Today we really got into the difference between the Classical and the Modern episteme and began to look more critically at this problem about the reciprocal relation betweeen discourse and discipline.
Fayes brought into this discussion the intuition that objects of analysis are not discovered so much as produced within a field of knowledge.
Robbie introduced us to a quote that discussed the failure of Representation to capture the complexity of the foundations of life (understood as the intersectoin of work, biology, and language). Matt and others also raised important observations and questions.
Ultimately, what we want to understand is just this idea of the mode of Being common to things and knowledge.
We next embarked on a quick study of the panopticon -- my question here is for next week and which you will all need to submit to the blog discussion the following:
why is the panopticon more "powerful" than the dungeon or the prison as previously understood?
I look forward to your entries.
Please send them by Sunday night so we can review them in class on Monday.
Your next set of readings will be from Quatramere de Qunicy and JNL Durand. I'll try to have these ready by tomorrow
Best
Peter
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The Panopticon is more effective/powerful for two primary reasons. The first being that all the cells look towards the center at the observation tower, these views towards the observation tower are a relentless reminder of the freedom that the inmates have lost/given through their criminal acts. The central tower is a physical manifestation of their loss of humanity. They are in no longer being able to control the most basic of human functions (eating, sleeping, showering, etc.). Secondly, the Panopticon's layout forces inmates to not only look at the their overlords (prison guards), but also at each other. They are forced to not only confront their own inhumanity but also those of their fellow inmates.
ReplyDeleteThe traditional dungeon type is a model of seclusion and confinement where as the Panopticon is a model for control. Considering the idea of the Panopticon outside of its role as a penitentiary (such as schools, hospitals, factories etc), the panopticon is not banishing the subject but rather using its system as a means of coercion to achieve a certain performance or production. Those who control this production are ultimately those in power. The subject of the Panopticon is being used and exploited for a means to a goal rather than locked away which ultimately, makes the Panopticon a much more powerful tool.
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ReplyDeleteThe Panopticon is contradictory to what the traditional prisons had been in almost every way; that is a far more effective invention obtaining power over one's mind. Architecture no longer plays a role of simple partitions between the world and the prisoners who are disconnected and banned from rest of the world, rather becomes a mode of psychological power game. The Panopticon also produces an economically successful model with its simple organization, which requires fewer workers or even none at times since they are hidden in the tower leaving the inmates wonder whether they are being watched or not. The presence of the building is innocent and harmless, but the suppressive power is greater than those monumental buildings with significant presence.
ReplyDeleteIf all knowledge is generated from a set of power relations orchestrated within the discourse of institutions and disciplines than Foucault has separated truth from knowledge. The Panopticon might be considered powerful for its ability to observe and extract knowledge. The conclusion of this knowledge must not be considered truth. For truth, if it is to be considered truth, must remain unadulterated. If the Panopticon is an illustration of societal power relations, a "seeing machine" or a generator of knowledge, one can only view the mechanism as an efficient producer of illusion. It is an "enframing" device controlled by a concealed driver. Thus the question still remains: why is the Panopticon more powerful than the classical prison? Foucault Bentham's Panopticon optimizes the human condition in its endless invention of knowledge. For this, it is extremely powerful.
ReplyDeleteThere are many reasons for why Benthlam`s Panopticon is a more powerful model than the classical way of enclosure. By separation and backlight the Panopticon reduces power inflation, provides power in form of knowledge and changes the power relations within. The power sustains independent of who exercises it. But the most important change is that the power changes from being visible and externally brought upon you to being invisibly internally present. By “always” being watched , you will self control. You become your own patriarch. The Panopticon is a physical diagram of the changes in power relations throughout society. For me the idea of the Panopticon relates to the dystopian, totalitarian writings of George Orwell , nineteen eighty four and Animal Farm in particular, but also names like Aldous Huxley and Doug Lloyd come to mind.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that Foucault says the panopticon is more powerful. I think he is describing a shift in the modalities of power from a regime that produced a certain kind of subject through the exertion of a certain kind of force (e.g. the difference between the leper and the plague victim: "the first is marked, the second is analyzed and distributed"). Here "power" is not necessarily more powerful, its just changed up its game to get a different result.
ReplyDeleteSo in Foucault's sense of the word maybe there is no such thing as more or less power in comparisons of this kind. If we reduce it to a problem of effectivity the mark is just as productive of the leper as 'analysis and distribution' is of the plague victim.
Bentham of course has to sell his building concept, so for him assuredly its more and better of everything.
A shift occurred in punishment from public torture before the 1800’s to a more complex social system demonstrated by the technique of surveillance in the 1830’s. According to Foucault, a new analysis of crime involved confronting passions, instincts, and the effects of environment. As the idea of punishment in the prison system began to change it also became a part of a disciplinary society. Bentham’s Panopticon prison is architecture that performs as a powerful surveillance model. The central tower represents power over people in the circumventing cells. It is suggested that subjects are being watched and therefore police themselves. The Panopticon represents power and knowledge and performs equally well when other programs are introduced, like factories, educational institutions and hospitals. This blog could be viewed as a shift in the model of surveillance, power and knowledge. Very much like the Panopticon this blog suggests a cyber seeing machine locating bodies in space. The idea that someone or many people may be reading the post effectively forces the blogger to try and write something profound. The writer is a prisoner under surveillance in this blog cell.
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The panopticon embodies a completely different model of surveillance and confinement compared to its predecessor. Enabling a construct of power that is no longer based on the representational, the panopticon has its power embedded in its mode of being (via design). No longer relying on the representation of obvious elements such as a monolithic exterior, public punishment, placing a prison at the edge of civilization and a power construct that is easily understood and deconstructed, the panopticon changes the dynamic of these elements by redefining power to be, in Bentham's words, "visible and unverifiable".
ReplyDeleteThe intention to embed a more ambiguous power system (prisoners never really know who is watching them or when, but they know they are always being watched) allows it to be a more forceful dynamic in terms of control; a model that is applied to all areas of society. Prisons before the panopticon rested in representation and a power that remained stagnant, lacking the emergent quality of presence and and underlying, constant force that panopticon encompasses.
The history of the Dungeon to the Panopticon is the history of the advancement of Man. The Panopticon represents the advancement of our human ontological existence. Furthermore, it represents a evolution of the human ontological state of reason and humanity. The social psychological apparatus of the Panopticon is one in which the inmates are taught dynamic social power structures. By design, it not only creates the fear of being watched, but more importantly, it teaches them about social structures. Punishment went from being something physical to being psychological. Ontologically, this is important, because for the first time in history, we understand the connection between the mind and the flesh.
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