Panopticon - metaphor for society surveillance.
Foucault (1926 - 1984) "Madness and civilisation" - idea of madness an how it has emerged throughout history.
Madness accepted in society - late 1600's - "The great confinement" happens - becomes a social requirement to work. People deemed socially unproductive or abnormal - need to be useful to society - locked away - the mad, criminals, tramps, pregnant single women, lazy - put into confinement to improve the 'moral fibre' of society. Put into correctional facilities - make them work and correct idleness.
"Deviants" begin to corrupt each other - the mad corrupt the sane etc - begins a degeneration.
The birth of the Asylum - different technique to the house of correction in order to control the mad - treated like children - rewarded for the good, 'punished' for the bad. There's a shift now from psychical control (putting to work) to mental control.
The emergence of new forms of knowledge and authority - can judge what is 'normal' and legitimise practices of hospitals, doctors, psychiatrists to deem what is normal.
Gives these specialists 'superhuman' powers to control society.
Society starts to internalise responsibility - conform to what is expected as 'normal'.
Panopticism.
Early methods of control in society - 'Pillary' - deviants paraded in front of town - visible humiliation - the deviant is judged by society.
Disciplinary society and Disciplinary Power (Foucault)
A 'technology' to keep us under surveillance - to control us and improve society - make people productive and responsible.
Panopticon Design - 1971 - round building - windows from outside.
Middle - central watch tower - can see all prisoners.
Interesting effects - opposite of dungeon or house of correction - constantly can be seen - 'not forgotten' like before.
"Internalises" in the individual the conscious state that he is always being watched. It scared the inmates - didn't step out of line - self regulate their behaviour - perfect system if control. Seen now as psychological torture.
Example of the effects...
Advantages of the Panopticon - perfect model for scrutinising people - almost like a lab to monitor human performance. Constant visibility - efficient and economical.
"Experiment on prisoners" - reforms the prisoners, help treat patients, instruct school children / students, helps confine, study the insane, puts idlers / beggars to work.
We change behaviour to what we expect 'the invisible, watching body' wants us to behave like.
Open plan offices, modern bars, studios etc all examples of panopticism - always watched.
The idea of being recorded in our modern society, causes us to change - due to the anxiety of being recorded
My thought: I think this is totally instilled in us now - particularly the younger generations as we are unconsciously always aware that we are being videoed on CCTV and it is almost like human instinct to us now and it's just 'normal' although slightly scary and intimidating.
'Relationship between power, knowledge and the body"
Power relations have an immediate hold upon the body - invest it, train it, torture it, force it to carry out tasks, to emit signs, perform ceremonies. (Focualt).
The physical effect of a mental process.
Disciplinary society = 'docile bodies' - self monitoring, easily controllable, does what "YOU" the surveyor wants it to do.
e.g. Women dress how men want them to dress - to impress.
Disciplinary techniques - e,g, the gym - making ourselves fit / healthy for society - deemed fit to work - we are inundated with messages about smoking, drinking etc - messages so we hopefully don't become ill, therefore can't work and are deemed useless to society.
This essentially was what the Nazi 'project' was intending to do - produce a fit/healthy society.
T.V. - a classic way of producing docility - we are instructed, controlled, become passive.
Foucault on power:
Not a 'top down' model like Marxism. Power is not a thing, it is a relation between different individuals / groups. Power relies on there being the capacity for power to be resisted.
"Where there is power, there is resistance."
Facebook - the new (modern day) surveillance. Spying on friends, performing for the public - we delete inappropriate photos, tags etc if we see that our behaviour / appearance is not acceptable / normal.
Bruce Nauman
'Video Corridor Pieces' 1960's - Attitude shifts to that of self consciousness when you reach the screen at the bottom showing the back of your head and you realise you're being watched and you feel you need to adapt to a behaviour 'acceptable' in the art gallery.
Two pillars and a crack - pushes harder on the walls when people enter the room - like it is watching people enter and exit.
"The 100-ton jack pushes two large timbers against the bearing walls of the museum. Each visitor to the museum must pass through the turnstile in order to see the exhibition. Each input on the turnstile ever so slightly expands the jack, and ultimately if enough people visit the exhibition, SAMSON could theoretically destroy the building.”
- Foucault's ideas.
- Panopticism - form of modern discipline.
- Techniques of the body.
- Docile body.
Found this to be an interesting lecture - never realised there was so much depth into surveillance - the ideas behind it and the reasons for doing it.The thoughts presented by Foucault and that of the correctional facilities. It's a really interesting human behaviour in itself - why was there ever that need pushed onto society for people to work, for people to be normal, for people to be watched? And, who decides on who are the watchers? It's quite a scary thought to think that if I am caught on CCTV hundreds of times a day, then why are people watching me? What information are they obtaining from me? What do they do with the data / information they 'collect' from people and why?
I can see the good in watching people, on the basis that the government are keeping us 'safe' and able to track individuals such as terrorists, but I kind of want a balance between what we have and a communistic society - what I mean by that is, yeah fair enough keep me safe in my own country and what have you, but I would like to have a say on who it is - it's a bit panicking thinking a random 'odd' person might be watching and hatching a crazy plan...
Maybe that went a bit far, but I wanted to share my thoughts on what I heard today.
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