All You Can Obey: Design as Surveillance at Hodai All-You-Can-Eat Restaurant Yogyakarta

Abstract

This research examines how Visual Communication Design acts as a disciplinary and surveillance method for customers at Hodai All You Can Eat restaurant in Yogyakarta. This paper uses Michel Foucault’s concepts of disciplinary and surveillance power. The method used in this research is a qualitative research method with a genealogical approach. Using Foucault's concept, the writer would like to study the combination of disciplinary and surveillance power with visual communication design in product catalogue design, banners, signages, buffet tags, and warnings, which influence the customer experience and behaviour while dining at the restaurant. The writer would like to see how disciplinary and surveillance power manifested through visual communication strategies through copywriting and icon usage. In the end, the writer would like to give a critical reflection on Foucault’s theory on how visual communication design can serves as a panopticon in daily life.