Task 1 - Panopticism

Panopticism is a theory of social control outlined by Michel Foucault in his book, Discipline and Punish, and is based around an idea of surveillance developed during a period when institutions such as asylums, penitentiaries and reformatories were in their earliest forms. It relies entirely on the reformation of individuals captive through controlling them mentally.

The Panopticon (Jeremy Bentham, 1791) became ‘the architectural figure of this compostition’. Foucault states that ‘it reverses the principle of the dungeon’, preserving only its primary function of enclosure. Inmates are kept in cells individually, which surround a central tower that is not lit. Each cell is lit from the outside wall, meaning that the inmates can always be seen from the central tower, but cannot see into the tower themselves. The major effect this has is ‘to induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power’.

There are many elements of contemporary society that could be seen as remaining elements of this panoptic form of social control, one of the major examples being CCTV cameras. It is thought that people are filmed more than 300 times a day by these cameras and we are constantly reminded of this fact through the media. They are always present where ever you are so it is evident that one could always see you. However like the central tower in the panopticon it is unclear as to whether you’re actually being watched by anyone at the other end of the camera; ’power should be visible yet unverifiable’.

This means that people act in the way that they believe they should act if they are being watched, whether they are or not. CCTV cameras also have the effect of deterrence in their positioning, and the signs that are used to warn people of their presence, as soon as someone is made aware that they could be under surveillance they will act as they believe they should, becoming, as Foucault described, a ‘docile body’. This also means, that often the cameras don’t have to work, as it is impossible to tell whether they are or not, and it is the possibility that you could be being watched that makes you behave in such a way. The sign warning you of the camera and the actual presentation of the camera therefore becomes more important than itself due to the effect of ‘self-regulation’ that this instills upon the person.