Lecture one// Panopticism..

Lecture aims:

- Undertstand the principles of the panopticism
- Understand Michel Foucault's concept of 'disciplinary society'
- Consider the idea that disciplinary society is a way of making individuals 'productive and useful'
- Undertsand Foucaults idea of techniques of the body and 'docile' bodies.

- Michel Foucault// 1926-1984
- Books// Madness and Civilisation, Discipline and Punish: The birth of the prison

- In the late 1600 The Great Confinement came to light, this was a seperation in society where criminals, unemployed and the insane were made social out casts. They began being punished for who they were and by this process were 'forced' to become more productive members of society.

- ' Houses of correction'// These were the first ever prisons built in the late 1600's, they were built to curb unemployment and idleness. Before now the insane for example led an easy life, they were simply seen as the village idiots or mad fools and belonged to society. But in the late 1600s societys attitude changed towards this particular group of people and they saw them as useless. Society began to have a moral attitude and those who fell outside of the normal, productive society were thrown into correction houses to bring them up to societys new mark. People within this group include criminals, lazy people, the insane and even single mothers, they were to put to work under the threat of being beaten if they did not get up to scratch.

- The houses of correction became a gross error, they ended up corrupting more people. This then became the birth of Asylum which seperated the sane from the insane, before ow there was no line drawn between the two within society.

- Places were built for asylums and the insane would be treated very differently, much like children. If they were good then they would recieve rewards. This was the turning of point of how outcasts in society would be disciplined. They realised there were other ways to control people, there then became a shift from physical control to mental control.

- Foucault talks about how instituitional power within places like the prison, asylum, hospitals and schools now effects humans in such a way that they alter our conciousness and that they internalise our responsibility.

- Years ago punishment would take the form of public humiliation, the outcasts would be placed in pillories and have food thrown at them as well as being spat on. Everyone would come and watch and know why those indivuals were in the stocks.

- Guy Falke's execution is a good example of how punishment used to work. It was done publically and the King decided on how he would be killed. The execution was brutal and a warning to anyone else who dared try and go against the 'system'.

- Disciplinary society and disciplinary power//

' Discipline is a 'technology' [aimed at] 'how to keep someone under surveillance, how to control his conduct, his behaviour, his aptitudes, how to improve his performance, multiply his capacities, how to put him where he is most useful: that is discipline in my sense'

(Foucault, 1981 in O'Farrell 2005:102)

- This was called Panopticism

- In 1971 a man named Jeremy Bentham designed a proposal for a building called The Panopticon. The Panopticon was a circular building that had hundreds of individual cells inside, each sell faced towards a large central tower. The cells each had a small window which backlit each cell. The central tower was a place for guards. The building would have been used as a prison and the prisoners would have been constantly watched from the central tower.

- There are modern Panopticon buildings built in Cuba called the Presidio Modelo. The Millbank prison in london also used the structure of the Panopticon.

- Because of the way in which the Panopticon was built around the central tower and how all the cells were facing it. Anyone kept inside a cell felt constantly watched by the guards which meant they would behave in such a way as to not get caught doing anything they shouldnt. The tower was known as the institiutional 'gaze'. The tower was never lit up and blinds were often used to enclose those inside, this would then make prisoners unaware on whether or not they were actually being watched. As the prisoners became more self controling over thier own behaviour simply because they thought they were constantly being watched. The tower started to be left empty, it now had its own pwerful status, guards were no longer needed to watch the prisoners because they had been set in a frame of mind that made them behave through the unknown knowledge of whether they were actually being watched or not.

- It got to the point that the cells no longer needed bars on them because prisoners had a conscious control over themselves, they had begun self disciplining themselves. The Panopticon had internalised the individuals conscious state that he is always being watched.

- Panopticism//

' Hence the major effect of the Panopticon: to induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power.'

(Foucault, 1975)

- By using the Panopticon method on criminals and the insane it allowed scrutiny, allowed supervisors to experiment on subjects and it aimed to make them productive.

- It helped reform prisoners
- Helps treat patients
- Helps instruct school children
- Helps confine, but also study the insane
- Helps supervise workers
- Helps put beggars and idlers to work.

- What Foucault is describing is a transformation in Western societies from a form of power imposed by a 'ruler' or 'sovereign' to A NEW MODE OF POWER CALLED "PANOPTICISM"

- The 'Panopticon' is a model of how modern society organises its knowledge, its power, its surveillance of bodies and its 'training' of bodies.

- Its much like an open plan office in modern society, the Panopticon method is used. An open plan office is designed so that the 'boss' can see what everyone is doing and therefore making the workers aware that they are being watched and should be working hard. Where in actual fact they may not even be being watched but their internalised conscious state of mind makes them act in a way that their boss would be wanting them to work.

- It has also effected places like pubs, they used to be designed to have a cosy and personalised feel to them in terms of where you sat. Now they have been made very open planned so that customers are aware that they can be seen by bouncers for example, which then makes them act in a particular way knowing that they are being watched/ can be seen by everyone.

- Google maps is another example of us being watched. You can find out where anyone lives which is a weird feeling. Someone could be watching your house, again this effects how you behave.

- In Pentonville prison in the USA, they had rooms designed for lectures to prisoners, they were set up as seperate individual compartments for inmates. It stopped them from interacting with one another.

- Even things like libraries use Panopticism, we could walk into a library and automatically be quiet, even if there is no sign saying to be quiet. It is a conscious decision that we make where we know that we have to act in a certain way to be accepted in society. There is an instituitional power over us that makes us control our own behaviour.

- CCTV is a prime example of Panopticism, there are cameras watching us everywhere, often we do not even know they are there. This makes us behave ourselves knowing that if we do do something wrong, there is a chance someone has caught us in the act and we would have to face the consequences. Places now use CCTV cameras in places that are not even on, because they know that we will think they are on or we see them and think we are being watched. It is all pyshcological. Its the same with speed cameras, we are aware they are about which therefore makes us slow down, and sometimes these could be fake cameras.

- Relationship between power, knowledge and the body//

' Power relations have an immediate hold upon it [the body]; they invest it, mark it, train it, torture it, force it to carry out tasks, to perform ceremonies, to emit signs'

(Foucault 1975)

- Disciplinary society produces what Foucault calls:- 'docile bodies'.
- Self monitoring
- Self-correcting
- Obedient bodies

- Disciplinary Techniques

" That the techniques of discipline and 'gentle punishment' have crossed the threshold from work to play shows how pervasive they have become within modern societies"

(Danaher, Schirato & Webb 2000)

- Foucault and Power

- His defintion is not a top-down model as with Marxism
- Power is not a thing or capacity people have- it is a relation between different individuals and groups, and only exists when it is being exercised.
- The exercise of power relies on there being the capacity for power to be resisted
- 'Where there is power there is resistance'

- Facebook is an example of how we create an ideal image of ourselves that we want people to see of ourselves. Everyone can see anything we do which makes us behave in an ideal way to appear as a good person in society.

- There was also a Panopticism effect on art during the 1960s. Vito Acconci's 'Following piece' (1969) was piece of art designed to show the power the artist had over another person without them realising. He would follow someone around everywhere and take photos without the person knowing.

- Another piece of his work called 'Seedbed' (1972), was a piece where he made a fake floor in a gallery and hid underneath it. The people who came to view his work didnt realise the floor was fake and that he was actually hiding underneath it masturbating.

- There is also 'Samson', created by Chris Burden (1985). The art was a huge iron mechanism attached to a turn style. A huge piece of timber was placed across the length of the room and every time someone came through the trun style to view the work it would make the timber push outwards on the walls. Effectively the gallery would eventually be destroyed by being viewed. Very clever.

- Key things to go away with:

- Michel Foucault
- Panopticism as a form of discipline
- Techniques of the body
- Docile bodies