{"id":3141,"date":"2020-02-15T11:10:38","date_gmt":"2020-02-15T11:10:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/?p=3141"},"modified":"2023-11-17T10:15:57","modified_gmt":"2023-11-17T10:15:57","slug":"we-are-being-watched-by-savita-tyagi-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/?p=3141","title":{"rendered":"We Are Being Watched"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"left-column\">\n<p>This is such a creepy and weird feeling<br \/>\nUnsuspecting innocent hearts<br \/>\nBeing watched<br \/>\nNot by police or bandits<br \/>\nOr by hunters of bad credits<br \/>\nWe are being watched for our psychology<br \/>\nBy the unseen eye of technology<br \/>\nWhat I read, what I watch<br \/>\nWhere I shop, where I stop<br \/>\nWho my friends are<br \/>\nOr if I have any at all<br \/>\nAll is gathered in by technocracy<br \/>\nI wonder what market price is fetched<br \/>\nWith my unique sketch!<br \/>\nIt must be high!<br \/>\nOr may be dime a dozen for my kind!<br \/>\nBut imagine for them to display it back<br \/>\nIn flashing red colors!<br \/>\nBack on my computer<br \/>\nThat I should study palmistry<br \/>\nTo know my ancestry<br \/>\nOr eat cucumber<br \/>\nTo improve sense of humor<br \/>\nAnd my friend<br \/>\nThis is not the only thing to sigh<br \/>\nLook out for that camera hanging high<br \/>\nOn traffic lights, stores, and parking space<br \/>\nSome time I feel like making a monkey face<br \/>\nOr sticking my tongue to it!<br \/>\nThis is as far as I go in crossing the line of decency!<br \/>\nHowever I have lot of fun in thinking-<br \/>\nIf all the mothers taught their young children<br \/>\nAbout that camera and its eye everywhere<br \/>\nThere could be lots of monkey faces for<br \/>\nA computer genius to handle!<br \/>\nI hope some day Techno eye would know<br \/>\nThat we are not just www.com<br \/>\nAnd we do wear pom-pom! <\/p>\n<p><strong>Savita Tyagi (2013)<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"right-column\">\n<p>The Panopticon concept can be explored through Savita Tyagi\u2019s \u2018We Are Being Watched\u2019, a reflection of an individual\u2019s outlook on a society that is constantly being looked at from every angle. This poem refers to an \u2018unseen eye\u2019, indicating various points of surveillance which are able to observe their subject, while remaining undetected. A personal connection is created through the poem by her description of her surrounding and the physical feeling she feels in every aspect. A \u2018a creepy and weird feeling\u2019 throws the reader straight into the experience of her current emotions creating a huge importance in emulsifying us to understand the feelings associated with paranoia. <\/p>\n<p>The poem suggests that the \u2018unseen eye of technology\u2019 watches our every move, with technology as a constant surveiller of all activities, gathering information on \u2018where [Tyagi] shops, where [she] stops\u2019. Similarly, this influences \u2018our psychology\u2019, reflecting Foucault\u2019s idea that the Panopticon has been internalized, who based his theory on Bentham\u2019s prison model. Foucault\u2019s argument highlights how prisoners inside the Panopticon can never be certain whether there is anyone in the central watchtower, so they end up internalising the premise of the watchtower, regulating their behaviour as a result. This psychological, as opposed to physical control is, for Foucault, a reflection of modern society. Paranoia as a result of surveillance is explored when Tyagi dives into the idea of figuring out her own personal history. This wandering, \u2018unseen eye\u2019 is more likely to have information on it than herself, and Tyagi, perhaps ironically, explains \u2018that [she] should study palmistry, to know [her own] history\u2019. An interesting outlook Tyagi portrays within the poem is that the technological presence seems to consider the humans as something generic with no emotions connected to it, \u2018That we are not just www.com\u2019 which is ironic seeing as how she believes it is the opposite and argues this throughout the poem. <\/p>\n<p>The paranoia Tyagi feels passes down to the younger generation as she begins to feel it is the duty of mothers to make their children aware \u2018if all the mothers taught their young children about that camera and its eye everywhere\u2019 then they could produce the same \u2018monkey faces for A computer genius to handle\u2019. These \u2018monkey faces\u2019 seem to be the interlinking connection between all those who are being watched to differentiate from the eye and become a symbol of being against the \u2018tecno eye\u2019, as humans are descendants of monkeys, this is a clever way of showing that technology has no part in human history. A hidden communication skill that makes it unable for the technology to truly understand what is happening as they are unable to comprehend these emotions.  The rhythmic chant Tyagi uses within the poem creates a rap song effect with all the end-rhymes used such as \u2018-ly\u2019, \u2018-ry\u2019 and \u2018-cy\u2019 suffixes. with no breaks, the complete opposite of a technological piece of text through the irregularity of the rhythm in the piece. <\/p>\n<p>This in turn creates a vast contrast between the observed and the one observing. This fast paced piece projects Tyagi\u2019s rambling thoughts, physically writing them down on paper. The rambling expresses the length of paranoia Tyagi is experiencing, as she becomes progressively afraid that surveilling technology will overtake her freedom of thought. Only exclamation marks are used as punctuation within the poem, highlighting her anger towards the breach of privacy she feels restrains her physical and emotional independence. Similarly, this use of exclamation marks also seems to mimic the way they are used in technological interactions, such as clickbait internet ads, to entice users. Her use of exclamations seems to both reflect and subvert this.<\/p>\n<p>She claims to be wary of the \u2018camera and its eye everywhere\u2019, implying a sense of omnipresence of surveilling entities, particularly in our private lives.  Just as with Bentham\u2019s original concept of the Panopticon prison, when surveillance takes place, people make conscious decisions to change their behaviour, Tyagi starts to change her actions towards things around her \u2018some time I feel like making a monkey face, or sticking my tongue to it!\u2019. These actions are an act of resistance as a result of the Panopticon but not what it is designed to actually elicit. The irregular change in her behaviour creates an alter ego she now seems to possess in defiance to the technology that surrounds her causing it to not fully understand what her behaviour means. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Savita Tyagi (2013)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":3247,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,27,28,29,30,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2019-2020","category-2020-2021","category-2021-2022","category-2022-2023","category-2023-2024","category-panopticon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3141"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3375,"href":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3141\/revisions\/3375"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clc.sllf.qmul.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}