Wave to the Camera
[This article might include "spoilers" of the plots of the films "Cube," "Hypercube," "Cube Zero," "Saw" and "Saw II."]
When the TV show called "Big Brother" (which owes its name to the ever-watchful authority in George Orwell's book "1984") was transformed into "Biri Bizi Gözetliyor" and broadcast in Turkey, it created great enthusiasm at first. Over time, however, people got bored with a house full of ordinary (although a little crazy) contestants. They next chose to watch a house full of "brides and grooms" and, later on, moms as well. Currently, we're watching a show featuring dancers who are trying to eliminate each other in order to be selected as the "best" among thousands of contestants. One way or another, the new generation of TV shows is based on watching the "real." But what does the "real" consist of?
One of the most reliable news portals in Turkey, ntvmsnbc.com, tells us that the New York City Police Department is planning to increase the number of cameras watching the streets to 2,100 by 2008.* While the US is trying to improve its system of citizen surveillance, here in Turkey the Territory Visualization System of the MOBESE Project has been using camera towers to watch some key locations in Istanbul for the past several years.** Similar systems are being employed in many other countries, including the United Kingdom and Japan.
Cameras were also involved in the separate events surrounding two well-known women, Gamze Özçelik and Paris Hilton, who have attracted attention because of videos taken during sexual intercourse. Ms. Özçelik's video is still a case for the law courts, but Paris Hilton didn't even try to deny that her video was made intentionally.
Remember the movie "Enemy of the State"? It tried to make us ask questions about the status of a citizen under the technological control of the government. The "Cube" trilogy (1997, 2002 and 2004) was based on the idea of a huge, visually controlled prison. And the plots of the two recent films "Saw" and "Saw II" featured a psychopath kidnapping people and observing them through a camera.***
The contribution of Google Earth to this "global obsession with visual communication" also cannot be underestimated: any ordinary person who has basic knowledge of the Internet can watch your city and even the roof of your building via Google Earth. These days, your town is nothing more than a high-resolution Simcity model to someone in, say, Japan.
The result of all these developments is that you can be watched while shopping in a supermarket or walking down the street just like a prisoner or a test subject who needs continuous observation. Under the reign of the cameras, the distinction between who is the viewer and who is being viewed has become blurred. A “viewer” and his/her home can also easily be viewed on Google Earth or a MOBESE camera, so he/she is now in turn providing the view. He/she can even become a movie star like Paris Hilton if he/she wants to.
Maybe this is why popular television programs (such as Şahan Gökbakar's show) are getting more and more absurd. We're already the actors and the actresses in a continuously running broadcast of reality.
So, why watch anything sensible on TV?
*http://www.ntvmsnbc.com/news/369586.asp
**http://mobese.iem.gov.tr/
***http://www.imdb.com
İsmail O. Postalcıoğlu (POLS/III)
ismail_orhan@yahoo.com
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