reflexivity is a useful process to help the visual sociologist to take unbiased images of reality.

Between these three types photo journalism, in today’s modern age, has most constraints: photo journalists photograph a wide area of social phenomenon, thus this does not allow for continuous study of the same area removing the opportunity for depth of analysis and understanding of a specialised area, therefore this could be reflected in how a photo is taken, then what is perceived by the viewer of the photo thus a construct or context is created and portrayed that may miss the value of the initial image taken and even skew or reinforce its purpose.  So in effect it’s almost sometimes as if we can’t see the image for the image that was taken...A visual Sociologist here would be seeking the very thing (depth of analysis and understanding from thematic investigation that a photo journalist may lack then.

Further, photo journalists work for Newspapers who themselves represent strong ideological views.  The projects presented to photo journalists are specific which means they are looking for a particular image, an image possibly constructed or imagined through the lens of superficial understandings of social phenomenon (Becker cited in Prosser 1998:95).

Documentary Photography on the other hand is looking at a specific social phenomenon and narrows its focus over perhaps a longitudinal scope to find out more, to appreciate social phenomenon or investigate, rather than to confirm, backed often with an in-depth theoretical knowledge surrounding the social phenomenon.

Documentary photography could be described as the continuous interest in specific social phenomenon; whereas photo journalism can be described as the prescribed search for relevant imagery?

Good sociological analysis or Visual Sociology would require repetitive comparisons of repeated occurrences of social phenomenon recurring at different times, spaces and/or places to generate data, data being the aim of visual sociology which stands it apart from Photo Journalism or Documentary Photography.

So then back to Becker’s original point and how these different types of photography are received: the essentially creates the image: the maker may take a photo of something he presumes is interesting but, how this is interpreted and given meaning is something attributed by the receiver.  For example a reader may fail to see what the maker has captured in the image and instead focus on something captured in the background, the reader spots the object and deems this more important the image then becomes this and the originally captured image of the maker fades into the background? Although the receiver of the image can only work with what has been constructed by the maker photographer and how the receiver interprets and add meaning to an image can largely be influence by the maker also. This is why the process of reflexivity is important and not just within Visual Sociology, but should be an integral responsibility of all people wielding the power held in the camera...

Local Children's Play Park: surrounded by houses, all looking towards the park. There are three different sources of technological surveillance surrounding this park, none of which are directed towards or capture any angle of the park, the human eye is the only surveillance here.  This begs the question what are we surveying? People or property? Methodologically speaking it is hard to capture the area an a whole in one picture would portray this much better, however the detail would them be minute and possibly become invisible...

Within these images I have tried to capture various forms of surveillance functioning simultaneously in one environment.  People watching people, multiple viewing arenas, cameras and security gates that record who enters and leaves and times via individualised swipe cards containing a persons personal details.

Visual Sociology: Prosser, Chapter Two – An Argument for Visual Sociology by Douglas Harper.

A summary of key points, focusing on the Idea of Cultural Critique.

Overall in his essay Harper is suggesting that visual sociology is a useful means of ‘integrating’ traditions that were first identified through anthropological visual ethnography and documentary photography to support the argument that visual sociology is a solid qualitative method of investigation and that newer ‘postmodern’ ways of thinking about ethnography both challenge and extend visual sociology’s potential as a valid form of study.

The Bateson and Mead study is key within Harpers text as it not only reinvigorated but illuminates the power of visual images; the methodology used frames the difficulties of context from cultural criticism regarding validity and reliability from a very subjective method trying to portray objective realism.  Bateson & Mead had ten years experience of the culture they studied and took streams of images of daily life, no effort was afforded to construct imagery or reconstruct events.  The aim was to capture statements of intangible relationships that words could not explain.  This methodological endeavour is what is known as the realist tale of ethnography; to observe objectively and interpret visual imagery according to theory.  Realist tale objectivity has been criticised due to the inseparable subjectivity of the image maker which has discredited this ethnographic method (Harper 2006:25-7).

Harper notes Becker (1964) highlights the issues of validity and reliability in stating that photos are often thought of as truths, when more accurately they are reflections of the photographers point of view, biases and knowledge of the world. Further, Steven Gold contributes important points of ethical considerations within cultural context. Stating visual imagery is a more intrusive method, taking the time to gain understanding of the sensitivities of their subjects and the cultures of others is a fundamental process in visual or any sociology (Harper 2006:29-30).

Harper then points out that the discrediting criticisms of the realist method give raise to the New Ethnography which challenges the very idea of analysis and moves back to experience, not to understand objective reality, but to “reassimilate and reintegrate the ‘self’ into society and to reconstruct the conduct of everyday life” (Harper 2006:31).  The argument here is that New Ethnography in its postmodern rejection of objective reality is usefully thought of as a “creative tale” that can describe reality more successfully if it steps out with modernity’s standards of scientific inquiry.  Kondo and Tyler make important points in favour of new ethnography; emphasising the author’s voice, point of view and experience can help monitor the cultural descriptions of researchers, image makers and others (Harper 2006:30-1).

Harper projects the dangers of subjectivity and the power of imagery in the ideas of Lukacs, Benjamin, Adorno and Marcuse, who developed the idea that art reflects the social organisation and preference of those who produce it. Examples can be seen in photo montage used to illuminate, reject or reinforce ideologies.  Harper uses Gramsci to illustrates how powerful cultural influences are using his statement that to overturn capitalism it would take more than simply seizing power  - a counter-culture would need to be incubated and born.

The key issue Harper is trying to deliver is that the meaning of photographs are constructed by the maker and the viewer, both of whom carry their own social positions and interests, saturated by their own cultures, thus the meaning of photographs change in different cultural contexts. A double consciousness (Hall 1996) or critical consciousness is vital to be able to know a culture well enough to move within it but also remain sufficiently outside it to examine it critically.

Harper then discusses the call of New Ethnography, which suggests a collaborative rather than one way flow of information from a subject.  Photo elicitation is used as an example of a model for visual images to gather data, a variation on open ended interview techniques whereby the subject interprets the image of their world and the research listens, often revealing very different understandings of meaning.

Harper emphasises and directs his argument back to Becker (1964) in stating to accomplish in-depth understanding old traditions of conducting immersive field work driven by theoretical questions is useful.  Harper argues the point that when entering the field it should always be at the forefront of the image makers mind that everything they see and the images they make will be created through their own cultural lenses, however through awareness; an iterative and reflexive process can help the image maker see the world through other cultural lenses.  This backs up Harpers argument for the importance of theory, by framing our sociological pursuits within sociological theory or concepts researchers can be again detached from their own cultural biases, values and beliefs and work within a knowledge base of sociological concepts to either adapt, confirm, further or change the knowledge we have and how we understand ‘the social’.

Reference:

Prosser, J. (2006) Imaged Based Research: A Sourcebook for Qualitative Researchers. London: RoutledgePalmer.

Visual Sociology Project

Project Plan:

‘Cam Era’ – The Perth Panopticon

1.             The Brief (negotiated by the Student and Tutor by e-mail).

The visual sociology topic I have chosen is to investigate is how different types of surveillance function within today’s society within the area of Perth.  My loose aim is to capture or photograph a great variety of different forms of surveillance to enable an analysis and investigation of what is actually happening with surveillance today, this will possibly lead to questions regarding how effective and efficient surveillance is today and weather society has become desensitized or hyposensitised to the effects of surveillance and weather self-policing is a direct effect or not of surveillance or this investigation may possibly lead to the discovery of a whole new phenomenon regarding surveillance.

2.             The Methodological Considerations (data gathering and analysis)

The methodology that will be used for this project is the qualitative approach of grounded theory.  The rationale for this selection is the generality of the topic of Surveillance and the unspecific inquiry of how it functions within society today.  The hope is to achieve a purely inductive investigation to investigate whether any detection and explanation of the social phenomenon of surveillance will reveal any interesting themes with regards to its function.

Data Gathering

The data gathered will be a series of images taken within the subject of surveillance.  Using a grounded theory approach will require that firstly lots of images of any type of surveillance will be taken, this will include technology and people

Time Line

2 days per week will be allotted to gathering images and 1 day per week will be allocated to processing these images and building on theme detection.

This is estimated to be carried out over 3 weeks totalling 6 days.  The days in-between data gathering will allow for the organisation of access from gatekeepers that may be required

Analysis

After three weeks the images gathered so far will be analysed and examined for themes, once some themes are identify they will be split into categories and coded. Then further photographic inquiry will commence until it is felt that a strong case can be presented regarding the themes uncovered.  Once all information has been gathered the coded themes will be collected together and presented in a photographic report posted to a blog that identifies the themes via selected photos to evidence the themes found.

3.             Equipment needs.

For this project I will be using a Cannon IXUS Digital Camera.  No other equipment will be required and bags of charm to gain access to any secure areas that contain surveillance equipment.

4.             Sample considerations.

The sample for my project will be a combination of still objects and people.  Most of the photographs I want to take will be done covertly to capture the true nature of surveillance.  The sample of people will an opportunity sample and consist of persons of all ages and genders within the population of the Perth area.

5.             Ethical Issues to be considered.

          The ethical issues perceived for this investigation fall firstly to the covert nature of the images of people and the issue of consent.  This could possibly be overcome by ensuring that these images are only taken in a public area and possibly from a distance or gaining prior consent and then capturing images at a later unknown date to the participants.

6.             Restraints and Issues expected.

The restraints and issues expected to arise throughout my project are mainly anticipated to be gaining access via gatekeepers to photograph surveillance equipment, the covert nature of photographing people could mean that getting good images that portray punctum and not just studium may be difficult.  Also these issues collide with the ethical ones above. Also regarding methodology the nature of the grounded theory approach may create an abundance of images that will later require categorising due to the very expansive nature of the variety of surveillance imagery I hope to capture.

Before: First Initial Picture without using compositional rules.

After: To gain closer access and a better view of the bridge I crossed over and stood up over the railing.  I have taken two images using the rule of thirds: the first image has utilised the bottom two thirds of the picture to encompass the bridge; in the second image I have used the  right two thirds which I think works better as I have brought more focus to the bush at the side and also have a better section of the water running under the bridge as well as the whole bridge in the picture.

Before

After: In both images, to avoid cropping the steeple from view, I have used portrait orientation instead of landscape. In the first image I have applied the rule of thirds and captured most of the image in the left two thirds of the picture, in the second one I have captured most of the image in the bottom two thirds.

 Before

 After: Here I have leaned over the railing to remove it from view which allows for most of the image to be captured in the bottom two thirds of the picture, I have also tried to incorporate the diagonals of the river path.

 Before

After: Tried to capture a nice S bend in these images.  I think the bottom one works better as I have tried to take it from a higher point allowing the path to dominate the left two thirds of the picture, again using a portrait orientation seems to work better here to apply the rule of thirds.

Before

After

With these images, I have taken the first photo (before) straight on without applying any rule of thirds.  With the second image (after) I stood on a container and pointed the camera directly downwards to catch the light and shadow of the object. I also applyed the rule of thirds so that the heart was placed in the bottom two thirds of the photograph, in contrast to the before image that was located directly in centre of the photo.