مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - “Every Hero has a Code”: Looking at Westworld through the Triangle of Subject-Power-Surveillance

Abstract :

In this study, the structure of new power mechanisms that we think are waiting us in the future, is discussed on the basis of cyborgs of the television series Westworld, defined as subjects in the context of emerging surveillance and biopower technologies. The aim of this study was to understand the relation of subject-power-surveillance created through this technological change and reflected in the realm of social reality. The idea that the Westworld experience is not too far for humanity is the main motivation for this study. In addition, the idea of blending science fiction scenarios and power concepts in social sciences has provided us with a wide range of research. This paper uses a 10-episode sample in the first season of Westworld”, and it applies content analysis focused on the concepts of Foucault s biopower and the surveillance concept of Bauman and Lyon. In this context, the subject is under biopower and surveillance. The sub-texts of the episode components have been read through the concepts and the attributions made to the works of art have been revealed. In this series; we face a techno-deterministic world with a high level of technological surveillance, the fields of domination over body and mind, the domination policies of those who are in power and there are violence scenes among those who are in power and those who are exposed to the power. Westworld which can be considered a simulation of Foucault’s conception of power, also reveals what resistance mechanisms may emerge if when we are watched by the Superpanopticon. It has been seen that problem robots are removed and closed off, that those in power have mobilized all the possibilities of technology in order to maintain the current order.