'Literature, art and their respective producers do not exist independently of a complex institutional framework which authorises, enables, empowers and legitimises them. This framework must be incorporated into any analysis that pretends to provide a thorough understanding of cultural goods and practices'
Randal Johnson in Walker & Chaplin (1999)
The places we are born/work/live etc determine the work we might produce; we are not truly individual in this respect.
THE PANOPTICON
Michel Foucoult (1926-1984, Madness & Civilisation, Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison, books that survey the rise of mental institutions and prisons) suggests that this building has the same principles of control as society does.
THE GREAT CONFINEMENT (late 1600's)
'Houses of correction' to curb unemployment and idleness.
Those who wern't useful for society were stigmatised and thrown into one of these correction houses - anyone who didn;t operate in the way society wanted them to - the insane, criminals, poor and unemployed, single mothers etc. even the lazy people, with the threat of being beaten. Basically taking the unproductive and forcing them to be productive....which was OK for a while.
Rather than making people socially productive, the houses actually corrupt these people more so. The insane would make the sane insane.
THE BIRTH OF THE ASYLUM - insane and sane separated.
A greater division - knowledge specialists, people becoming qualified to judge who's right and wrong and insane and sane.
Inside the asylum, the insane are controlled in different ways, they are treated like children (minors) and if they do well, they are given rewards.
Society begins to realise there are better ways to control people than physical punishment - the shift to mental control, which comes with the birth of the asylum.
- The emergence of forms of knowledge - biology, psychiatry, medicine etc, legitimise the practices of hospitals, doctors, psychiatrists.
Pre-modern societies - the abnormal were subjected to public humiliation as a punishment; not to correct or train, but to demonstrate to anyone else that refusal to obey will result in public humiliation and punishment.
EG GUY FAWKES - punished to show others how powerful the King is.
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........(get quote from slideshow)
BACK TO THE PANOPTICON - designed by Jeremy Bentham - 1791
a round building with a potential multitude of functions - school, hospital, asylum, prison etc.
each of the spaces is a cell, divided by a wall, with a window that would shine on the prisoner, leaving them permanently backlit. In the middle is a central tower for the observers.
The ideal mechanism for disciplanry function. Each prisoner is constantly aware that they being surveyed, but they can't see each other. Permanently on display, permanently isolated, but the central observation tower is not lit, so they can;t tell if they are being watched or not. Not being able to verify if you are being watched or not has a strange effect. Hence you always end up behaving how you think you need to behave, as you contantly believe you are being watched. Once this idea is internalised people begin to control themselves, and bars are no longer needed. People didn;t try and escape, as they mentally kept themselves disciplined. Eventually you didn't even need guards to control it. THE PERFECT CONTROL MECHANISM
Check Presidio Modelo, Cuba
'Hence the major effect of the Panopticon: to induce in the inmate......get quote from slideshow
Allows scrutiny
Allows supervisors to conduct experiments
Allows to make them productive
Reforms prisoners, treats patients, instructs school children, helps confine etc
Parallels can be drawn to the lecture theatre we are sat in.
Foucoult is describing a tranformation in Western Societies from a form of power imposed by a ruler or sovereign to A NEW MODE OF POWER CALLED 'PANOPTICISM'
the Open Plan Office is another example of this. Enables easy communication whilst constantly being monitored by the boss. Has the effect of making people work harder, the boss sat there as a reminder of institutional power.
MODIFYING your own behaviour without having to be told, just in the knowledge that you are or can be watched and observed. i.e. you correcting yourself.
PANOPTICISM is EVERYWHERE in society. CCTV, google earth, streetview. everything that we do is recorded and henceforth it starts a fear that we as individuals may get caught out, which of course causes everyone to become better citizens under their own control.
The point is not to catch people out, but to provide a visible reminder to be a regular well-behaved citizen, and that you can get caught out.
'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
'DOCILE BODIES'
self monitoring, self correcting, obedient bodies.
Television is a great example.
THE EXERCISE OF POWER RELIES ON THERE BEING THE CAPACITY FOR POWER TO BE RESISTED.
'WHERE THERE IS POWER THERE IS RESISTANCE'
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