Panopticism// Study task 1..

Portfolio task one:

Choose an example of one aspect of contemporary culture, that is, in your opinion, panoptic. Write an explanation of this (200-300 words) employing key Foucauldian language such as 'docile bodies' or 'self regulation' and using no less than 5 qoutes from the text 'Panopticism' in Thomas J, (2000), ' Reading key images, NY, Paulgrave McMilan.

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One aspect of contemporary culture that uses panopticism to control people is CCTV. CCTV is placed almost everywhere nowadays, most of the time we know where the cameras are placed but some can also be hidden. The ones that are on show are placed in obvious places and often with signage to let us know we are being watched. This means that we behave in a particular way that society wants us to act, the right behaviour. ' Benthan laid down the principle that power should be visible and unverifiable', this is the case with some CCTV cameras that are not actually turned on, they are there as a symbol of power to remind us of those who have control over us.

The CCTV cameras are panoptic because they make us conscious of how we act and makes us believe that one way or another, we are being watched. Its much like the Panopticon, with the central guard tower watching over prisoners, but in actual fact there were no guards in the tower, the tower itself had the power to conciously change the behaviour of the prisoners. ' 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..the surveillance is permanent in its effects, even if it is discontinuous in its actions..'. You no longer need cameras that actually watch people because they believe they are being watched anyway. Foucault talks about how we begin to self regulate and behave correctly as we 'know' we are being constantly watched. It is all to do with how the mind works and how we can control ourselves, without the pyhsical use control of others.

CCTV watches everyone, in a way it is not such a powerful thing because even those who are in charge and who have power can be watched. Much like the paparazzi and celebrities and how they use cameras, often CCTV and the pap get those in high places into trouble, because little do they know that they are being watched too. ' The Panopticon may even provide an apparatus for supervising its own mechanisms..the director may spy on all the employees that he has under his orders..'. The ones who watch are being watched and so on. CCTV is just a symbol of powerful status, and it is slightly crazy how a camera can control us, it is just a unanimus object.

' Visibility is a trap', we all believe that we have free will and we can do what we want but at the end of the day we no longer have control of our free will, yes we consciously make the decision to behave in a certain way but it is those symbols of power (CCTV for example) that determine our actions.

Often just the signs of CCTV alome are more powerful than the cameras themselves.