Surveillence & Society

"….it constructs for a time what is both a counter-city and the perfect society; it imposes and ideal functioning, but one that is reduced, in the final analysis, like the evil that it combats, to a simple dualism of life and death: that which moved brings death, & one kills that which moves. "

1791 - The Panopticon - Foucault saw this as a metaphor for discipline & social control.

MICHEL FOUCAULT
(1926 - 1984)
- Madness & civilization 
- Discipline & punish : the birth of the prison. 
Both writings analyse the rise of institutions & the power they hold.

Madness & civilization
- The great confinement (late 1600s)
  "mad people" at first were accepted in society, as if they were the village idiot.
- Then, those who were deemed not useful to society were put into 'Correctional Housing'.  Not only for those classed as 'insane', it included criminals, the unemployed and single mothers - forced to work through violent threats.

In light, people saw that these correctional houses were not just - new methods were looked into.  Such combinations of different people meant that everyone was affected by the criminals and in the end, they were all corrupt, no matter what they had initially been forced in there for.
 

These 'new' methods included specialised institutions such as asylums for the insane, where the 'patients' were treat like children and forced to work on the basis of a reward system.  There was a distinct shift from physical control to mental manipulative control.  Something still prevelant to this day.
From the back of this there was a need for more control.  This force of control came in the from of specialists / / professionals such as doctors and psychiatrists.  Tool of legitimisation.

Internalised responsibility

Used to be punished in the most violent / / public way possible i.e. Guy Fawkes
Not meant to correct their behavior but used as a device to control them, by showing what will happen - being made an example of.

Disciplinary society & disciplinary power
Foucault describes 'discipline' as a TECHNIQUE OF MODERN SOCIAL CONTROL

The disciplines function increasingly as techniques for making useful individuals.

‘Discipline’ may be identified neither with an institution nor with an apparatus; it is a type of power, modality for its exercise, comprising a whole set of instruments, techniques, procedures, levels of application, targets; it is a ‘physics’ or an ‘anatomy’ of power, a technology.

Jeremy Benthams PANOPTICON

"a new mode of obtaining power of mind over mind, in a quantity hitherto without example."
Was proposed in 1791- never became reality
- Bentham thought it could have multiple functions / / school / / asylum / / prison.

'The Panopticon is a type of institutional building designed by English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in the late eighteenth century. The concept of the design is to allow an observer to observe (-opticon) all (pan-) inmates of an institution without them being able to tell whether or not they are being watched.

The design consists of a circular structure with an "inspection house" at its centre, from which the managers or staff of the institution are able to watch the inmates, who are stationed around the perimeter. Bentham conceived the basic plan as being equally applicable to hospitals, schools, poorhouses, and madhouses, but he devoted most of his efforts to developing a design for a Panopticon prison, and it is his prison which is most widely understood by the term.'

Source

A circular construction with rooms around the outside and a central tower with a view of all the rooms.
Each room is back lit so that the subject is clearly visible.
The central tower is in darkness so that the inmates cannot see into the central tower.







Presidio, Cuba
Same Panoptic principle.
Perfect example of panopticism.

Inmates on constant display, whilst being isolated, they are being watched / / constant possibility of being watched.
They know there is a high possibility that they are being watched but it is not certain due to the central tower (representing institutional power) a) being so small in comparison, and b) not being lit.
Possibility of being watched at any moment has a big impact on the way the inmates behave.
Begin to control own behaviour.
After time, there no longer needed to be a guard in the tower because the very fact that the tower was there was enough.  The inmates had already associated the tower with guards / / discipline.  The tower is a perfect device for control.  Tower = (Foucaults version) 'discipline' 
"Machine for automatic functioning of power".

PANOPTICISM / /
Emergence (for foucault) of a new model for control.
Main aim of panopticism is training.  'Training' / / mental manipulation to control the minds of those under scrutiny.
The whole concept rests on the idea that the 'trainee' has to be watched / / think that they are being watched.  In order for them to change the way they act they have to think that someone is taking note of everything they do.  This is the only way to be successful.

E.G in practice:
- Open plan office
- Libraries
No one tells you to be quiet or to control yourself, you just d0
CCTV, Google maps.
these build into you the fear of always being caught out because there could always be someone watching you.

Prevention / /
college cards / /
Hours - clocking in & out of college / / work.
Relationship between power, knowledge & body 
- direct relationship between mental control & physical responses.
People become 'Docile' obedient bodies.

- Self monitoring
- Self correcting
- Obedient.

Facebook / /
Everything posted - everyone can see.
Create your own identity that you want people to see of you.
Vito Acconci 'Following piece' (1969)
Follow someone - stalking
We believe we are in control of our actions when we are in fact not at all - we are already trained.

We are all docile bodies.