To Live is to

Keep Track.
Self-tracking and the Price of
Finding the True Self.
Sophie Uesson
To Live is to Keep Track.
Self-tracking and the Price of
Finding the True Self.
Sophie Uesson
MA Thesis Digital Media Goldsmiths, University of London
2013
A Foucauldian perspective on self-tracking: The thin line between becoming one with the true
and natural body by optimisation, and becoming a slave under the norms and power structures
of society.
sophie@onehappyfamily.me
@shoffis
edit 2014
The symbol above means that you have the right to remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as you credit and license the new creations under the
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Jo-
anna Zylinska for her enthusiastic encouragement
throughout the MA and dissertation period. Her
inspiring lectures about biopolitics, biotechnology
and bioethics, has most certainly broadened my
ideas and opened up my mind.
I am grateful towards my lovely MA colleagues,
Maria Joo, Vanora, Sara and Tu!rul with whom
I have shared many interesting discussions regar-
ding technology and new media.
Finally, I would like to thank my wonderful mot-
her, father and sister who have supported and en-
couraged me throughout this philosophically chal-
lenging year.
Big love to Wille who never stops believing in me.
And a special thought goes to my fantastic grand-
mother Jane, who always encouraged me to never
stop learning since nobody can take knowledge
away from you, and who made this year in Lon-
don happen.
Introduction
You were awoken by Jawbone Up at 07.12 after 6 hours and 14
minutes of sleep with a sleep quality of 67 percent. Your egg
sandwich, which you had for breakfast on the go, contained
463 calories. Since you swallowed the last bite of your sand-
wich you have taken 1457 steps, as well as cycled for 23 minu-
tes to work, burning 146 calories in total.
This is a normal start of the day for many self-trackers. Every
minute of their life is monitored, recorded and analysed, resul-
ting in insights which are used to alter, transform and en-
hance their identity (Blackman, 2008), often but not always,
with the hope to one day decipher their true self and the true
human. Self-tracking is not new, it traces back to Greek and
Christian culture where regimen was seen as either an act crea-
ted through moral conduct from dominating powers above or
through ethical ideals from below, through the self. Based on
this, I am curious as to whether modern self-tracking is an act
based on moral conduct and social obligation towards
humanity developed through powers of domination, or simply
an ethical and liberating act towards oneself.
Though the individual may feel as if, through tracking, they
are creating new kinds of identities, what defines these identi-
ties as new and not simply replicas of the norms around
them? Can the tracking of calories and the pursuit for a slim
body ideal be seen as an isolated act towards oneself or is it
simply an act of self-regulating domination, performed by the
individual to fit into the hegemonic norm? Since liberation
and domination co-exist and co-emerge (Kember&Zylinska,
2012) within the same power relations that create the discour-
se and norms concerning health and the body - can a subject
be autonomous and have true agency?
My focus throughout my dissertation will thus be on self-track-
ing within health and fitness and how the self-tracker relates
to the technology in terms of producing and resisting norms
of identity. I find this especially interesting due to the quick
growth of the market.
The U.S. sports and fitness category within electronics was, ac-
cording to Consumer Electronics Association in 2012, a $70
billion business (Quart, 2013). According to a report by mar-
ket firm ABI, an estimated 485 million wearable computing
devices will be released annually by 2018, of which 61 percent
will be fitness or activity related (Ramirez&Wolf, 2013). What
drives consumers to track their own health and what implica-
tions might the tracking have in terms of health norms and bo-
dy ideals?
4
This brings me to my research question:
To what extent do new technologies of health monito-
ring and self-tracking produce docile bodies in the se-
arch of a 'true self'?
I have chosen to write about self-tracking and health monito-
ring as I find it interesting that a phenomenom which has ex-
isted since the Greek epoch is suddenly reborn in a new
technological shape, creating a market with big potentials.
Without reflecting on the implications which this new techno-
logy may have on them, individuals adapt to the process of
self-tracking, some during a set time for instance while they
jog, and others 24/7, even when they sleep. The production of
identity and norms is a longstanding interest of mine and
when I downloaded Moves app, an app which tracks move-
ments, steps taken, transport by bus/car/train, cycling, as well
as give you an account of the places you have been to throug-
hout the day, I noticed a change in my behavior. The app itself
did not present a recommend step count to me but I knew
from friends and articles about health a.k.a the norm that
10.000 steps per day was recommended, which correlated
well with my daily walk back and forth from the train station
where my train to uni departs. However, I noted that I got anx-
ious about my steps on the days that I did not go to uni.
Instead of taking the bus if I was going somewhere, I started
walking. 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 40 minutes, until I reached
10.000 steps or more. At the same time I joined a bootcamp
group which started out with an appointment to get measu-
red. The instructor weighed me in, measured the percentage
of body fat and took measurements of my body, thighs, arms
and so on. Four weeks later I was going to be measured once
again which resulted in a constant reflection about my food in-
take and exercise. I felt that it was good for me, but I also felt
trapped and limited by it - which resulted in my research
question about docile bodies.
In my literature review I introduce the reader to the definition
of self-tracking, as well as give the reader a background histo-
ry of regimen and the tracking of diet and exercise, based on
Greek and Christian culture. I furthermore explain how identi-
ties are created through theories of Hall, Bolter & Grusin, Bau-
man and Foucault, and explore how technologies of domina-
tion and technologies of the self are used in order to create
identities and truths. As I focus on health tracking I describe
the powers within the discourse of diet and how body ideals
are produced through these powers. Finally I analyse how di-
scipline is used within the discourse of fitness.
In order to explore self-tracking and the construction of identi-
ties I have chosen to research the tracking device Jawbone Up
in my case study, since it is a device which is supposed to be
used 24/7 and has the possibility to track many parameters at
once, from sleep to food intake. I have analysed the company
website and reviews of the product as well as read blogs and
articles where individuals involved in self-tracking have ex-
pressed their experiences using Jawbone Up and similar de-
vices. By the beginning of my research I considered underta-
king interviews with self-trackers, but after attending a Quanti-
5
fied Self meetup I understood that the information provi-
ded and discussed within the community was similar to
the blog posts that I had previously read on the topic, with
many of these blog posts written by people within the com-
munity. Since the technology around the concept of health
monitoring and self-tracking is a rather new invention
with a limited amount of books written about it, I decided,
together with my tutor, to do qualitative textual analysis
and analyse the content of news articles, blog posts and re-
search papers.
Enjoy the reading and please bear in mind that this thesis
was written in 2013 and edited in 2014 with a much more
developed market as well as a new Jawbone Up24 on the
market.
6
Litterature Review
The datasexual looks a lot like you and me, but
whats different is their preoccupation with perso-
nal data. They are relentlessly digital, they obsessi-
vely record everything about their personal lives,
and they think that data is sexy... Their lives from a
data perspective, at least are perfectly groomed.
(Basulto, 2012)
Defining Self-tracking and Health Monitoring.
Self-tracking or life logging is the act of monitoring, recording
and keeping track of data about ones own body and beha-
viour, also described as self knowledge through numbers
(Quantified Self, 2013). The tracking may be done by simply
keeping notes or writing a diary about ones behaviour and li-
fe, and often includes tracking of sleep, diet and exercise.
However, a common way to keep track today is through
ubiquitous devices and smart phone apps which automatically
capture the data for the individual, without the need to press a
button to record. An example of such devices are Nike+ Fuel-
Band, Jawbone Up or Fitbit, which are all wearable devices
collecting data, such as sleep curves, steps or calories from in-
dividuals. Invididuals who track themselves are known as life-
loggers, self-trackers or quantified selfers and often, but not
always, start their tracking with a goal in mind which they aim
to reach. This goal is frequently connected to progress related
to health, either in terms of losing weight or gaining insights
from specific data collected.
A recent study by Pew Research Center Internet & American
Life Project showed that 60 percent of adults in the U.S are
tracking their weight, diet or exercise routine and 34 percent
of self-trackers said that their data discoveries had changed a
health decision which they had taken (Norris, 2012). Although
an analysis conducted (Cornell, 2010) within the quantified
self community, in 2010 showed that 80 percent of the indivi-
duals who are active in discussions and create content are
men compared to 20 percent of women, women are more like-
ly (18 percent of women compared to 13 percent men) to track
their weight, diet and exercise schedules. In addition, 21 per-
cent of all women, also tend to track some other health indica-
tor online compared to 12 percent of men (Fox, 2012).
The increasing popularity of self-tracking during the last five
years is, according to Gary Wolf, founder of the Quantified
Self movement, connected to four factors; the decreased size
7
and increased quality of electronic sensors, the sensors ubiqui-
ty when entering the smartphone, social media which has ma-
de sharing seem normal and the increased ability to store data
provided by the cloud (Wolf, 2010). However, the notion of
self-tracking is not new, although new technology such as wea-
rable technology, ubiquitous devices and mobile apps has af-
fected the way self-tracking is applied and made the concept
popular to the public.
Health tracking, such as dieting and keeping track of food inta-
ke traces back to the Victorian era when the act of dieting, the
denial of food, arose among aristocrats as a way for individu-
als to pursue an aesthetic body (Bordo, 1993:185). Dieting
had been practised in other cultures before; by Greek aristo-
crats as a way of self-mastery and by Christians through fas-
ting as a spiritual purification. It was seen as an instrument
for the development of a self (Bordo, 1993:185) and as a way
to reach human excellence (Bordo, 1993: ibid), reserved for
aristocrats and priests, who were seen as the only ones capab-
le to reach this excellence.
The Book VI of the Epidemics shows traces of self-tracking,
which emphasizes on everything that needed to be measured
(Foucault&Hurley, 1990:101); food, drinks, exercise, sleep and
sexual relations were kept track of. The regimen was followed
through daily routines which started in the morning and en-
ded late at night, often problematising all activities in life and
creating a situation where the concern with the body was cen-
tral at all times. Individuals were told to observe themselves
by making notes about their consumption and exercise in or-
der to be able to regulate and maintain good health. Foucault
(Foucault&Hurley, 1990:107) argued that regimen rather than
acting upon the body with medications and operations, add-
ressed itself to the soul and was an active practice of the rela-
tion to the self. Regimen was a way to manage and maintain a
good health, as well as taking care of the soul (Foucault&Hur-
ley, 1990:101). In the late nineteenth century, dieting and bo-
dy management moved down to lower classes, and fat rather
than desire or appetite was seen as the enemy (Bordo, 1993).
Scales and weight thus became the way to measure progress,
rather than self-mastery, (Bordo, 1993) which might be seen
as the first time numerical data came to play an important ro-
le as a way of controlling the self. New technologies to reach
the ideal body came into use, ranging from dieting and exerci-
se to using chemicals and performing surgery.
One common hope among selftrackers, as explained by Wolf,
is that numbers might eventually reveal a deeper inner truth
about who we really are, what we really want, and where we
really ought to be. Due to this, many self-trackers actively
choose not to set up a specific goal when they start, and belie-
ve that the data and numbers will reveal secrets that they do
not know about themselves (Wolf, 2010). Wolf claims that hu-
mans lack the instruments to understand who we are, and
with the help of new machines which can track all our desires
and wants, we can find our true self and act rationally. If only
we get the technology right, numbers might reveal a core and
stable self (Morozov, 2013:232).
8
The Search for The Truth - Pilgrimage of Life.
The search for the true self is comparable to pilgrimage, where identity is
used as a cover and an escape from uncertainty of where one belongs, in the
quest for the truth which always lies some distance and time away (Bau-
man, 1996:19). Identity is a projection of what is expected and demanded
from us. As pilgrimage is a way to achieve anonymity and to lose identity,
present life is considered a pathway of achievements in the wait for future
gratification and eternal endurance of the soul. During modernity, while se-
arching for the truth, the pilgrim had to make sure to construct an identity
which was solid and stable (Bauman, 1996). However, this changed drasti-
cally during post-modernity, also known by Bauman (1996) as liquid moder-
nity, towards a concern about how to keep the identity flexible and avoid fix-
ation. If modernity concerned creation and durability, post-modernity va-
lued recycling and avoidance of commitment, where identity is being refa-
shioned and reconstructed (Bauman, 1996:18).
Rather than seeing the body as something individuals have and are, post-
modernity meant seeing what bodies could do and become (Blackman,
2008:1). Since the individual was not trusted to search for identity on their
own, experts of guidance such as coaches, trainers and counsellors were the-
re to give their advice, which often resulted in dependence of their guidance
(Bauman, 1996:19).
The process of self-tracking is comparable to the pilgrims desert, which is a
land of self-creation, functioning as a distance between the pilgrim and the
daily duties that blocks him or her from the truth. In the same way, self-
tracking works as a place and pathway for self-creation, with our own data
and fitness coaches there to guide us towards the true self existing in the ho-
rizon. Bauman (1996) mentions how cities and places function as boundari-
9
Modern man...is not
the man who goes off to
discover himself, his
secrets and his hidden
truth; he is the man
who tries to invent
himself. This modernity
does not liberate man
in his own being; it
compels him to face the
task of producing
himself
(Foucault 1984c:42)
es between the pilgrim and the truth, since they make the pil-
grim relax and forget about striving forward. In order to conti-
nue the journey forward and not fear that the work has been in
vain it is important to keep record of past achievements, foot-
prints and journeys, as well as seeing future progress.
The notion of fitness is seen by Bauman (1996) as a way to keep
identity stable, which may be the case for individuals who work
out in order to maintain their body weight and muscle mass.
So, with the technology of health monitoring and tracking of fit-
ness achievements, do individuals apply the concept of pilgri-
mage to their exercise and bodies?
The tracking of progress is built into apps and devices such as
Runkeeper and Jawbone, which reward the individual whene-
ver they make progress leading to a change of their current
identity. Someone who wants to find out why they are tired in
the morning, might for instance gain insights about the reason
behind it through self-tracking. Data may show that their pro-
ductivity level peaks in the afternoon, which reveals a new and
true identity to the individual. This constant monitoring, track-
ing and setting up new goals forces the individual to conti-
nuously refashion or remediate themselves, which may be done
through self-improvement, dieting or plastic surgery. The indi-
vidual thus refuses to stick to a certain identity since through
the eyes of a pilgrim, the true identity lies ahead (Bauman,
1996). Another way of understanding the behaviour of self-
tracking, especially the sharing process of it, is to acknowledge
it as a way for individuals to show their uniqueness in the
world through data based on individuality (Morozov, 2013).
Instead of securing who we are based on feelings and words,
numbers reassure who we are. If our data is not unique, the
wrong indicators are measured (Morozov, 2013:233234).
The Construction of Identities - Fixed and Fluid?
The common debates around identity within social theory revol-
ve around the perception of identity as either being fixed and
pre-determined or flowing and constructed (Hall, 1992). The tra-
ditional view of the subject deriving from the Enlightenment was
that the subject carried its identity, the persons self, as an inner
core which was unfolded, and discovered as the subject develo-
ped. The opposite of a fixed identity, similar to Baumans theory
of identity, derives from the neglectance of an autonomous prede-
termined self and the belief that the subject is developed in rela-
tion to significant others (Hall, 1992:276). The subject is a form
rather than a substance, possessing both a future and a history
(OLeary, 2002: 110). Bolter & Grusin (2000) similarly believe
that an identity is always mediated (understood through the me-
dia around us) and remediated when it changes or evolves, since
we always understand a particular medium in relation to other
past and present media (pp.231). The self exists either through
immediacy, for instance in a virtual environment where the indi-
vidual has the freedom to alter oneself, or through hyperme-
diacy, in a shifting network of affiliations (Bolter&Grusin,
2000:232).
The creation of identity is a process where domination and libera-
tion interact to shape the identity simultaneously through
technologies of domination and technologies of the self. Accor-
10
ding to Foucault, there is no substantial self or centre of free
will behind the moral behaviour of individuals, as the subject is
created in the intersection of the power/truth/self triangle
(OLeary, 2002:109). An identity is thus not only a subject in
control of its own creation of what it means to be human. It is
also an object being shaped by its context where processes of
domination and liberation take place, creating discourses and
norms of truth, which we (individuals) follow whether we want
to or not.
To Foucault (1984a), there is no sovereign, founding subject, a
universal form of subject to be found everywhere (p.733), since
we are all part of producing the subject ourselves. The idea of a
subject that is free to make its own decisions is replaced by the
idea of being forcibly tied to a particular imposed identity
(OLeary, 2002: 109110), through invisible power structures.
Since the self is not given to us...there is only one practical con-
sequence: we have to create ourselves as a work of art
(Foucault, 1984b:350-351), a process which individuals might
do through self-tracking and the altering and enhancement of
identity.
However, the creation of ourselves and control of ones own da-
ta and behaviour does not free individuals from subjectivation
or subjection. Subjectivation is the process which transforms
individuals into subjects, which happens through a range of po-
wer/knowledge/self practices (OLeary, 2002:108). Such know-
ledge may evolve around forms of sexual identity to the ways
in which we are brought to embrace the ideals of our sociocultu-
ral milieux (OLeary, 2002: 108), to the ideal of a healthy body.
Subjectivity and these internal and external processes of domina-
tion take place simultaneously, either imposed on individuals by
themselves or by others in the surrounding - in many situations
without individuals taking notice of them. The process of subjecti-
vation automatically produces a subject in two senses (OLeary,
2002), as it is subject to someone else by control and dependen-
ce as well as tied to his own identity by a conscience or selfknow-
ledge (Foucault, 1982:781). These modes of subjectivity affect
and determine our epistemology, in the way we are, behave and
think.
As a way to resist, the individual is presented to freedom and libe-
ration as an alternative to overturn power (Blackman, 2008) but
one is always less free than one imagines (OLeary, 2002:110)
and when someone is told to liberate themselves it is the effect of
subjectivation which he or she should liberate herself from (OLe-
ary, 2002). Therefore, in order for subjects to gain knowledge
about their true self they have to pay the price of being (self)con-
stituted as a particular kind of subject ... the price of being tied
(by oneself and others) to a particular identity (OLeary,
2002:113).
Applying this to self-tracking would mean that the process of
tracking data ties individuals into certain kind of identities,
through dominating powers expressed as ideals and norms
which the individuals try to achieve. Although these processes of
power function simultaneously, I have decided to explain them
separately; technologies of domination and technologies of the
self.
11
Technologies of Domination - The Management of Citizens.
Foucault researched how knowledge about being human is created and re-
produced through three modes of objectification; scientific classification,
dividing practices and subjectivation (Foucault, 1988a). People are through
these modes classified, disciplined and normalised by social processes
known as technologies of power (Foucault, 1988a:18) which people have
little or no control over (Markula, Denison & Pringle, 2006:24). Technologi-
es of power analyse the behaviour of individuals and uses this analysis in or-
der to divide them into certain groups (Foucault, 1988a). One sort of power
is the knowledge of humans, which categorizes the individual, marks him
by his own individuality, attaches him to his own identity, imposes a law of
truth on him which he must recognise and which others have to recognise in
him (Foucault, 1983: 212). This in turn makes the individual a subject, as
explained previously, tied to someone else by control and to his or her own
identity by a conscience or self-knowledge (Foucault, 1983:212).
Power is, according to Foucault (1983) not a material entity which can be
possessed by individuals. It is exercised, existing in action everywhere
and in between things (p.217). This means that there is no certain ordering
principle connected to power, which makes it possible not only to be repres-
sive but also productive. Biopower or disciplinary power, a term founded by
Foucault to describe the power practiced by modern nation states, is diffe-
rent to the power brought out by a strict ruling state, such as a dictatorship,
since the dominating powers act through implemented norms rather than
laws and rules (Blackman, 2008).
Power produces, it produces reality; it produces domains and objects and
rituals of truths (Foucault, 1979:194), thus making it impossible to analyse
who owns power. A more helpful approach is rather to analyse how power is
12
If one wants to analyse
the genealogy of subject
in Western civilization,
one has to take into
account not only
techniques of
domination, but also
techniques of the self
(Foucault, 1990:367)
exercised in every relationship around
us.
By creating a universal classification,
knowledge and truth of what it means
to be a human, Foucault argues that hu-
man sciences function as a power which
categorise and control individuals, thus
objectifying the individual. The power
of objectification creates clinical results
such as dyslectics, diabetics and schi-
zophrenics (MarkulaDenison & Pringle,
2006).
The result of such dividing
practices and the develop-
ment of institutions such as
prisons and hospitals, is
that individuals are divided
into healthy or unhealthy, cri-
minal or non-criminal and nor-
mal and abnormal (Foucault, 1983:
208), resulting in oppressive relations
between doctors and patients as well
as scientists and subjects (MarkulaDe-
nison & Pringle, 2006: 26).
Many common practices, such as time-
tabling, collective training, exercises, to-
tal and detailed surveillance and the
continual monitoring, assessment and
comparison ... [of people] ... in relation
to particular norms of behavior and con-
duct (Blackman, 2008:25-26), which we
nowadays are familiar with at work pla-
ces and schools were once upon a time
founded in prisons and monasteries.
Through controlling the characteristics
and activities of a body, as well as super-
vising this activity or process and forcing
a relation of docility-utility, discipline was
created (Foucault, 1984d:181). These discip-
linary practices strengthen the notion of
the disciplined and docile body, a body
known as ...an unfinished entity that can
be sculpted, moulded, altered and transfor-
med (Blackman, 2008:26). The body is se-
en as an object and a target of po-
wer [which is] manipulated, shaped, trai-
ned [into a body which] obeys, responds,
becomes skilful and increases its forces
(Foucault, 1984d:180).
Rather than producing laws and re-
gulations through a unified appa-
ratus of domination (McNay,
1992:68) the modern state uses
disciplinary powers through net-
works of regulations and institu-
tions, a term which Foucault calls
governmentality. Through governing
techniques, such as stimulating birthrates
or extending life expectancy by improving
the overall health of the population, the so-
vereign regulates (McNay, 1992:68) and
focuses on the management of life of indi-
viduals and citizens (Zylinska, 2009:93).
As the state does not only target the popula-
tion as a whole but also the individuals, a
13
The historical moment of the disciplines was
the moment when an art of the human body
was born, which was directed not only at the
growth of its skills, or at the intensification of
its subjection, but at the formation of a
relation that in the mechanism itself makes it
more obedient as it becomes more useful and
conversely (Foucault, 1984d:182)
way to stay free is through techniques of self-government
(McNay, 1992:68).
An example of a practice used by the sovereign to manage bodi-
es and control citizens is the invention of the calorie in America
in the 1890s as a measurement of food supply, indicating the
health and wealth of nations. Rather than measuring food supp-
ly by counting bags of wheat or potatoes, the government could
achieve a more exact knowledge through counting bags of calo-
ries. The measurements gave the U.S a knowledge about a na-
tions wealth, through the deficit or surplus of food, thus ma-
king it easier to know and control which nations were in need
of food packages. The restricted food supply meant that nations
needed to control citizens consumption, this time through calo-
rie counting and strict calorie quotas. Knowledges and truths
about a recommended calorie intake were produced by scien-
tists and doctors who were known to have knowledge within
the field of health.
A recommended daily calorie intake still exists and is still used
within political debates, shown by for example UKs Chief Medi-
cal Officer Sally Davies who in 2011 claimed that in order to
decrease obesity in the UK, the population had to slash five billi-
on calories a day. Ironically, when asked, many doctors cannot
explain how a calorie is measured, or even if it is a valid measu-
rement for the human body (Dillon, 2011).
The Construction of Truths - Losing Weight is Good for
Your Health, True or False?
Different historical periods have brought different rules, under-
standings and truths, known by Foucault as epistemes or an epis-
temological field of a specific time period
(Markula&Pringle:2006:27). Knowledge and truths emerging
from the human sciences are used as a disciplinary power becau-
se of the way in which it is used to regulate and normalise indivi-
duals (Danaher et al., 2000:26), through processes and policies
which determine who is healthy or not. Knowledge thus legitima-
tes the use of power (Danaher et al., 2000).
Human sciences could be considered as specific games of truth
that, at times, undergo abrupt rule changes
(Markula&Pringle:2006:27). For instance, the epistemes and
what was considered normal during the Renaissance would most
likely not be considered normal during the Exploration Age. Sin-
ce knowledge is always subject to certain epistemic conditions
and truth is always a partial, localised version of reality (Rail,
1998:183-184) it can never be constructed objectively. The indivi-
dual human can in the same manner not be considered free, sin-
ce it is the effect of the workings of power (Markula&Pringle,
2006:28) and the epistemes shape the workings and emergence
of discourse in the human sciences (Markula&Pringle, 2006:29).
Foucault described discourse as statements that coalesce within
specific social contexts and have some particular meaning or ef-
fect (Markula&Pringle, 2006:29).
14
The effect is how phenomena, such as the production of ob-
jects, subjects or conceptual understandings are produced
(Markula&Pringle, 2006:29).
At the same time as objects emerge, a discourse of the objects
emerge as well. Within fitness, the discourse which I examine
through the practice of self-tracking and health monitoring, a
runner should thus not be defined as a fixed subject of a run-
ner since it is also a subject to the workings of various discour-
ses that shape their identities (Markula&Pringle, 2006:30) as
runners. Rather than viewing discourses as groups of signs (sig-
nifying elements referring to contents or representations)
(Foucault, 1972:49) they should be understood as practices
that systematically form the objects of which they speak
(Foucault, 1972:ibid). They are practices that shape percep-
tions of reality (Markula&Pringle, 2006:31) rather than a simp-
le translation between reality and language (Markula&Pringle,
2006:ibid).
Technologies of The Self - Care for Yourself.
Not only are individuals controlled and classified by external
powers, but they also control themselves through what
Foucault (1988b) calls technologies of the self. Foucault descri-
bes technologies of the self as both the ethical relation to the
self and aesthetics of ones own life (Taylor, 2010:72). Rela-
tions with others are domains of power, and ethics is the do-
main of how we relate to ourselves or transform ourselves (Tay-
lor, 2010:ibid). To live ethically is to see life as a work of art
and ones own existence as an aesthetic project. The self is thus
seen as something which is created by the subject, rather than so-
mething predetermined which could be discovered or deciphered
(Taylor, 2010).
The individual is not only an effect of power and an object upon
which power is acted, but also its vehicle (Foucault, 1979:29)
and a necessary link which enables certain power operations
(OLeary, 2002), a practice as described by Foucault below:
I am interested...in the way in which the subject constitu-
tes himself..., by the practices of self, these practices are nevert-
heless not something that the individual invents by himself.
They are patterns that he finds in his culture and which are pro-
posed, suggested and imposed on him by his culture, his society
and his social group (Foucault, 1988c:11)
Through technologies of the self individuals act upon themselves
by the practice of certain operations in order to reach happiness,
purity, wisdom (Foucault, 1988b:18s), or any other characteri-
stics which symbolises an ethical and moral human. These
technologies have their origin in Greek culture where an impor-
tant practice was to take care of yourself and to be concerned
with oneself (Foucault, 1988b:21), two important principles
which constituted the social and personal conduct.
This leads me back to self-tracking which most certainly is an ac-
tivity where the individual acts upon oneself. One may question
what drives people to use technologies of the self to monitor
their own behaviour and collect data about their food intake,
sleep patterns and exercise. A main drive behind technologies of
the self is ethics and to fit into the contexts dichotomic moral co-
15
de. With moral code I refer to Foucaults notion of morality,
which is a set of values and rules of action that are recommen-
ded to individuals through the intermediary of various prescrip-
tive agencies such as the family in one of its roles, educational
institutions, churches, and so forth (Foucault&Hurley,
1990:25).
Morality also refers to the relationship between the real behavi-
or of individuals in relation to the rules and values recommen-
ded to them (Foucault&Hurley, 1990:25). Morality thus covers
how individuals comply...with a standard of conduct (ibid:25),
how they obey or resist (ibid:25) this conduct and how they re-
spect or disregard (ibid:25) the set of rules. These rules may be
explicitly communicated through teaching for instance, but
may also be acted out implicitly to develop a moral code or ide-
al.
Both Greek -and Christian culture recognised and valued an
ascetic ideal where celibacy and renunciation from pleasure
was linked to a form of wisdom that brought them into direct
contact with some superior element in human nature and gave
them access to the very essence of truth (Foucault&Hurley,
1990:20). This makes me wonder if self-trackers who monitor
and restrict their behaviour, retrieve a similar feeling of wis-
dom, superiority and ability to access the truth.
According to quantified selfer Steve Dean, the simple act of
self-recording creates a sense of confidence that you can do
what you want to do (Christensen, 2013), which might be inter-
preted as a sign of superiority.
Within Greek -and Christian culture ethic and moral practices
were not only carried out with the aim to control desire. It symbo-
lized self-control, which was a public, theatrical display of ones
ethical worthiness (McNay, 1992:55) similar to the social sha-
ring of an individuals performance at the gym. Uncontrolled de-
sire or sexual activity was considered effecting the health of an
individual in a negative way (McNay, 1992:50).
A moral individual was thus associated with self-restraint, and
excess and surplus was associated with immorality (McNay,
1992:54). In order to be moral, individuals formed themselves as
ethical subjects through technologies of the self, also known to
Foucault as arts of existence (McNay, 1992:52) which he refers
to as those intentional and voluntary actions by which men not
only set themselves rules of conduct, but also seek to transform
themselves, to change themselves in their singular being, and to
make their life into oeuvre that carries certain aesthetic values
and meets certain stylistic criteria (Foucault&Hurley, 1990: 10-
11).
The moral action does not only work in its singularity since an
action is not only moral in itself...it is also moral in its
circumstantial integration and by virtue of the place it occupies
in a pattern of conduct (Foucault&Hurley, 1990:28). In order for
an act to be moral it can not be reducible to an act...conforming
to a rule, a law or a value, (Foucault&Hurley, 1990:28). A moral
action is thus not only an accomplishment on its own, it is a mo-
de of being characteristic of the ethical subject (Foucault&Hur-
ley, 1990:ibid). It involves the surrounding and the self, not as an
awareness of the self but as a way to transform the self as an ethi-
16
cal subject, deciding on a position to pursue and choosing what mode of be-
ing (Foucault&Hurley, 1990:28) will take her or him there. This in turn
requires him to act upon himself, to monitor, test, improve, and transform
himself (Foucault&Hurley, 1990:28).
Through codes set up by authorities individuals thus constitute themselves
as subjects of moral conduct (Foucault&Hurley, 1990:29) and constantly
reinforce the codes through acts of morality.
Through technologies of the self and technologies of domination, docile bo-
dies, bodies which may be transformed, used and improved, are produced
(Foucault, 1984d), which brings me back my main research question: To
what extent do new technologies of health monitoring and self-tracking pro-
duce docile bodies in search of a 'true self'?
The Discourse of Diet - The Pursuit for a Slim Body.
The act of monitoring one owns body through dieting is not new, and in or-
der to understand the norms of health and beauty which the body exists wit-
hin and which individuals are trying to pursue, one needs to analyse the po-
wers and discourse evolving around the fit body. With media constantly re-
minding us about our health and body through reports of new diets and he-
alth dangers we are constantly in contact with body ideals to pursue. The
preoccupation with dieting and body fat which exists today is neither abnor-
mal (Bordo, 1993:186) nor something new. It functions as a powerful nor-
malizing mechanism...insuring the production of self-monitoring and self-
disciplining docile bodies sensitive to any departure from social norms and
habituated to self-improvement and self-transformation in the service of
those norms (Bordo, 1993:186). As food consumption provides clear mar-
kers of ethnicity, gender, class, and race, categories into which we are discip-
lined, the regulation and choice of food consumption may be seen as an et-
17
Between the media
images of self-
containment and self-
mastery and the reality
of constant, everyday
stress and anxiety
about ones appearance
lies the chasm that
produces bodies
habituated to self-
monitoring and self-
normalization
(Bordo, 1993:203)
hical and aesthetic self-transformative practice in the West
(Taylor, 2010:75), similar to how Foucault suggests that we
should form ourselves as ethical subjects (McNay, 1992:52).
According to Bordo (1993), the management of the body shape
and size fulfil two symbolic functions. First, it designates the in-
dividuals social position; class and gender, as excess body
weight reflects moral inadequacy or lack of will (Bordo,
1993:192). Secondly, the shape and size of the body indicates
the emotional, moral and spiritual state of the being (Bordo,
1993:ibid). As a slim and firm body has become a symbol of
correct attitude, reflecting that the individual cares about one-
self and has the willpower and ability to shape their life, the fat
body symbolises laziness, lack of discipline [AND] unwil-
lingness to
conform (Bor-
do, 1993:195).
Muscles have
gone from
symbolising
manual la-
bour associa-
ted with sla-
ves and lower
classes who
were seen to
be insensitive,
unintelligent and animalistic towards expressing controlled
and managed sexuality (Bordo, 1993:195). However, in order to
pursue a firm body the individual has to fight an ongoing battle
with the self, a battle which can be easily monitored through self-
tracking. Bordo associates this battle with Foucaults Greek ideal,
where the central element is an agonistic relation with the self
(Bordo, 1993:198). The practice of dieting was used as a purpose-
ful action for the individual to invest in his/her self and body,
forming oneself as a subject who had the proper, necessary and
sufficient concern for his body (Foucault&Hurley, 1990:108),
rather than as a practice against an authority (Foucault&Hurley,
1990:107). Dietics, regimen, became a whole art of living, and
was a way for individuals to manage their existence through the
development of rules to conform to (Foucault&Hurley,1990:101).
The goal was a virile mastery of desire through constant spiritual
combat rather than to reach purity (Foucault&Hurley,
1990:101).
Self-management of the body and weight signifies constant
watchfulness over appetite (Bordo, 1993:202) and desire. The bo-
dy becomes a symbol of correct or incorrect attitudes toward the
demands of normalization itself (Bordo, 1993:203). Therefore,
the fit and slender body clearly melts into the norm and is accep-
ted by society, whereas someone who is obese and does not play
by the rules of the norm which others struggle with, should be pu-
nished and humiliated (Bordo, 1993:203).
Individuals desire happiness in the culture they live in but at the
same time they need to feel that they are autonomous agents
responsible over their own decisions, which is why they motivate
their own choices as being made for themselves (Bordo,
1993:296). This is a common practice among individuals who ha-
18
ve undergone plastic surgery, often explained as an action in or-
der to be attractive to yourself (Bordo, 1993:296). Is this an in-
dividual in control or an individual using dominating external
powers in order to control themselves?
As systematic knowledge about, for instance, the body increa-
ses, power relations especially with the exercise of social con-
trol over bodies in social spaces (Turner, 1991:157) increase as
well. Rather than liberating the body, it extends the existence
of social regulation (Turner, 1991). This is often done by crea-
ting knowledge about the body based on biologism, reducing
the complexity of life to essential components of our biological
make-up that are viewed as fixed and pre-given (Blackman,
2008:19).
An example of this is the popular and best-selling book Born
to run by Haruki Murakami which presents the human as a na-
tural hunter and runner, portraying those who are not runners
as unnatural. Another example of how biologism is used are the
numerous diets which claim to trace back to the natural diet of
the human. There is the 5:2 diet which presents food restric-
tion as something natural and healthy (referring to cave men
who did not know when their next meal was going to be ser-
ved), and the paleo diet which is also known as the caveman di-
et, encouraging a diet of nuts, berries and protein.
By setting up goals which are based on being or becoming natu-
ral, the story of the true and natural human is reproduced, thus
strengthening the belief of a pre-determined life, since biolo-
gism suggests that a true body exists. The perception of the bo-
dy as something which is only natural is dangerous and based on
biological determinism. We should instead understand discour-
se as foundational and the body as thoroughly text (Bordo,
1993:291), which is transformed and changed within the discour-
se and relations within in discourse.
Discipline within Fitness - The Use of Movement as a Po-
wer.
Markula & Pringle (2006) analysed the discourse of fitness, how
knowledge within the discourse is created, what objects of fitness
knowledge are and how concepts within the discourse are crea-
ted and organised. What they found was that knowledge and the-
ories that dominate the fitness discourse are based on medical,
psychological and physiological research, equalising fitness with
increased health. Medicine is thus used as a technique to exercise
power through (Zylinska, 2009:69).
The better our physical fitness, the better our predicted health
will be (Markula&Pringle, 2006:56) and by working out, an indi-
vidual is being told that they can lower their blood pressure,
increase their heart capacity and prevent diseases such as cancer,
cardiovascular failures and diabetes. This perception is known as
health-related fitness, which signifies the regulation and preven-
tion of diseased bodies, through specific exercise prescription,
linking scientific knowledge and practice together into a discour-
sive field (Markula&Pringle, 2006:57).
An example of this is how the doctor at the health examination
always asks the patient about their exercise routine. The act of
confession reveals problems which the individual did not already
19
know about themselves (Foucault, 1978). With the belief that
he or she will reach self-knowledge through revealing their in-
ner self, the individual is automatically being regulated and nor-
malized through the production of self-policing subjects
(McNay, 1992:87). By confessing, the subject is both the instru-
ment and effect of domination (McNay, 1992:87).
Power is literally incorporated or invested in the body,
most obviously perhaps through such practices as gymnastics
exercises, muscle-building, nuism, practices glorifying the bo-
dy beautiful, and insistent, meticulous work on the bodies of
children, hospital patients, keep-fit enthusiasts and sport parti-
cipants. Such work reproduces the social body: it exemplifies
the materiality of power and culture in the sense that social re-
lations are the outcome of material operations on the bodies of
individuals carried out with the aid of a vast economy and
technology of control. The body is not the object of consensus -
it is the site of social struggles. (Hargreaves, 1986:13)
Through disciplinary technologies within a fitness centre or
through the workings of a fitness app, several different bodies
are produced. Bodies that are overweight, fit, unfit, beautiful,
masculine, feminine, muscular and emanciated (Marku-
la&Pringle: 2006:41). The apps ability to gather personal know-
ledge of the subject, via hierarchical observation, normalization
and the combination of both, is enabling the creation of discipli-
ned bodies. Through enabling measurements of weight, height
and BMI, which individualizes by making it possible to measu-
re gaps, to determine levels, to fix specialties and to render the
differences useful by fitting them one to another (Foucault&S-
heridan, 1991:184) one could argue that the process of normaliza-
tion is directly built into fitness apps. Individualisation ties indivi-
duals closer to the apps due to the ability to measure oneself with
the norm.
An effective tool for individualisation is examination, which me-
asures, classifies, differentiates, punishes, rewards, records and
qualifies subjects (Markula&Pringle, 2006:42). The act of exami-
nation does not only occur at hospitals or institutions but also
within sports and fitness, through tests and competitions where
performance is measured by time and place and individuals are
tracking their record. All these techniques of correcting, mea-
suring and supervising the subject can be summarised through
the notion of the Panopticon.
20
The Panopticon was an architectural design of a building, divi-
ded into cells, with a tower in the middle overlooking the cells.
A patient or prisoner was positioned in every cell in such posi-
tion that they could be observed by someone in the watch to-
wer. However, they could never tell if they were observed or
not.
Foucault was very fascinated and inspired by the Panopticon as
it correlated with the different powers within society, offering
a particularly vivid instance of how political technologies of the
body function (Foucault, 1984d:18). The effect of the Panopti-
con was a state of consciousness and permanent visibility that
assures the automatic functioning of power (Foucault&Sheri-
dan, 1991:200) thus making the subject survey their behaviour
in a way that transform them into docile and self-regulating
subjects.
This effect exists everywhere around us, not only through the
medicalisation and digitisation of populations in the sense that
various numerical, statistical, and informatic means of mana-
ging and regularizing groups of bodies are being established
and widely implemented (Zylinska, 2009:69), but could also
be linked to the act of self-tracking through for instance Jawbo-
ne Up. When an individual connects their tracking device to so-
cial networks such as Facebook and Twitter, they never know
whether they are observed or not, since it is impossible to know
who or if someone sees the individuals update. Ubiquitous de-
vices that automatically track steps, sleep activity or brain
focus but lack the sharing function act in the same manner,
through the constant knowledge of being surveilled.
21
Case study of Jawbone Up:
Future Scenarios within
Self-Tracking
The Tracking Functions of Jawbone Up.
Jawbone Up (right picture) is a
wearable activity tracking wrist-
band, with a trendy design,
available in five different co-
lours. The device is water-
proof, made of rubber to be
worn 24 hours a day and has a built-in step counter, calorie
tracker and sleep tracker. It does not have a display but comes
with a smart phone app (picture below) which presents the in-
dividuals data in a user-friendly way. Jawbone Up does not
only track calories or
steps taken, it also
enables the individual
to through the app it-
self either take photos
of, or scan the bar co-
de of the food they
eat, thus presenting
and visualising the in-
dividuals calorie inta-
ke as well (http://jawbone.com/up). Individuals who use func-
tions that enables them to record what they eat, compared to
individuals who do not log their food intake, have according to
the producers behind Jawbone Up lost weight (Paddock,
2013a).
Jawbone Up, as many other self-tracking devices, uses generic
measurements for food intake and calorie output, as opposed
22
to the recommendations followed by the Greeks where perso-
nalised food -and drink quotas, schedules and personal adapt-
ment proved important in order to form oneself in the correct
personalised way (Foucault&Hurley, 1990:111).
So why does someone decide to track their food intake? One
may compare it with the incitaments of vegetarianism and the
choice not to eat meat - an askesis with the goal to explore
new sensuous pleasures for the self (Taylor:2010:80). In the
same manner, Jawbone Up may be seen as an askesis used to
control ones desires and reach new energy levels.
Although the concept of regimen remains the same today,
technologies such as Jawbone Up, have made it easier to keep
track of and remind individuals of their regimen. It has also
enabled invididuals to store large quantities of data regarding
their regimen, digital data which might be more precise, natu-
ral and true than the analogue data from taking notes. Does
this precision tie individuals closer to their regimen and discip-
linary powers? Know Yourself, Live Better is Jawbone Ups
tagline. And by using Jawbone Up, individuals discover in-
sights about their lifestyle which they did not know of (or
simply did not think of) before, thus encouraging them to act
on the insights and live healthier lives.
Jawbone Up as an Extension of the Normative Health
Prescription - There is Always Something to Work
On.
GAIN INSIGHT INTO YOURSELF - UP not only visualizes
your information so you can understand the meaning behind
the numbers, it also discovers hidden connections in the way
you live to deliver powerful insights. Over time, insights lead
to new behaviors and new behaviors become new, healthier
habits. (Jawbone.com)
As seen in this quote, Jawbone Up suggests that their device
can help individuals live a healthier life, through tracking of
their behaviour and gaining insights from their data. Howe-
23
ver, as soon as someone use self-tracking as a technology of
the self, they are always bound by the power of institutions
and social relations, and by their disciplinary and constrai-
ning effects (Zylinska, 2009:78) since self-creation always ex-
ists within a context and cannot occure in a vacuum. An ex-
ample of these disciplinary effects is how Jawbone Up reflects
a health prescription which is based on truths invented as a
disciplinary power within human sciences. Examples of such
truths may be the recommendation of eight hour sleep per
night, regular exercise and the benefits of eating fruit and vege-
tables.
In the same way as a coach through hierarchical observation
can add additional workout for the unfit and skill training for
the unskilled (Markula&Pringle, 2006), a device such as Jaw-
bone Up may coach an individual through messages which on
the surface seem encouraging but also function as a disciplina-
ry power. An example of this is how it analyses an individuals
sleep data in order to predict whether an individual is recom-
mended to take a short or long power nap. The health prescrip-
tion is additionally pushed to individuals through daily mes-
sages and tips on how to improve their health.
An example of such messages (right picture) could be: Try
This: Standing is good medicine..., Try This: People that sync
more than once a day tend to log more
(http://jawbone.com/up), or the built-in function which ma-
kes the wristband vibrate after a certain amount of inactive ti-
me, thus reminding the individual to move. Jawbone Up does
not only track data and encourage the individual to move.
It also tracks the individuals sleep and functions as an alarm
clock, vibrating when it is time for the individual to wake up.
For many individuals, Jawbone Up is thus the first thing they
interact with on a daily basis. What implications does this con-
stant tracking have on an individuals identity?
Jawbone Ups automatic tracking can be compared to the gaze
of an audience which projects a normalizing judgement on the
individual who in turn is encouraged to act normal (Marku-
la&Pringle, 2006:42) - an inspecting gaze...which each
individual...will end up interiorising to the point that he is his
own overseer, each individual thus exercising this surveillance
over, and against himself
(Foucault, 1980:155). The act of
such self-surveillance is an instru-
ment of disciplinary power and
can function as a means of correct
training (Markula&Pringle,
2006:59), aiming towards being or
becoming natural.
As the discourse of health and fit-
ness frequently refers to the con-
cept of the natural (Blackman,
2008) as in the natural human
and the natural functions of the bo-
dy, often involving movement, it
might be suggested that many of
Jawbone Ups functions work as a
way of correcting individuals into
24
a natural state of being. In order to follow the prescribed recommendations,
the individual has to constantly surveil their activity, from duration,
frequency to intensity (Markula&Pringle, 2006), a behaviour which techno-
logies such as Jawbone Up enables automatically. The instant feedback in
forms of numbers functions as a reward for the individual and motivates
him or her to continue towards the prescribed goal (Paddock, 2013b).
The concept of monitoring and the process of remembering malpractice and
misery rather than good achievements is based upon moral conduct (Volf,
2006), which has turned self-tracking from being a geeky hobby into a mo-
ral obligation, not only towards ourselves but towards others and humanity
(Morozov, 2013). This goes hand in hand with Foucaults belief of the de-
ciphering of the self not as a liberation of a true or essential inner nature,
but rather as an obligation (McNay, 1992:89). Morality and self-tracking
are thus connected, an interesting conclusion which was discovered in a
study about the medical benefits of health tracking, showing how partici-
pants automatically focused on reprimand-data such as how much time do
I waste rather than positive reinforment such as how much productive ti-
me do I have (Beaudin et al., 2006).
Disciplined bodies are created through the ways in which norms and regula-
tory ideals become incorporated into subjects internal forms of selfmonito-
ring and selfregulation (Blackman, 2008:25). This happens through inculca-
tion (frequent repetition with active participation) rather than imposition
(forcing a duty or burden on someone (Blackman, 2008)). Jawbone up enab-
les such procedures which become engrained and embodied in such a way
that they appear automatic and natural (Blackman, 2008:26).
Jawbone Ups pre-programmed positive commands act on and through an
individuals self-forming practices so that individuals come to want or desi-
25
I can quantify my
progress in
increasingly detailed
ways and feel
motivated by my small
successes and
continued self-
improvement. Its
completely changed my
approach to exercise
and encourages me to
do more of it, which can
only be a good thing
(Reece, 2013).
Read about this quote
on page 26.
re certain ways of being and doing for themselves thus produ-
cing docile bodies through disciplinary power, as exemplified
in the quote on the previous page by self-tracker James Reece.
Individualisation of the Health Prescription - Is this
Me or the Norm?
The process of setting up the device, entering the first name,
sex, height, weight and birthdate, in order for the device to cal-
culate for instance calories burned per day
(Forums.jawbone.com 2012) may through its categorising ef-
fects easily be understood as a process of individualisation. The
data is used as a framework which through an algorithm calcu-
lates and produces a generic prescription, based on other self-
trackers of for instance that exact individuals recommended
calorie intake per day. One may question how these generic
numbers reflect the cultural norms within the discourse, re-
flected by other selftrackers, and in turn through the individual
which through the use of the generic measurements reproduce
the norms.
On the contrary, there is no guarantee that the individual who
through comparing their own data in form of weight and body
fat with the norm of someone of their own age and gender will
fit into the norm, which may result in the individual deciding
not to pursue the goal suggested. An example of this may be
how the norm of becoming a healthy individual tells the indivi-
dual to keep their body fat low. The lowest body fat index for
women is 14-20 percent which is the level of an athlete, a defi-
nition which the individual may not identify themselves with,
thus deciding to aim towards decreasing their body fat without
any specific goal or target ideal. As a result of this, the individual
creates their own context and use their own data as a model of
what they do not want to be, rather than what they are aiming to
become, similar to a pilgrim who always look towards the hori-
zon for their true identity (Bauman, 1996).
This path is however less likely to walk down due to societys ob-
session for progress. Progress is an easy path to follow for most
self-trackers who in general are expected to narrate their own li-
ves, connecting their stories more or less closely to pre-existing
narratives, such as the idea of progress (Poster, 2006:129).
Distinguishing the Body and the Self - The Faulty Divi-
sion between Being and Doing.
As mentioned in my literature review, many self-trackers believe
that the capturing of data may lead to new insights about the hu-
man body, and to the deciphering of a truth, either concerning
the natural human or life itself. These insights and truths are
used by the individual in order to transform and enhance their
bodies. The body is thus in many ways seen as a machine where
certain parts may be exchanged or optimized through the emer-
gence of new technologies and practices which enable the enhan-
cement, alteration and invention of new bodies (Blackman,
2008:2).
The term new technologies refers to Nikolas Roses technologi-
es of enhancement (Blackman, 2008), which are technologies
that enhances and changes what we know of as life itself, through
genes, cloning and neurotransmitters, technologies known to ha-
26
ve the potential to improve selfhood, vitality, health and lifesty-
le (Blackman, 2008:2). These new technologies changes the de-
finition of the body and identity, thus creating an impression of
fluidity, similar to Baumans pilgrimage and Halls fluid identiti-
es. The fluidity means that the present can always be replaced
by a future scenario, since what exists in the future is always
more true and correct than what exists in this very moment.
This excitement about the future results in big hopes towards
enhancement technologies, as well as produces deterministic
claims on how technology will change human nature. However,
what is often forgotten in the human-machine debate is the hu-
man. It is for instance no mistake that the first chapter Fitness
and the Human Codebase: Reboot Your Operating System in
Bruce W.Perrys book Fitness for Geeks, where Perry equals
the human body to code, starts out with the sentence:
Were all born with preinstalled software, our human codeba-
se. The genome. (Perry, 2012:3).
If this means that all individuals are programmable to act out
certain operations, then are we not only docile bodies? Another
statement which simplifies human characteristics into data was
made by Gordon Bell, one of the first to wear a camera in order
to track his life. He describes the act of self-tracking, or life-log-
ging as he calls it, as empowering since it makes you the cura-
tor of your life (Bell&Gemmel, 2009:5), and gives the individu-
al the opportunity to memorise less and yet at the same time re-
member more.
If we can have a complete record of the things about peop-
le that especially provoke meaning for us, what will we do with
this complete record when they are gone? We will maintain the
e-memory of that person as a treasured heirloom. And, some-
day, we will ask it questions. The e-memory will answer. You
will have virtual immortality (Bell&Gemmel, 2009: 139)
By discussing memory as something which can be stored digital-
ly for future scenarios, one suggests that the mind (through me-
mory) and the material body are separate entities, a common
view among those who view self-tracking as an instrument to de-
cipher the truth.
It is easy to feel like we are getting enough exercise, but
what we feel and what we do may create a reality gap. It
did for me. Devices such as Fitbit and FuelBand can help us
bridge that gap. (Mertz, 2013)
This statement creates a gap between being and doing, gives
agency to technology and suggests that technology drives huma-
nity forward through progress and enhancement. By viewing
self-tracking as an instrument towards a goal, the focus is no
longer about the tracking of numbers and the process of reaching
the goal, but rather of reaching the goal and deciphering the
truth of for example human memory.
Quantified Self founder Wolf (2010) believes that self-tracking
can help us decipher this truth since it is a dry, abstract, mecha-
nical type of knowledge [WHICH THROUGH] numbering things
allows tests, comparisons, experiments [WHICH IN TURN] ma-
ke problems less resonant emotionally but more tractable intel-
27
lectually thus helping individuals to resist from subjectivity
and avoid emotions (Morozov, 2013). Hence, being and do-
ing are separated once again, suggesting that being is con-
nected to passive human attributes and doing to active machi-
nic attributes. In the same way as Wolf distinguishes being
from doing, Foucault, through his notion of docile bodies ma-
kes the mistake of distinguishing the mind from the body
(Blackman, 2008:27), as power is implicitly used on the mind,
and through the mind controls the body.
A docile body is described to follow rules, commands and di-
scipline in an almost machinic manner, but does it really not
have any agency to resist the working of disciplinary power
through reflection or action? Enhancement technologies has
had large impact on our ontology and our understanding of life
itself and the body, but they cannot act on their own since
technology and society and human and machines co-exist as
technoculture and cyborgs (Haraway, 1991).
The Production of Docile Employees Through the Pa-
nopticon.
Similar to how corporations are able to discipline employees
and manage the production of docile bodies through timetables
and surveillance cameras at the work place, they may also
disclipline the employees through governing their health - resul-
ting in the creation of healthy and productive employees. Howe-
ver, the connection between corporate policy, management
strategy, and sleep/related medical and self-help advice
(Brown, 2004:175) is new and is developing quickly.
An example of this is the popular implementation of corporate
exercise programs and competitions where the fittest or healt-
hiest employee wins a price, either a gym card or another item re-
lated to the discourse of health. This practice may be seen as a
way to create subjects and docile bodies through a machinery of
power that explores it, breaks it down, and rearranges it
(Foucault, 1984d:182).
Imagine a big hotel chain which sets up a one-month exercise
contest aimed towards their front desk employees. Each emplo-
yee is provided with a Jawbone Up and are told to keep track of
their exercise routine and data, numbers which may constantly
be monitored, but are collected in person once a week. By the
end of the month, the employee who has exercised the most and
lost most calories wins. Not only does the hotel monitor their em-
ployees through Jawbone Up, they are also creating rules and
conduct which the employees follow through self-regulation, sin-
ce workers can be governed and learn to govern themselves
(Brown, 2004:175). By using Jawbone Up during the contest,
which comes with a large community which their boss and collea-
gues might be using, they are locked into a Panopticon which au-
tomatically produces a behaviour of self-regulation since people
who are recorded tend to want to portray themselves and their
lives as healthy (Adams, 2013).
Remote Tracking - Your GP in Your Pocket.
The wearable computing devices market is growing in a fast pa-
ce, especially within health and fitness, and it is important not to
forget that many of the future research projects regarding health
28
and weartech (wearable technology) may be supported or fun-
ded by governments, which can be understood as a neolibera-
listic governmentality that produces subjects, [AND] forms
of...behavior (Brown, 2005:37) aiming towards moral auto-
nomy (Brown, 2005:42). As corporations and the state favors
from healthy citizens and employees it is in their interest to con-
tinue governing individuals, which is made even easier if the in-
dividuals themselves become self-regulating subjects.
E-health and health monitoring through mobile devices is belie-
ved to be changing medicine, through the ability to monitor vi-
tal health and behaviour. Samsungs health app Samsung S He-
alth is currently compared to having a GP in the pocket (Reece,
2013) and weight experts hope that food tracking apps can
turn cronic dieters into healthy eaters (Alderman, 2010).
However, the downside of apps which measure and track every
step taken or calorie eaten, is how they can fuel obsessive thin-
king around food and exercise creating serious problem for pe-
ople with eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia (Freed,
2012). Alexandra Carmichael, the current director of Quanti-
fied Self in the U.S and co-founder of Cure Together, an online
forum for self-treatment of illnesses, argues that self-improve-
ment is not an easy path to go along since it creates a lot of pres-
sure. The pressure of caring for oneself, is described by
Foucault as a thorn which must be struck in mens flesh, dri-
ven into their existence, and which is a principle of restlessness
and movement, of continuous concern throughout life
(Foucault, 2005:8). This thorn made Carmichael quit her track-
ing since she each day felt as if her self-worth was tied to the data
(Lewis, 2012).
Not only is medicine believed to be changing through the process
of individuals monitoring their health. Doctors will also be able
to monitor the individuals remotely in order to detect health
issues (Humphries, 2012). This kind of tracking is something
which Morozov (2013) describes as a perfect hoarding target for
our hypercapitalist age (p.231) since the devices are small, mobi-
le, lucrative (p.231).
When self-tracking is incorporated in this way it becomes a
technology of domination, similar to the practices used in factori-
es, which functions as a secularized asceticism which precludes
unruly gratification and spontaneous enjoyment (Featherstone
et al., 1991:158) in order to produce docile bodies. Though many
patients may feel as if, through tracking, they are in control (Nor-
ris, 2012), as the data not only becomes available to the private
corporations developing the devices but also to the government
and hospital through doctors, this self-control should only be re-
garded as an illusion.
It is difficult to talk about self-control when the individuals beha-
viour changes without them taking any notice, as mentioned by
diabetes self-tracker Bailey who never thought of it [the diabe-
tes monitor] as a behaviour modification device, and thats what
it turned out to be (Norris, 2012). Even doctors worry about how
self-tracking will make patients becoming obsessed with data
and ignoring the larger issue of holistic wellness and how this
29
kind of data almost lets the patient live and dwell in something
that you would rather have them to say (Beaudin et al., 2006).
Remote health-monitoring enhances the practice of confession
as the automatic tracking may be seen as an extended doctors
examination. An individual might for example gain insights
about their food intake which does not correlate with the norm.
Since the insight is a result of raw digital data created through
self-tracking, it is considered more true than insights revealed
at a visit at the NHS as you cant just lie to your doctorits all
there, recorded. You cut right to the chase rather than having
to tease out all that information (Humphries, 2012), thus cate-
gorising the individual, discovering things about the body to
work on and turning him or her into a self-regulating subject.
Does this make the process of confession through health moni-
toring devices more regulating (and effective in producing doci-
le bodies) than an actual appointment with a doctor?
It is Your Data About Your Life, But Who Owns it?
Although self-tracking may be seen as a technology of the self,
used by citizens towards biopolitics, an interesting question is
whether the control of data lies in the hands of the self-trackers
or corporations which develop the devices and apps, as well as
control and own the databases with the information.
While individuals seem happy to share their most personal da-
ta with these corporations, initiatives such as the European Pri-
me Project are developed to enable individuals to negotiate
with service providers the disclosure of personal data and con-
ditions defined by their preferences and privacy policy (Hof et
al., 2011:27). Personal data is slowly becoming a new asset, next
to wheat and cattle (Morozov, 2013:235), sold as marketing in-
sights to insuring companies and advertising agencies and in or-
der for individuals to keep their privacy and protect their data,
they have to pay for it. Examples of this is the website and
service Daytum.com where individuals can store their self-track-
ing data and either use the service for free and keep their data
public or become a paying subcriber to keep the data private (Mo-
rozov, 2013:235). The founder of Daytum.com is open with how
their business model works; If you want privacy, you have to pay
for it which goes hand in hand with the debate around freemium
models and web services based upon the quote: If you are not
paying for the product, you are the product (Metafilter.com, ano-
nymous user, 2010).

30
Conclusion
Technologies of self-tracking and health monitoring, such as
Jawbone Up, do to some extent create docile bodies, as in my
definition: individuals who without reflecting over their beha-
viour do follow a certain regimen in order to pursue a pre-pro-
duced ideal. However, as long as self-tracking is not actively
and directly connected to powers of domination which forces
the individual to wear a tracking device, the process of self-
tracking itself is a voluntary action. I am not saying that self-
tracking today exists outside powers of domination since ever-
ything is intraconnected, but the act of self-tracking itself
should be seen as a frame and the regimen within this frame
as the content which may produce docile bodies. The content
reflects the governmental health prescription as well as norms
and ideals of a healthy body ideal, norms which we are all part
of producing, reproducing and sustaining. In order to under-
stand how this correlates with self-tracking, let me tell you a
story.
The act of regimen and dieting has existed for thousands of ye-
ars. Though dominating powers judged individuals and
pushed them into becoming moral citizens, regimen itself was
considered an ethical and caring act towards the self in order
for individuals to transform themselves into ethical beings, si-
milar to pilgrimage. Along the way, in the search for an ethical
and true identity, individuals struggle with dominating po-
wers that push certain norms and identities in their way, blin-
ding them from the goal which lies in the horison. The ground
in front of them keeps changing. Wind and rain transform the
landscape into a blurry pathway. The goal lies ahead, although
truths, body ideals and routines within society are created to
categorise and measure the individual with. The dominating
powers are through controlling the individuals body, produ-
cing bodies which work as machines, disconnecting the mind
and body. The individual see how others around them change
but however continues their pilgrimage towards the ethical
self. It is easy to get lost along the way. To confuse one owns
will and thoughts about the self with the ideals of the discour-
se which one exists within, since they all blend together.
Although regimen is seen as a technology of the self by
Foucault, it can never be a free choice which an individual un-
dertake for themselves, since it is produced through and aro-
und norms within the discourse of health. This remains, re-
gardless of how the regimen is undertaken, although following
a regimen with the help of technology makes it easier to produ-
ce docile bodies, through the constant feedback and alerts aro-
und regimen.
31
Technology or self-tracking do not produce docile bodies, indi-
viduals themselves do through their involvement in any regi-
men, since the line between a discoursive ideal and an ethical
ideal formed by oneself is almost non-existing. I do not oppose
that technologies of the self, such as dieting, can be used as an
act towards oneself. However, since power is relational, exis-
ting everywhere, either tied up as relations between people, as
norms within discourses or in between the production of
truths, dominating powers and oneself, an individual always ex-
ists within power relations. The prescription for the individual
to stay free with a clear pathway towards the horison, is there-
fore about awareness and staying critical towards oneself and
the surrounding, rather than understanding the power rela-
tions as binary oppositions; liberation and domination or
oppression and repression. I would like to examplify the com-
plexities which the individual is faced with in this process
through Ladelle McWhorters question:
How can I affirm the truth of my normalized (homo)
sexual identity while at the same time I refuse the
cancellation of freedom and the foreclosure of beco-
ming that sexual identities have produced? (McWhor-
ter, 1999:80).
How can I, use technologies for self-tracking and health monito-
ring as a way to enhance my body, and at the same time refuse
the production of normative bodies?
32
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