Skip to main content

2019 | OriginalPaper | Buchkapitel

Making Room for Our Personal Posthuman Prisons: Black Mirror’s “Be Right Back”

verfasst von : Andrew Schopp

Erschienen in: Through the Black Mirror

Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Aktivieren Sie unsere intelligente Suche um passende Fachinhalte oder Patente zu finden.

search-config
loading …

Abstract

By drawing on surveillance theory, assessments of the market processes undergirding our liquid modern investments in technology, and explorations of our posthuman future, Schopp analyzes the Black Mirror (2011–) episode “Be Right Back” as a telling metaphor for the individual in her/his relationship to a “post-panoptic” capitalist culture. Schopp contends that the episode signals the dangers that we likely face in any posthuman future, depicting such a future as existing somewhere in-between the idealized, utopian version that futurists imagine and the dystopian renderings so often depicted in pop-culture. Schopp argues that the episode underscores how the future we incur will be the result of our quotidian undertakings and of our decision to make room in our lives for technology, and thus this episode reminds us that moving forward mindlessly with our social media and making more and more space in our lives for technology are actions that will likely frame, even determine, our posthuman selves. But since such actions might also inadvertently construct personal posthuman prisons, they are moves forward from which we might not readily come back.

Sie haben noch keine Lizenz? Dann Informieren Sie sich jetzt über unsere Produkte:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

  • über 102.000 Bücher
  • über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

  • Automobil + Motoren
  • Bauwesen + Immobilien
  • Business IT + Informatik
  • Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
  • Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
  • Finance + Banking
  • Management + Führung
  • Marketing + Vertrieb
  • Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
  • Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

  • über 67.000 Bücher
  • über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

  • Bauwesen + Immobilien
  • Business IT + Informatik
  • Finance + Banking
  • Management + Führung
  • Marketing + Vertrieb
  • Versicherung + Risiko




Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

Fußnoten
1
In defining our culture as “post-panoptic” I am not suggesting that the panoptic no longer functions, but that just as “postmodern” can signify an evolution of modernism rather than its rejection, our culture reflects an evolution of panopticism that many scholars strive to delineate.
 
2
Thomas Mathieson introduced the term synopticon into surveillance studies, indicating a more flexible disciplinary space in which the media allows the many to watch the few, thus reversing Foucault’s panoptic disciplinary space in which the few watched the many (Bauman & Lyon, 2013, p. 68). But for Mathieson, synopticism does not replace panopticism for “panopticism and synopticism have developed in intimate interaction, even fusion, with each other” (Mathieson, 1997, p. 223).
 
3
G for genetic engineering, N for nanotechnology, and R for robotics.
 
Literatur
Zurück zum Zitat Bauman, Z. (2007). Liquid Times: Living in an Age of Uncertainty. Cambridge: Polity. Bauman, Z. (2007). Liquid Times: Living in an Age of Uncertainty. Cambridge: Polity.
Zurück zum Zitat Bauman, Z., & Lyon, D. (2013). Liquid Surveillance: A Conversation. Cambridge: Polity. Bauman, Z., & Lyon, D. (2013). Liquid Surveillance: A Conversation. Cambridge: Polity.
Zurück zum Zitat Bridges, W., & Brooker, C. (Writers) & Haynes, T. (Director). (2017). USS Callister. [Television series episode] In L. Sutton (Producer). Black Mirror. Los Gatos: Netflix. Bridges, W., & Brooker, C. (Writers) & Haynes, T. (Director). (2017). USS Callister. [Television series episode] In L. Sutton (Producer). Black Mirror. Los Gatos: Netflix.
Zurück zum Zitat Brooker, C. (Writer), & Harris, O. (Director). (2013). Be Right Back. [Television series episode] In B. Reisz (Producer). Black Mirror. London: Channel 4. Brooker, C. (Writer), & Harris, O. (Director). (2013). Be Right Back. [Television series episode] In B. Reisz (Producer). Black Mirror. London: Channel 4.
Zurück zum Zitat Brooker, C. (Writer), & Harris, O. (Director). (2016). San Junipero. [Television series episode] In L. Borg (Producer). Black Mirror. Los Gatos: Netflix. Brooker, C. (Writer), & Harris, O. (Director). (2016). San Junipero. [Television series episode] In L. Borg (Producer). Black Mirror. Los Gatos: Netflix.
Zurück zum Zitat Brooker, C. (Writer), & Hillcoat, J. (Director). (2017). Crocodile. [Television series episode] In S. Wohlenberg (Producer). Black Mirror. Los Gatos: Netflix. Brooker, C. (Writer), & Hillcoat, J. (Director). (2017). Crocodile. [Television series episode] In S. Wohlenberg (Producer). Black Mirror. Los Gatos: Netflix.
Zurück zum Zitat Brooker, C., & Huq, K. (Writers) & Lynn, E. (Director). (2011). Fifteen Million Merits. [Television series episode] In Reisz, B. (Producer). Black Mirror. London: Channel 4. Brooker, C., & Huq, K. (Writers) & Lynn, E. (Director). (2011). Fifteen Million Merits. [Television series episode] In Reisz, B. (Producer). Black Mirror. London: Channel 4.
Zurück zum Zitat Brooker, C. (Writer), & Slade, D. (Director). (2017). Metalhead. [Television series episode] In L. Sutton (Producer). Black Mirror. Los Gatos: Netflix. Brooker, C. (Writer), & Slade, D. (Director). (2017). Metalhead. [Television series episode] In L. Sutton (Producer). Black Mirror. Los Gatos: Netflix.
Zurück zum Zitat Brooker, C. (Writer), & Tibbetts, C. (Director). (2013). White Bear. [Television series episode] In B. Reisz (Producer). Black Mirror. London: Channel 4. Brooker, C. (Writer), & Tibbetts, C. (Director). (2013). White Bear. [Television series episode] In B. Reisz (Producer). Black Mirror. London: Channel 4.
Zurück zum Zitat Brooker, C. (Writer), & Tibbetts, C. (Director). (2014). White Christmas. [Television series episode] In B. Reisz (Producer). Black Mirror. London: Channel 4. Brooker, C. (Writer), & Tibbetts, C. (Director). (2014). White Christmas. [Television series episode] In B. Reisz (Producer). Black Mirror. London: Channel 4.
Zurück zum Zitat Brooker, C. (Writer), & Trachtenberg, D. (Director). (2016). Playtest. [Television series episode] In L. Borg (Producer). Black Mirror. Los Gatos: Netflix. Brooker, C. (Writer), & Trachtenberg, D. (Director). (2016). Playtest. [Television series episode] In L. Borg (Producer). Black Mirror. Los Gatos: Netflix.
Zurück zum Zitat Deleuze, G. (1995). Postscript on Control Societies. In M. Joughin (Trans.). Negotiations (pp. 177–182). New York: Columbia University Press. Deleuze, G. (1995). Postscript on Control Societies. In M. Joughin (Trans.). Negotiations (pp. 177–182). New York: Columbia University Press.
Zurück zum Zitat Dinerstein, J. (2006). Technology and Its Discontents: On the Verge of the Posthuman. American Quarterly, 58(3), 569–595.CrossRef Dinerstein, J. (2006). Technology and Its Discontents: On the Verge of the Posthuman. American Quarterly, 58(3), 569–595.CrossRef
Zurück zum Zitat Foucault, M. (1979). Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Vintage Books. Foucault, M. (1979). Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Vintage Books.
Zurück zum Zitat Gane, N. (2012). The Governmentalities of Neoliberalism: Panopticism, Post-panopticism and Beyond. Sociological Review, 60, 611–634.CrossRef Gane, N. (2012). The Governmentalities of Neoliberalism: Panopticism, Post-panopticism and Beyond. Sociological Review, 60, 611–634.CrossRef
Zurück zum Zitat Haggerty, K. (2006). Tear Down the Walls: On Demolishing the Panopticon. In D. Lyon (Ed.), Theorizing Surveillance: the Panopticon and Beyond (pp. 22–45). Cullompton, Devon: Willan Publishing. Haggerty, K. (2006). Tear Down the Walls: On Demolishing the Panopticon. In D. Lyon (Ed.), Theorizing Surveillance: the Panopticon and Beyond (pp. 22–45). Cullompton, Devon: Willan Publishing.
Zurück zum Zitat Jones, R., & Schur, M. (Writers) & Wright, J. (Director). (2016). Nosedive. [Television series episode]. In L. Borg (Producer). Black Mirror. Los Gatos: Netflix. Jones, R., & Schur, M. (Writers) & Wright, J. (Director). (2016). Nosedive. [Television series episode]. In L. Borg (Producer). Black Mirror. Los Gatos: Netflix.
Zurück zum Zitat Lyon, D. (2010). Liquid Surveillance: The Contribution of Zygmunt Bauman to Surveillance Studies. International Political Sociology, 4, 325–338.CrossRef Lyon, D. (2010). Liquid Surveillance: The Contribution of Zygmunt Bauman to Surveillance Studies. International Political Sociology, 4, 325–338.CrossRef
Zurück zum Zitat Mathieson, T. (1997). The Viewer Society: Michel Foucault’s ‘Panopticon’ Revisited. Theoretical Criminology, 1(2), 215–234.CrossRef Mathieson, T. (1997). The Viewer Society: Michel Foucault’s ‘Panopticon’ Revisited. Theoretical Criminology, 1(2), 215–234.CrossRef
Zurück zum Zitat Ptolemy, R. B. (Director) & Nainoa F., & Ptolemy, R. B. (Producer) (2009). Transcendent Man. USA: Ptolemaic Productions. Ptolemy, R. B. (Director) & Nainoa F., & Ptolemy, R. B. (Producer) (2009). Transcendent Man. USA: Ptolemaic Productions.
Zurück zum Zitat Wilkie, R. (2011). The Digital Condition: Class and Culture in the Information Network. New York: Fordham University Press.CrossRef Wilkie, R. (2011). The Digital Condition: Class and Culture in the Information Network. New York: Fordham University Press.CrossRef
Metadaten
Titel
Making Room for Our Personal Posthuman Prisons: Black Mirror’s “Be Right Back”
verfasst von
Andrew Schopp
Copyright-Jahr
2019
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19458-1_5