Monday, February 22, 2010

Panopticism and Task 1





Notes taken in lecture.
Week one Panopticism

Institutional power-family army

The lecture talks about Micheal Foucault's idea that a disciplinary society is a way of making individuals more 'useful'.
'This enclosed, segmented space, observed at every point, in which the individuals are inserted in a fixed place, in which the slightest movements are supervised, in which all events are being recorded' M, Foucault
'-all this constitutes a compact model of the disciplinary mechanism'. M, Faucoult

All these are the key ways in which discipline can be implemented, where an individual is monitored and scrutinised, and a perfect example of the way panopticism works.
M, Faucoult goes on to explain how this situation was once a ' political dream'. Where there became chaos there was an opportunity for the magistrates to oppose order and take control as people feared dying as a result of a disease and through disobedience. The powerful took advantage of that because it left the common people no option but to abide.

Task 1
CCTV is something in society which could be considered a way of controlling us. Each street in our cities and towns are lined with cameras which the theory behind panopticism could suggest is what's going towards keeping society under control. As Micheal Faucoult suggests 'Visibility is a trap'.
As Faultcout talks about within his article on 'panopticism', exclusion during the plague was one type of Panoptic control where one was hidden away in darkness, and gave the magistrates the best opportunity to exclude 'lepers' from the community branding them (Who he is; where he must be; how he is to be characterised; how he is to be recognised; how constant surveillance is to be exercised over him in an individual way) Faucoult (pg. ) which led to self discipline. You can see the link between this panoptic control forced upon society during the plague and the panoptic control forced upon society today through these CCTV cameras, the only difference is now it is not a physical force but a psychological one. 'In short, it reverses the principle of the dungeon;or rather of its three functions ( which was the control implemented during the plague)-to enclose, to deprive of light and to hide- it preserves only the first and eliminates the other two. Full lighting and the eye of the supervisor capture better than darkness, which ultimately protected'. M. Faulcoult (p.80)
CCTV is not at all wrong as people in communities see it as a way of protection as they believe there is always someone watching behind the camera and there have been crimes committed and CCTV has been proven to have helped identify the crime or the identity of the criminal 'The panoptic mechanism arranges spatial unites that makes it possible to see constantly and to recognise immediately.M. Faucoult (p.80).
M.Faucoult also suggests this type of control can be implemented as long as we 'think' there is someone watch as no-one has to be watching at all for this type of panoptic control to take place. On the other hand with every other type of panoptic control we have looked at through our lectures Faucoult suggests 'Where there is power, there is resistance', the 'madman' in society will not conform to the way society has to behave.
This panoptic discipline has also continued to put society in stereotypical boxes which we maintain by self monitoring and self correcting, as there are a large amount of CCTV cameras mounted in 'high crime' areas this and the medias help, stop people from wanting to go into or live in certain areas. But this is an extreme view of probably a small proportion of crime. This could also be breeding more crime in other areas where criminals know they may not be seen or criminals could come up with ways of committing crime without being seen.
Overall panoptic discipline makes us more productive creating 'docile bodies' within society, it makes us feel safe without there being anyone even watching, or can also corrupt communities even more. But most of all 'The first is that a pure community, the second that of a disciplinary community' 'that is the utopia of a perfect governed city' M, Faucoult (p.89). In society we are expected to and want to conform to being 'docile bodies' and more 'productive' for fear of exclusion.


other lecture notes

Here is the model of the panopticon designed by J, Bentham.

Presidio Modelo Prison, Cubo.
Panoptic model prison.

Micheal Foucaults uses the model of the panopticon designed by Jeremy Bentham, as a metaphor to describe how this power works in everyday society. You are seen but can not see this psychological power which automatically forces us to conform to a certain way of living and discipline ourselves without there being any physical force, like during the plague. This is the power of panopticism.

Inside the prison
Built in 1926-1931, held 6000 prisoners

Michel Foucaults states in Chapter 8 on Panopticism, Pg 82
"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. So to arrange things that the surveillance is permanent in its effects, even if it is discontinuous in its action; that the perfection of power should tend to render its actual exercise unnecessary; that this architectural apparatus should be a machine for creating and sustaining a power relation independent of the person who exercises it; in short, that the inmates should be caught up in a power situation of which they are themselves the bearers. To achieve this, it is at once too much and too little that the prisoner should be constantly observed by an inspector: too little, for what matters is that he knows himself to be observed; too much, because he has no need in fact of being so. In view of this, Bentham laid down the principle that power should be visible and unverifiable. Visible: the inmate will constantly have before his eyes the tall outline of the central tower from which he is spied upon. Unverifiable: the inmate must never know whether he is being looked at at any one moment; but he must be sure that he may always be so. In order to make the presence or absence of the inspector unverifiable, so that the prisoners, in their cells, cannot even see a shadow, Bentham envisaged not only venetian blinds on the windows of the central observation hall, but, on the inside, partitions that intersected the hall at right angles and, in order to pass from one quarter to the other, not doors but zig-zag openings; for the slightest noise, a gleam of light, a brightness in a half-opened door would betray the presence of the guardian. The Panopticon is a machine for dissociating the see/being seen dyad: in the peripheric ring, one is totally seen, without ever seeing; in the central tower, one sees everything without ever being seen."

During the lecture we also talked about other types of discipline -

Houses of correction-the physical discipline
In the late 1600's if society saw an individual as a 'madman', he would be banished from the community and sent to a 'House of Correction' this was to curb unemployment.
These houses were set up in order to not just hide away someone they deemed idol in society, but they were also set up to 'train' these people to be better productive bodies.
According to An Introduction and notes by Muller, Jill on the Charles Dickens Classic Oliver Twist (pg103), it is said that Charles Dickens based the character Mr Fang on Allan Laing a London Magistrate who sent 3 youths to the house of correction for singing in the street.

These houses disciplined what they would call 'madmen' using physical force and because theses 'madmen' had been taken out of a society and put together, they became more corrupt by each other which led to to even more immoral and criminal activity in the houses.

The techniques of discipline which took place in these houses ranged from, public hangings, and the pillory etc:

Sir William Wallace


The torture which included the drawing, hanging and quartering of William Wallace is a perfect example as to how this form of control works. Edward I, also know as longshanks and king of England introduced this as a suitable punishment for treason where one would be dragged through the streets, cut open, disemboweled alive and then finally beheaded or hung. It is said that Edward Longshanks not only introduced this as a punishment but also for entertainment value.


This form of discipline not only punishes the condemned prisoner for the crime committed, but more importantly acted as a warning to others as to what will happen if they step out of line despite them being right or wrong.

Taken from The Baronage Press and Pegasus Associates Ltd, the article talks about why these things were put in place, it states that
'The grisly, grotesque nature of the killing was explained in the severe language of the law with the intention that it should terrify the listeners and augment the misery of the man whose body was shortly to fulfil the role of lecture aid'.
England did not stop this form of punishment until 1870.

The birth of Asylum
As the houses of correction were becoming more corrupt and less successful at disciplining 'madmen', The form of control turned from physical to mental something which has shaped the way society has behaved ever since.

Then came the prison with the panoptic layout.
Pentoville prison uses the panoptic model

Some office layouts use the panoptic model
.

Phone Booth
One man's life is thrown into turmoil by picking up a telephone in this claustrophobic thriller. Stu Shepard (Colin_Farrell) is a brash, cynical, and self-centered public relations man who juggles a busy career with both a wife, Kelly (Radha_Mitchell), and a mistress, Pamela (Katie_Holmes). Stu steps into a phone booth on a busy New York street to make a call to Pamela without Kelly being the wiser, but as soon as Stu hangs up, the phone begins to ring. Curious, Stu picks it up -- and a stranger on the other end (voice of Kiefer_Sutherland) informs him that if he hangs up the phone, he'll be shot. The red dot of an infrared rifle scope convinces Stu that the caller means business, and when another man tries to make his way into the booth, he's shot mere inches from Stu, calling the attention of the police. Captain Ramey (Forest_Whitaker) naturally assumes that Stu was the killer, as Stu struggles to find a way to convince the police of what's happening before more lives are lost, without leaving the booth and putting his own life on the line. At one time proposed as a vehicle for Jim_Carrey, Phone Booth was directed by Joel_Schumacher, from a screenplay by exploitation icon Larry Cohen.

In the movie Phone Booth there is a reverse role in the set up of the panopicon with the main character Stu being at the centre of the attention with everyone else looking towards him, but the same applies, 'Visibility is a trap', We see the main character Stu in the film being control by an unknown man over the telephone. Although this man on the telephone is no-where to be seen and is less powerful that the police that are trying to help Stu come out of the booth, the fear of Stu knowing he is being watched but not being able to see, and for fear of being exposed and scrutinised is what is trapping him inside that phone booth without any physical force at all, this is a good example of the power panopitic control can have.




Bibliography

Introduction:The panopticon. The theory of Surveillance. The panopticon. Foucault, Michel. Discipline and punishment:the birth of Prison. NY, Vintage Books, 1995 pg 195-228
HANDOUT-Foucault, Michel. Panopticism. Chapter 8.Pg 82
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidio_Modelo- Pictures of prison-24/02/2010
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2008/11/14/1226684303110/Pentonville.jpg-pentoville picture24/02/2010
Lecture notes on moodle
The Baronage Press and Pegasus Associates Ltd
http://www.baronage.co.uk/bphtm-01/wallace3.html - 17/02/10
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