Panopticon
Foucault’s description of the Panopticon is a construction useful for understanding new power relationships in the nineteenth century related to perception. Through the technique of juxtaposition, Foucault sets out to show significant changes, or historical ruptures in order to understand societal and cultural structures. One of the primary examples of this is the shift during the 18th and 19th centuries from the society of the spectacle, to that of surveillance. In Crime and Punishment Foucault explains that in the 17th and 18th centuries criminals werepunished in public and their bodies were the site of punishment, this constitutes the society of the spectacle.
Foucault's metaphoric and literal depiction of the society surveillance is the panopticon. Bentham's panopticon is a architectural construct originally designed for prisons, but later used in schools, asylums and hospitals. Before the panopticon, prisoners were shut away in the dark, but with Bentham's design they are always illuminated. “Full lighting and the eye of a supervisor capture better than darkness, which ultimately protected. Visibility is a trap.” The darkness became depicted by twelve sided polygon situated in the middle of the room. There is no way of knowing when of if the guard is there or where he is looking, so prisoners are always imagined to be watched. “The Panopticon is a machine for disassociating the see/being dyad: in the peripheric ring, one is totally seen, without ever seeing: in the central tower, one sees everything without being seen.”
In contrast to power relationships where the state showed its power, the new power structures operated without direct coercion. “Inspection functions ceaselessly. The gaze is alert everywhere.” In contrast to Benjamin’s flaneur, the mobilized viewer, Foucault’s new subjective observer, who inhabits the panopticon, is stationary and his vision is concentrated. Both authors use literal and metaphoric vision to explain the development of historically constructed ways of seeing. Foucault’s panopticon is not only a metaphor for the control of inmates but can also be used to understand new power relations between the state and its subjects. Also, with the society of surveillance, the modern subject became the object of observation. Foucault identifies that these new power dynamics and shifting ways of seeing and being seen were not only the result of increasing industrialization and the search for efficient production but also contributed to their development in turn. The new subjects of observation were used to test the limits of human production and to surmise the best strategies for controlling and making them useful.
Foucault's metaphoric and literal depiction of the society surveillance is the panopticon. Bentham's panopticon is a architectural construct originally designed for prisons, but later used in schools, asylums and hospitals. Before the panopticon, prisoners were shut away in the dark, but with Bentham's design they are always illuminated. “Full lighting and the eye of a supervisor capture better than darkness, which ultimately protected. Visibility is a trap.” The darkness became depicted by twelve sided polygon situated in the middle of the room. There is no way of knowing when of if the guard is there or where he is looking, so prisoners are always imagined to be watched. “The Panopticon is a machine for disassociating the see/being dyad: in the peripheric ring, one is totally seen, without ever seeing: in the central tower, one sees everything without being seen.”
In contrast to power relationships where the state showed its power, the new power structures operated without direct coercion. “Inspection functions ceaselessly. The gaze is alert everywhere.” In contrast to Benjamin’s flaneur, the mobilized viewer, Foucault’s new subjective observer, who inhabits the panopticon, is stationary and his vision is concentrated. Both authors use literal and metaphoric vision to explain the development of historically constructed ways of seeing. Foucault’s panopticon is not only a metaphor for the control of inmates but can also be used to understand new power relations between the state and its subjects. Also, with the society of surveillance, the modern subject became the object of observation. Foucault identifies that these new power dynamics and shifting ways of seeing and being seen were not only the result of increasing industrialization and the search for efficient production but also contributed to their development in turn. The new subjects of observation were used to test the limits of human production and to surmise the best strategies for controlling and making them useful.