We had our first Lecture on the Panopticon, a theory of institutional power. The lecture discussed both the work of Jeremy Bentam (1971) and Michael Foucault (1926- 1984). Foucault believed there had been a shift in power, that the emergence of forms of knowledge gave specialists a form of power, taking power away from those who traditionally held it, e.g a King or the church. With these new developments in society individuals were made responsible for their own conformity, discipline began to be seen as a technology aimed at keeping society under surveillance. Jeremy Bentam created the Panopticon, a way of holding prisoners completely different to traditional prisons whereby those deemed socially unproductive were locked away and hidden from view. In the Panopticon they could always bee seen, studied and observed.
THE PANOPTICON:
The way the Panopticon was constructed with a central watch tower and individual cells spread out around it in a circular structure, allowed the inhabitants to always be seen without ever seeing. The prisoner can never tell whether they are being observed or not so they are always completely subservient. This allows for power to be constantly maintained by those watching. The Panopticon “disindividualises power” (page 65) Those watching cannot be seen, they are recognized more as a force than as individuals, making them seem all the more in control that the prisoners.
The Panopticon is highly efficient; it reduces the need for numerous guards, as due to the individualization of inmates the normal issues with keeping numerous people deemed unfit for society do not apply. The belief that there is someone unseen constantly watching them, leads to the inmate becoming “the principle of his own subjection” (page 66), eventually prisoners become so aware of the feeling that they are being watched there is no-one needed to watch them anymore, they begin to self regulate, through both fear and enforced obedience. It was thought to strengthen power, because it never had to intervene, by its design it did that, acting directly to affect individuals without any physical intervention being necessary.
The Panopticon was thought to be largely beneficial to science; it could be used almost as a laboratory. The separation of inmates allowed them to be monitored and experimented on, both psychologically and physically. Experiments were performed to test medicines, punishments, attempt to correct individuals, test aptitudes, asses characters and monitor various effects. Numerous experiments were tried out even on children, teaching one child things commonly believed, whilst telling the other differently e.g the moon is made of cheese. This according to scientists lead to some ground breaking conversations when the two individuals were bought together as adults and allowed to discuss. These are some of the main reasons why the Panopticon was outlawed, due to being against human rights.
Julius said that the Panopticon was “to the modern age, to the ever growing influence of the state, to its ever more profound intervention in all the details and all the relations of social life.” This meant tht as society becomes more withdrawn within itself, and people become more private, structures of power such as the Panopticon could be used by the state to maintain a certain amount of control and understanding as to what is going on around us. Julius also believes that through power structures the individual is not suppressed rather “carefully fabricated”, whether this in fact any form of improvement can be left up to individual judgment. However I personally am not convinced that it is.
SOCIETY AND SURVEILLANCE:
There are numerous examples of how the Panopticon has influenced our society. The phrase “Orwell was right” is a highly common phrase in our current social climate. With numerous institutions watching individuals at all times, for safety, advertising and numerous other reasons. One way in which our society has almost made light of this is through shows such as Big Brother, whereby contestants are constantly watched and experimented on, through a variety of weekly tasks and challenges either earning, a luxury shop or rations. Similar to experiments undertook in the old Panopticon, whereby prisoners would be asked to perform a task and based upon, speed, efficiency and how well the job was done his pay would be decided upon.
The general feeling that our society is being watched, however, is not unfounded with security cameras on every street corner, and software that monitors our online activities. Software called Lexicon has been developed that monitors our online conversations picks up on products that may interest us, our mood and also sells on this information to other companies.
THE IPA:
Within the advertising industry also there is a certain amount of panoptic traits. If you look at the IPA and their website these are evident. Firstly to allow access to the site you must login with a username and password are needed, this highlights how you can be tracked and followed throughout the site, they can view what you have looked at, posted and the work you place on the site. No part of the process remains anonymous. The work you post on the site can be assessed for aptitude; the IPA Effectiveness Case studies similarly monitor this. They also sell click throughs to advertising clients. Monitoring what you click on, which links you choose to access, and what you choose to view during your time on their page. This monitoring and reporting is a clear panoptic trait. The IPA is also largely involved with the government, with numerous links and projects involvement on their page, this government involvement was always a large influence on the Panopticon as it was the state wishing to be in control of the masses that lead to its creation.
Overall the Panopticon, despite having been outlawed due to its violation of human rights, still largely influences modern life. Raising the question was Orwell right? Are we heading into a society where we are all watched and controlled or is this just another development leading to a more effective, efficient and safe society?
(Panopticism, Foucault)
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