Panopticon

The Panopticon is a type of prison building designed by the philosopher Jeremy Bentham. The concept of the design is to allow an observer to observe (-opticon) all (pan-) prisoners without the prisoners being able to tell if they are being observed or not, thus conveying a "sentiment of an invisible omniscience":

Morals reformed - health preserved - industry invigorated instruction diffused - public burthens lightened - Economy seated, as it were, upon a rock - the gordian knot of the Poor-Laws are not cut, but untied - all by a simple idea in Architecture!-

Jeremy Bentham Bentham, Jeremy. Panopticon. In Miran Bozovic (ed.), The Panopticon Writings, London: Verso, 1995, 29-95.

The architectural figure "incorporates a tower central to an annular building that is divided into cells, each cell extending the entire thickness of the building to allow inner and outer windows. The occupants of the cells ^* are thus backlit, isolated from one another by walls, and subject to scrutiny both collectively and individually by an observer in the tower who remains unseen. Toward this end, Bentham envisioned not only venetian blinds on the tower observation ports but also mazelike connections among tower rooms to avoid glints of light or noise that might betray the presence of an observer." Barton, Ben F., and Marthalee S. Barton. "Modes of Power in Technical and Professional Visuals." Journal of Business and Technical Communication 7.1, 1993, 138-62.

Conceptual history

Bentham derived the idea from the plan of a Military School in Paris designed for easy supervision, itself conceived by his brother Samuel who arrived at it as a solution to the complexities involved in the handling of large numbers of men. Bentham supplemented this principle with the idea of contract management, that is, an administration by contract as opposed to trust, where the director would have a pecuniary interest in lowering the average rate of mortality. The Panopticon was intended to be cheaper than that of the prisons of his time, as it required fewer staff; "Allow me to construct a prison on this model," Bentham requested to a Committee for the Reform of Criminal Law, "I will be the gaoler. You will see ... that the gaoler will have no salary -- will cost nothing to the nation." As the watchmen cannot be seen, they need not be on duty at all times, effectively leaving the watching to the watched.

Bentham devoted a large part of his time and almost his whole fortune to promote the construction of a prison based on his scheme. After many years and innumerable political and financial difficulties, he eventually obtained a favourable sanction from Parliament for the purchase of a place to erect the prison, but in 1811 after the King refused to authorize the purchase of the land, the project was finally aborted. In 1813 he was awarded a sum of £23,000 in compensation for his monetary loss which did little to alleviate Bentham's ensuing unhappiness for the miscarriage.

While the design did not come to fruition during Bentham's time, it has been seen as an important development. For instance, the design was invoked by Michel Foucault (in Discipline and Punish) as metaphor for modern "disciplinary" societies and its pervasive inclination to observe and normalize. Foucault proposes that not only prisons but all hierarchical structures like the army, the school, the hospital and the factory have evolved through history to resemble Bentham's Panopticon. The notoriety of the design today (although not its lasting influence in architectural realities) stems from Foucault's famous analysis of it.

Panoptic prison design

The Panopticon is widely but erroneously believed by many people to have influenced the design of Pentonville Prison, Armagh Gaol, Eastern State Penitentiary, and several other Victorian prisons; these, however, were examples of the separate system, which was more about isolation of prisoners from each other than surveillance by their guards. (In the separate system surveillance is in fact difficult.) No true panopticons were built in Britain, and very few anywhere in the British Empire. Millbank Prison although a Bentham design, was not a direct application of the Panopticon. It was not a success, nor was it an option.

Panopticon prisons

See also the recent "Omniview" prison design copywrited here: http://www.radialomniview.com/index.php.

Other panoptic structures

The Panopticon was likewise later suggested as an "open" hospital architecture: "Hospitals required knowledge of contacts, contagions, proximity and crowding... at the same time to divide space and keep it open, assuring a surveillance which is both global and individualising", 1977 interview (preface to French edition of Jeremy Bentham's "Panopticon").

Contemporary social critics often assert that technology has allowed for the deployment of panoptic structures invisibly throughout society. Surveillance by closed-circuit television cameras in public spaces and close monitoring of employees at work are examples of technologies that bring the gaze of a superior into the daily lives of the populace. The growth of panoptic monitoring technologies has provoked backlashes by privacy advocates.

Other observers argue that these technologies don't always favor the hierarchical structure outlined by Bentham and Foucault, but can also enable individuals, through inverse surveillance or sousveillance, to appropriate technological tools for individual or public purposes. Still others predict a balanced state of a universal "participatory panopticon" in which there is an equiveillance, or equilibrium of monitoring and control structures between parties.

Panoptic mechanisms

A panoptic mechanism is a mechanism of social control based on Foucault’s ideas of the Panopticon and the exertion of discipline onto the body. An apparatus for control based on the inspecting gaze.

Panopticons in Media

Silent Hill 4, a survival horror video game, relies heavily on the theme of surveillance and features a panopticon-like structure referred to simply as "Water Prison World."

Panopticon is also a password used in the PC Game Deus Ex. An omniscient artificial intelligence, Icarus, requires Milnet access and has JC Denton (the player) use a computer terminal in the final level of the game to administer this using the Login ID 'Icarus' and Password 'Panopticon.'

Panopticon is also an album by the band ISIS. It suggests the entire world is now a panopticon, due to the seemingly endless amount of satellites surveying the entire globe.

References

see also: The Traveler by John Twelve Hawkes

External links

Penal imprisonment | Surveillance | Criminology topics

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