Richard Miles.
Panopticism
Institutions and institutional power.
The panopticon.
Social control.
Michael Foucault - 1926/1984.
Madness, not a recognisable condition
The great confinement, late 1600s.
No strict conception of madness.
Madmen lived a happy go lucky life, tolerated and accepted in society.
Thought of endearingly, the village idiot
No defined sane or insane, until the 1600s.
New sensibility and a new attitude to work. Social usefulness of work.
Anxiety started to emerge, with the separation of unproductive people. Anyone that couldn't work and benefit society was outside the pool of productive workers and a social outcast.
Houses of correction.
Mix of everyone, criminals, diseased, single mothers, madmen etc.
Made to work in the houses of correction, the workers would be hit if they didn't work.
Labour is used as an exercise of moral reform with the honesty of work
The birth of the asylum.
Houses of correction viewed as a mistake. The various deviants would corrupt each other, a melting pot of the unproductive.
Like a modern form of the hospital, housing and correcting the insane.
Specialist institutions set up for the people.
Worked on correcting the inmates in a very different way to the houses of correction.
Instead of physical violence, more subtle techniques were used.
Insane people were tactically reduced to minors. Rewarded for being good, celebrated behaviour. If they were bad they were told off as opposed to beaten. Subtly training people to behave, not punishing, but correcting.
Michel sees this as a modern institution with the emergence of specialists.
Institution experts, legitimise the actions of the institutions.
Emergence of forms of knowledge.
Foucault, notes that the institutions control our behaviour, internalise out responsibility. Inmate in the asylum will start to think they'll behave so they're not shouted at and given treats. Conforming to the rules.
The aim of punishment was to be a visible reminder of the ultimate power of the state over the people. Pillory etc.
sign of the power of the state and not to test that. A physical punishment, but working alongside fear.
Guy Fawkes.
Modern form of discipline and the disciplinary society. Surveillance controlling conduct and behaviour.
Panopticon, designed as a multifunctional building. Most were asylums or prisons. Cuba panopticon
Cells around the edges of the building.
Institutional 'gaze'
Cells are open at the front and lit from the back window.
Designed as the perfect building.
Constantly staring at the central observation tower.
No lateral visibility of other inmates. Can only see the supervisors or authority in the central tower.
The dungeon is where you lock away criminal classes. Huge contrast to the panopticon.
View behind a person to the central tower in the panopticon.
Constantly reminded you're being watched by someone who expects you to act in a certain way. If you were to rebel you'd be caught out. May aswell conform. No one to share thoughts or feelings, all by yourself.
The fear and anxiety that you're forever watched and scrutinised.
Automatically produces power.
Panopticon not just about control and discipline, used for scrutiny and surveillance.
Functions as kind of a lab.
Discipline for Foucault is about making people productive, making them useful in society.
Not being forced to act in any certain way but led to act how the institution wants.
Panopticism, a model of how we're trained, organised and under control. A new form of mental control, perminently visible.
System of modern discipline.
The open plan office, is a panopticon.
Workers can be constantly seen by the boss, awkward feel, not messing around. Changes to behaviour of the workers by changing the layout of the office. Making everyone visible.
The office, tv series. Shows a change of behaviour in response to the presence of the cameras.
Open plan bar, making everything visible to the bouncers and bar staff. Always on display, forcing you to change your behaviour and conform.
Google maps. Surveillance at the highest point. Recorded everywhere by CCTV. Every single action in our lives is being watched to an extent.
Pentonville prison, in a version of a panopticon. Lecture theatre. Can only see the central teacher.
Lecture theatres are formed in a well considered manner.
Registers are another form of panoptic surveillance. Attend classes because your actions are monitored and its to be able to avoid punishment.
Training people to behave as opposed to scaring people to behave.
Self regulation, controlling yourself although it's not a personal power.
