Surveillance In George Orwell's '1984'

Surveillance is two fold, meaning it can be from peers and from the state. This can be seen with government spying on citizens to a mother listening in on her child’s conversation with a friend. Surveillance comes in many different forms as is seen throughout history. By watching one’s activities from video to listening to a conversation with a wire, there are many mediums of collecting information orally and visually. However, social control, in the form of surveillance, can lead to restricting the flow of truth. When one has the knowledge of being watched, this can lead to a person not acting how they normally would. This idea of being observed can lead to not only people not acting natural, but not showing the truth. Therefore,when one has

a sense of being watched, they will act more superficial. This can be seen with The Circle by Edgars, 1984 by George Orwell, Panopticisim by Michel Fouclat and ????. In The Circle, constant surveillance of going transparent is seen with use of cameras in all locations. In 1984, surveillance is seen with the tele screens, posters, and members of the Party. In Michel Fouclat’s Discipline and Punishment, the idea of the panopticon is described with the purpose of surveilling each individual in a cell.Thus, when one is surveilled, with the knowledge of being surveilled, they will change their behaviour from how they truly act.

In The Circle, surveillance is a heavily discussed topic throughout the novel. This is shown by going transparent. Specifically, this seen in the book with the small well disguised cameras, as it is hard for the naked human eye to tell if there is a camera recording them. This makes it capable for people to covertly watch a certain environment. SeeChange, grants the ability for users to record live streaming video from their cameras and share the broadcast with a friend virtually. This social media platform makes it accessible for friends to share their broadcasts with each other as they can see more of the world.
“We can now get high-def quality resolution in a camera the size of a thumb.” “Okay, so I set up that camera this morning. I taped it to a stake, stuck that stake in the sand, in dunes, with no permit, nothing. In fact, no one knows it’s there.”
“Now remember: no one sees these cameras. I’ve hidden them pretty well. To the average person they look like weeds, or some kind of stick. Anything. They’re unnoticed”
With these cameras being hardly visible to the eye, the truth can be captured much easily. This is due to the fact that people being recorded by these cameras have no knowledge that they are being recorded with it’s minuscule size. All this in effect will lead to showing the truth, as a person being filmed has no idea that they are being filmed, leading them to act in a natural state.
“Instead of searching the web, only to find some edited video with terrible quality, now you go to SeeChange” “This is ultimate transparency. No filter. See everything. Always.”
This suggests how SeeChange videos are more accurate and truthful than a less reliable video recorded before and edited. It is not only more reliable but it is “transparent” without “filter”. This shows how precisely valid the cameras are in terms of recording the truth. As a result, Eamon Bailey and his friends can check the weather conditions of location of interest, status of child in school, grandmother at home and so on. Eamon Bailey also suggests of the idea that “I insist that all that happens should be known” “The words dropped onto the screen: ALL THAT HAPPENS MUST BE KNOWN”. It is then discussed about how these cameras can be used for justice by catching crimes and report news from riots in Cairo.
All this can help develop finding the truth due to the cameras with “There needs to be accountability. Tyrants can no longer hide. There needs to be, and will be, documentation and accountability, and we need to bear witness.” In terms of crime, without knowledge of being recorded, criminals will be caught more easily as they are less likely to do acts of crime when knowing that they are being surveilled. It is no longer easy for criminals to escape as all their actions will be caught since Eamon believes “All that happens should be known”.
“They don’t know we see them, but we do. The world is watching. And listening.” By being able to broadcast this news -in a sense-, helps offer local valuable information. This close and detailed surveillance system can help show the rest of the world the truth of the situation of Egypt. Cairo’s riots can now be shown unedited, showing the precise events occurring in the riots without any manipulation of any kind. The people being recorded cannot see this camera, consequently, acting natural, showing their reality.

In George Orwell’s “1984”, the issue of being monitored is discussed.

This is seen with “Big brother is watching you”. Through the use of this message, people are now skewed, feeling they are watched with the signs shown in throughout society. Big brother in itself is a form of surveillance as it is watching “you”, and can always see you, with the posters being shown everywhere. Through George Orwell’s use of telescreens, the effect of tele screens observing the people is seen with “The instrument (the telescreen, it was called) could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely” This shows how no matter how much you try to prevent the tele screen from surveilling, it will always watch people. Thus in a effect people must not act negative with “It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself – anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide.” This leads to people not being able to express their true inner selves, but instead conform to the Governmental Party’s standards. This form of surveillance, in effect, controls people to hide the truth -internally- and behaviour -externally- as is described in the

novel.

When discussing surveillance, one can imagine the panopticon. The Panopoticon introduced in the late 1700’s by Jeremy Bentham is a architectural building designed for the purpose of surveillance society in which people police themselves. In Michel Foucalt’s Panoticism chapter from “Discipline and Punishment” a panopticon is described as “at the periphery, an annular building; at the centre, a tower; this tower is perched with wide windows that open onto the inner side of the ring; the peripheric building is divided into cells, each of which extends the whole width of the building; they have two windows, one on the inside, corresponding to the windows of the tower; the other, on the outside, allows the light to cross the cell form one end to the other”. This architecture built can help prison guards have a complete view of the entire environment around them, leading to unlimited surveillance. This form of surveillance in prisons can help restrict communication between inmates with “Each individual, in his place, is securely confined to a cell from which he is seen from the front by the supervisor; but the side walls prevent him from coming into contact with his companions”. It is also discussed that when surveilling inmates it is important to “it is at once too much and too little that the prisoner should be constantly observed by an inspector: too little, for what matters is that he knows himself to be observed; too much, because he has no need in fact of being so”, “Bentham laid down the principle that power should be visible and unverifiable. Visible: the inmate will constantly have before his eyes the tall outline of the central tower from which he is spied upon. Unverifiable: the inmate must never know whether he is being looked at at any one moment; but he must be sure that he may always be so.” This shows how subconsciously a prisoner must be aware that he may not be watched. However, it is suggested that the prisoner must be able to know that he could also be constantly watched. This psychologically affects a prisoner as he no longer has any privacy whatsoever. Thus by being watched and not being able to communicate, the inmate can no longer be able to do simple accustomed actions such as engaging a conversation with a fellow companion, using a bathroom privately and so on. The inmate can no longer hide and try to escape without being watched or being able to talk with a fellow companion on planning a escape. It is these actions which a prisoner would truly desire, however he/she is restricted from doing so due to the panopticon.Therefore, the effect of the panopticon, as a form of surveillance in prison, can show how surveillance can lead to restricting the dispersal of truth.