Reading the Surface: Body Language and Surveillance
This article explores the role played by body language in recent examples of popular culture and political news coverage as a means of highlighting the poten-tially deceptive haracter of speech and promising to bypass it altogether. It situ-ates the promise of "visceral literacy" - the all...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Linköping University Electronic Press
2010-03-01
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| Series: | Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.3384/cu.2000.1525.102315 |
| _version_ | 1818621942900457472 |
|---|---|
| author | Mark Andrejevic |
| author_facet | Mark Andrejevic |
| author_sort | Mark Andrejevic |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article explores the role played by body language in recent examples of popular culture and political news coverage as a means of highlighting the poten-tially deceptive haracter of speech and promising to bypass it altogether. It situ-ates the promise of "visceral literacy" - the alleged ability to read inner emotions and dispositions - within emerging surveillance practices and the landscapes of risk they navigate. At the same time, it describes portrayals of body language analysis as characteristic of an emerging genre of "securitainment" that instructs viewers in monitoring techniques as it entertains and informs them. Body lan-guage ends up caught in the symbolic impasse it sought to avoid: as soon as it is portrayed as a language that can be learned and consciously "spoken" it falls prey to the potential for deceit. The article's conclusion considers the way in which emerging technologies attempt to address this impasse, bypassing the attempt to infer underlying signification altogether. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-16T18:17:18Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-721191966551414fb308d4786897bf61 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2000-1525 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-16T18:17:18Z |
| publishDate | 2010-03-01 |
| publisher | Linköping University Electronic Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research |
| spelling | doaj.art-721191966551414fb308d4786897bf612022-12-21T22:21:39ZengLinköping University Electronic PressCulture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research2000-15252010-03-0121536Reading the Surface: Body Language and SurveillanceMark AndrejevicThis article explores the role played by body language in recent examples of popular culture and political news coverage as a means of highlighting the poten-tially deceptive haracter of speech and promising to bypass it altogether. It situ-ates the promise of "visceral literacy" - the alleged ability to read inner emotions and dispositions - within emerging surveillance practices and the landscapes of risk they navigate. At the same time, it describes portrayals of body language analysis as characteristic of an emerging genre of "securitainment" that instructs viewers in monitoring techniques as it entertains and informs them. Body lan-guage ends up caught in the symbolic impasse it sought to avoid: as soon as it is portrayed as a language that can be learned and consciously "spoken" it falls prey to the potential for deceit. The article's conclusion considers the way in which emerging technologies attempt to address this impasse, bypassing the attempt to infer underlying signification altogether.http://dx.doi.org/10.3384/cu.2000.1525.102315Body languagesurveillancepoker TVLie to Melyinghomeland security |
| spellingShingle | Mark Andrejevic Reading the Surface: Body Language and Surveillance Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research Body language surveillance poker TV Lie to Me lying homeland security |
| title | Reading the Surface: Body Language and Surveillance |
| title_full | Reading the Surface: Body Language and Surveillance |
| title_fullStr | Reading the Surface: Body Language and Surveillance |
| title_full_unstemmed | Reading the Surface: Body Language and Surveillance |
| title_short | Reading the Surface: Body Language and Surveillance |
| title_sort | reading the surface body language and surveillance |
| topic | Body language surveillance poker TV Lie to Me lying homeland security |
| url | http://dx.doi.org/10.3384/cu.2000.1525.102315 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT markandrejevic readingthesurfacebodylanguageandsurveillance |