This week in my contextual studies lecture we were still speaking about Prince as we were still talking about the same subject but had a slightly different topic. of power, freedom and ownership. We started off the lecture with the same question as before but that's just because we were still talking about the same subject.
The first thing we spoke about was Paisley Park which is what Prince created as his safe haven in a way. He began construction on Paisley Park after Purple Rain, it was a 65,000sqft recording and production complex that ranged from fashion, graphic design, moving image and sound design. This gave Prince the chance to have a space away from the panopticon of the music industry and be creative. This is when I started to realise what we were talking about relating back to the title of freedom and ownership. I couldn't so much work out why it was related to power but understood it related to freedom and it's where Prince could be himself and be free and he owned it. I suppose he was in the power of controlling what happened to the park.
One word that came up in the lecture that I didn't know what it was, was the word panopticon so I was relieved on the next slide was a definition of panopticon.
What is the panopticon?
A prison. The central creation of Jeremy Bentham, a Humanitarian who believed in freedom of expression and individual rights and the separation of church and state. The basis of this work is the idea that a small number of guards can view a large number of prisoners at any given time, and that the prisoners don't know if they're being watched. His hope was that the presence of a figure of power makes the prisoners more likely to behave well incase someone is watching them to build moral responsibility within the inmates which is the basis of their rehabilitation.This principle has been applied in our everyday lives ever since the idea that we should behave well and discourage others bad behaviour.
Was Paisley Park a havan or a creative panopticon with Prince as the guard? Could it depend on who you ask?
In my opinion I think it was a bit of both for Prince because it definitely helped him write songs and create albums but on the other hand he did pass away due to an overdose so I think things could have got on top of him like it does for a lot of people.
Panopticon today examples - Neighbourhood Watch, ‘Got a TV Licence’ note, Speed cameras, CCTV
We then spoke a little bit about Foucault and power and discipline. His saying is knowledge = power which are forever interlinked. Our power and knowledge all comes from from observing others. Foucault doesn’t give us the answers, but questions that we need to ask society, and thinks the shaping of this resistance needs to come from us, telling the ruling class what is/isn’t acceptable.
Digital ownership:
In 1993 Warner Brothers asked Prince to release LESS music as he needed to take more time in between releasing new music as he had 50 unreleased songs.
In 1994 Prince started releasing a series of records in quick succession in order to fulfil is record deal.
He then appears in public with SLAVE written across his face.
He then changed his name from Prince to:
Because Warner Brother's told Prince to release less music he took that as the record company becoming difficult so he then released 4 records in 3 years, as many as he possibly could to get out of his record deal. He also became aware that his name had been trademarked by Warner Brothers which meant he couldn't use it legally in other other form and he also didn't own any of his own recorded material and all he wanted to do was to get out of the deal he signed when he was 19. All of his material including Paisley Park is no longer his.
Social media:
Social media is one platform where we see our feeds full of influencers, advertising and recycling of information but these companies are also using our information to profile our habits and interests which they tell us they are going to do in terms of service!
We then again had some questions to think about and discuss in our seminar on Thursday:
How do we make sure that we don’t become beholden to platforms in the future?
Where is your Paisley Park? Is it a physical space? Why do you feel most creative there?
Is the internet our 21st century panopticon? Is this necessarily a bad thing?
Consider where you post your work online. Who owns the rights to your content, and what is the policy if someone uses your content without credit?
Is your digital footprint worrying/useful/unimportant to you?
Is an independent, regulatory body the answer?
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