Michel Foucault (1926-1984, French, also an activists) - panopticism - designed 1791, seen as a metaphor for social control.
Wrote Books titled 'Madness and Civilisation' and 'Discipline and Punish: The birth of prison' (both books are surveys of the rise of institutions)
The Panopticon (building)
Madness and Civilisation
In pre modern societies madness was thought of differently socially - they thought the insane were leading the easy life and were incorporated into society.
The Great Confinement (1600's) - anyone who wasn't in production was thrown into 'Houses of Correction' - criminals, single mothers, the insane - were all put together and forced to work and be productive with the threat of violence if they were disobedient or slacking.
Eventually this was seen as gross misconduct - it made people more corrupt with was a reductive knock on effect of the process in which they were disciplined.
Afterwards, special institutions came about for different situations or conditions - The Birth of the Asylum
People were defined by sanity and behaviour.
In an asylum people are rewarded for being good instead of physical punishment - patients were treated like infants and although made to be productive they were being controlled. This was a shift from physical to mental control.
The emergence of forms of knowledge
The new form of social control represents the shift of someone else being responsible for your actions to you yourself being responsible.
Deviants and people behaving badly or abnormally were unished in extreme ways - not punished to train of correct them as offenders but to make an example to the rest of society that if you don't behave appropriately you will be humiliated, abused and made an outcast.
Guy Fawkes is an extreme example of this - lesson to everyone else.
Mental control.
Disciplinary society and power - Modern Disciplinary Society according to Foucault is a society looking for newer better ways to discipline members of that society.
Jeremy Benthan's design of the Panopticon proposed 1791
It had a multitude of uses - school/asylum/prison etc - all institutions
If it was a prison for instance.
The idea is that the inmates would be constantly watched but they cant see any other prisoners because of the cell walls and there was no real way to tell if you were being watched.
This isolation and sense of constant surveil forces the inmates to behave for fear of being caught out and punished. It makes you behave in a way which you yourself thinks the person watching wants you to behave.
The building itself was designed in a way that it alone can control their behaviour - people never tried to escape - people controlled themselves because of these feelings - people controlling themselves instead of being controlled.
There is no danger of corrupting each other. If it were a school the students would not be able to distract each other and therefore would become more productive as they would have that same sense of being watched that the inmates would.
You could measure the performance of inmates , measure and asses them because they are isolated.
The Panopticon allowed 3 key things to happen.
1. Allows scrutiny
2. Allows supervisors to experiment on the subjects
3. Aims to make them more productive
A lecture theatre at a university is a modern example of panopticism.
The Panoptic Model
It can...reform prisoners, help treat patients, help instruct school children and students.
It makes you more productive and develops self control.
Panopticism - about training people or more over getting people to train themselves.
Open plan offices - another example of panopticism - efficient system - people can communicate and talk easily, they can access each other quickly and easily if they need each others assistance. So they are in an efficient social environment for being productive whilst at the same time the boss or head of the office is able to observe the entire office and what goes on so they don't misbehave or slack off from their jobs. The feeling of maybe being caught out gives that self control to the employees.
The office - the main character is being film for a documentary so he acts differently and tries to be the perfect boss which gets him into awkward and unusual situations that he wouldn't normally be in if the cameras weren't there. He's trying to present himself in the way he wishes to be seen and as a result he's being someone else.
Being in college/school/university makes you act differently as a student because of the institutional ethics of how you should behave and present yourself towards staff and fellow students.
Libraries and Art Galleries - these are examples of panoptic surroundings. People automatically understand that when they enter these places that they have to be quite and well behaved out of respect to others who may be reading, studying or enjoying the art and books. The buildings don't have to be panoptic themselves because the atmosphere of the place already and from common knowledge that this is they way they should act.
Modern bars opposed to old public houses - Modern bars are open planned so that door staff and security can keep an eye out for trouble and so the customers wont do anything stupid or dangerous to others because they feel as though they will just be seen straight away. Old pubs have amore intimate and some times private atmosphere allowing people to be undisturbed and able to do as they please.
CCTV - obvious example of panopticism. Security cameras - visible - more effective to show that you will be caught out instead of hiding them and trying to catch them out. Ultimately you don't want to catch people out, you would rather prevent them from doing anything that you would have to deal with.
Relationship between power, knowledge and the body
Foucault, causes us to become 'docile bodies' which are produced by modern disciplinary societies.
(docility in the plutonian sense - self monitoring - obedient)
Disciplinary techniques (Danacher, Schirato and Webb 2000) - five a day, 30 mins exercise 3 times weekly etc
Cross over of work and play - people being healthy - people live longer - people have to work longer (increase in productivity again)
We are surrounded by constant reminders that your body is on display - no one makes you go to the gym or tells you, you don't look good in a certain outfit, you do it yourself. You tell yourself your not good enough or you need to change part or parts of your appearance.
How to look good naked/page 3 models/Calvin Klien Campaigns are all examples of this.
Foucault and Power
His definition is not a top down model as with Marxism.
Its a relationship - dialogue. For instance, the teacher only has power because we as the student let them have that power. We feel obliged by the standards and expectations of the institutions to be obedient and studious.
Where there is power there is also resistance.
(1984 - film - every room has a camera - panopticism - main character starts a revolution internally because has to do so without being caught out)
Facebook - panoptic - information available to everyone, mainly your friends and family - everything you post is an act of what you want your friends to see and think of you - its a social performance.
Vito Acconci 'Following Piece' (1969) - sleazy artist of his period - followed people around a city until he could not follow them any further then followed someone else from there onwards. Creating an illusion that someone is being watched or being kept track of to see if they behave any differently.
Key points
1. Michel Foucault
2. Panopticism as a form of discpline
3. Techniques of the body
4. Docile body
No comments:
Post a Comment