The panopticon is a type of prison architecture devised by the utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham towards the end of the century. The objective of the panoptic structure is to allow its guard, housed in a central tower, to observe all the prisoners, confined in individual cells around the tower, without them being able to know if they are being observed.
The most important effect of the panopticon is to induce in the detainee a conscious and permanent state of visibility that would guarantee the automatic operation of power, without that power being exercised effectively at all times, since the prisoner cannot know when he is being watched and when he is not.[1].
Origin of the concept
This device was thus supposed to create a "feeling of invisible omniscience" over the detainees. The philosopher and historian Michel Foucault, in his work Discipline and Punish (1975), studied the abstract model of a disciplinary society, inaugurating a long series of studies on the panopticon device. "Morals reformed, health preserved, industry invigorated, education widespread, public offices diminished, the economy fortified, all thanks to a simple architectural idea." — Jeremy Bentham, Le Panoptique, 1780. (The work, of 56 pages, was translated from English and printed by order of the Legislative Assembly of the year 1791.).
Bentham's reflection takes place at a time of renewal of the frames of thought referring to criminal law and the meaning of confinement, together with the works of Jonas Hanway), Solitude in Imprisonment (1776), which defends a prison isolation of individuals; of John Howard, The State of the Prisons in England and Wales (1777), which proposes the reform of prisons in order to have means to transform the prisoners; and of Cesare Beccaria, with his treatise Des délits et des peines (1764). This reform movement was written by William Eden"), William Blackstone and John Howard.[2] Its name was Acta Penitenciaria and dates from 1779. However, the prisons stipulated by the law were never built.
Bentham's idea, based on an asymmetry of the visual relationship between humans by granting more power to the one who sees than to those who are seen, was inspired by factory plans focused on effective surveillance and coordination of workers. These plans were imagined by his brother Samuel, with the aim of simplifying the employment of a large number of workers. Bentham completes this project by mixing the idea of contractual hierarchy: for example, an administration governed like this (by contract, the opposite of trust management) where the director would have a financial interest in achieving a reduction in workplace accident rates. The panopticon was created because it was less expensive than other prison models of the time by requiring fewer employees. «Let me build a prison on this model [asks Bentham to the Committee for Penal Reform]. I will be the guardian. "You will see [...] that the guards will not need a salary, and will not cost the State anything." The guards could not be observed, they did not need to be seen at their post at all times and this allowed them to finally abandon surveillance during their service. Bentham himself wanted an abyss of surveillance, the same guards should be supervised by other guards coming from outside, in order to limit the mistreatment of detainees and the abuse of power - however, this idea is in contrast to the economic plan of reducing the number of guards. According to Bentham, the central tower had to be transformed into a chapel on Sundays, in order to moralize criminals.
Penitentiary architecture
Introduction
The panopticon is a type of prison architecture devised by the utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham towards the end of the century. The objective of the panoptic structure is to allow its guard, housed in a central tower, to observe all the prisoners, confined in individual cells around the tower, without them being able to know if they are being observed.
The most important effect of the panopticon is to induce in the detainee a conscious and permanent state of visibility that would guarantee the automatic operation of power, without that power being exercised effectively at all times, since the prisoner cannot know when he is being watched and when he is not.[1].
Origin of the concept
This device was thus supposed to create a "feeling of invisible omniscience" over the detainees. The philosopher and historian Michel Foucault, in his work Discipline and Punish (1975), studied the abstract model of a disciplinary society, inaugurating a long series of studies on the panopticon device. "Morals reformed, health preserved, industry invigorated, education widespread, public offices diminished, the economy fortified, all thanks to a simple architectural idea." — Jeremy Bentham, Le Panoptique, 1780. (The work, of 56 pages, was translated from English and printed by order of the Legislative Assembly of the year 1791.).
Bentham's reflection takes place at a time of renewal of the frames of thought referring to criminal law and the meaning of confinement, together with the works of Jonas Hanway), Solitude in Imprisonment (1776), which defends a prison isolation of individuals; of John Howard, The State of the Prisons in England and Wales (1777), which proposes the reform of prisons in order to have means to transform the prisoners; and of Cesare Beccaria, with his treatise Des délits et des peines (1764). This reform movement was written by William Eden"), William Blackstone and John Howard.[2] Its name was Acta Penitenciaria and dates from 1779. However, the prisons stipulated by the law were never built.
Bentham devotes a large part of his time and almost all of his personal fortune to promoting the construction of panopticon prisons. After long years of rejection, political and financial difficulties, he managed to obtain the agreement of the British Parliament. The project, however, was aborted during 1811, since the king opposed the acquisition of the land.
The closest model to the panopticon during Bentham's time was the Pittsburg Penitentiary in the United States, opened in 1826 according to the architectural plan of William Strickland), but the project was abandoned seven years later. According to Muriel Schmid"):.
If the panopticon did not live beyond what Bentham lived, many prisons have adopted, to a greater or lesser extent, this model. Kilmainham Prison in Ireland, Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles and also Petite Roquette Prison in Paris. Millbank Prison"), in London, designed by William Williams and built by the architect Thomas Hardwick, partially concretizes the Benthamian project.
According to Neil Davie, «the Panopticon case, at least at the beginning, is part of a long movement prior to the penal reform it proposes. This shipwrecks again and again in its attempt to convince the government media about how the construction of prisons for inmates was preferable to transporting the latter to overseas penal colonies, or to their incarceration on former warships converted into floating penitentiaries, moored on the banks of the Thames or close to naval constructions.
Michel Foucault became interested in the panopticon in 1975, inaugurating a series of new studies on the subject. Foucault sees in it a modern technique of observation that transcends and reaches the school, the factory, the hospital and the barracks, or perhaps a diagram of the “disciplinary society.” He defines the diagram as "abstract functioning of every obstacle or friction... and that we must separate from any specific use", this being what allows him to speak of panopticism.
According to Gilles Deleuze:
modern panopticon
It is a type of organization that aims to exercise discipline; These are the new surveillance mechanisms for the productive and self-coercive channeling[4] of programmed social behavior. Through new information technologies, it becomes a state of permanent surveillance, controlling the individual in various ways without them knowing.
Foucault stated that before, power was found in a single person; This was the only one in charge of exercising the laws and enforcing them. It was under the command of a monarch or a king. "In this modern disciplinary model, the exercise of power is faceless, because anyone can be a representative of the central power to monitor others."[4] It does not matter who monitors. Everyone can be guards because the guards, in turn, will always be watched by other superiors, and so on until reaching those who lead the maintenance of order.[5].
The two fundamentals that determine the ways in which the modern panopticon is exercised are the image and the light.[6] The light will allow the camera to have a better view of the image or point that it wishes to monitor. The best surveillance today is that which occurs through cameras and satellites that capture images of everything that exists on the surface of the planet. Cameras have become another element of our daily lives. There must always be a visible image of the person being monitored. The new information and communication technologies, together with the active presence of surveillance cameras - where everyone sees and is seen at the same time - become complex and powerful panoptic surveillance devices;[7] flow paths of people's behavior.
Thanks to panopticism, the borders in cyberspace are diluted, forming a new state model. A world state with its own police and its own time, as it becomes something relative and virtual, ceases to be real. You lose track of what is real and what is not. Where the network enables interconnection between millions of people, regardless of their origin, sex, ethnicity or nation. This surveillance model has gained strength in the world since the events of September 11, 2001.[6].
The most powerful states create complex and determined intelligence networks to control society. Hundreds of satellites in orbit spy on us from the depths of Earth's orbit to offer us meteorological data or indicate our location or the route to follow on our GPS. Programs such as ECHELON, ENFOPOL use satellites for espionage work: intercept communications made via mobile phones, radio and even the Internet, just as the CARNIVORE software "Carnivore (software)" does.[6].
Other examples of modern panopticon
Places where this type of surveillance exists today:.
[3] ↑ Freire, Vitor Albuquerque. Panóptico, Vanguardista e Ignorado. O Pavilhão de Segurança do Hospital Miguel Bombarda (2009 edición). Livros Horizonte.
[4] ↑ a b Villavicencio. M. (2009). El panóptico moderno que surge con el uso de las nuevas tecnologías de la información y comunicación. Tesis de licenciatura. UNAM.
[5] ↑ Rafael Vidal, Jiménez (enero-junio 2014). «El nuevo “panóptico” multidireccional: normalización consumista y espectáculo.». Culturales.
[7] ↑ Whitaker, Reg (1999). «2-3». El fin de la privacidad. Paidos. p. 46-63.
Bentham's idea, based on an asymmetry of the visual relationship between humans by granting more power to the one who sees than to those who are seen, was inspired by factory plans focused on effective surveillance and coordination of workers. These plans were imagined by his brother Samuel, with the aim of simplifying the employment of a large number of workers. Bentham completes this project by mixing the idea of contractual hierarchy: for example, an administration governed like this (by contract, the opposite of trust management) where the director would have a financial interest in achieving a reduction in workplace accident rates. The panopticon was created because it was less expensive than other prison models of the time by requiring fewer employees. «Let me build a prison on this model [asks Bentham to the Committee for Penal Reform]. I will be the guardian. "You will see [...] that the guards will not need a salary, and will not cost the State anything." The guards could not be observed, they did not need to be seen at their post at all times and this allowed them to finally abandon surveillance during their service. Bentham himself wanted an abyss of surveillance, the same guards should be supervised by other guards coming from outside, in order to limit the mistreatment of detainees and the abuse of power - however, this idea is in contrast to the economic plan of reducing the number of guards. According to Bentham, the central tower had to be transformed into a chapel on Sundays, in order to moralize criminals.
Bentham devotes a large part of his time and almost all of his personal fortune to promoting the construction of panopticon prisons. After long years of rejection, political and financial difficulties, he managed to obtain the agreement of the British Parliament. The project, however, was aborted during 1811, since the king opposed the acquisition of the land.
The closest model to the panopticon during Bentham's time was the Pittsburg Penitentiary in the United States, opened in 1826 according to the architectural plan of William Strickland), but the project was abandoned seven years later. According to Muriel Schmid"):.
If the panopticon did not live beyond what Bentham lived, many prisons have adopted, to a greater or lesser extent, this model. Kilmainham Prison in Ireland, Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles and also Petite Roquette Prison in Paris. Millbank Prison"), in London, designed by William Williams and built by the architect Thomas Hardwick, partially concretizes the Benthamian project.
According to Neil Davie, «the Panopticon case, at least at the beginning, is part of a long movement prior to the penal reform it proposes. This shipwrecks again and again in its attempt to convince the government media about how the construction of prisons for inmates was preferable to transporting the latter to overseas penal colonies, or to their incarceration on former warships converted into floating penitentiaries, moored on the banks of the Thames or close to naval constructions.
Michel Foucault became interested in the panopticon in 1975, inaugurating a series of new studies on the subject. Foucault sees in it a modern technique of observation that transcends and reaches the school, the factory, the hospital and the barracks, or perhaps a diagram of the “disciplinary society.” He defines the diagram as "abstract functioning of every obstacle or friction... and that we must separate from any specific use", this being what allows him to speak of panopticism.
According to Gilles Deleuze:
modern panopticon
It is a type of organization that aims to exercise discipline; These are the new surveillance mechanisms for the productive and self-coercive channeling[4] of programmed social behavior. Through new information technologies, it becomes a state of permanent surveillance, controlling the individual in various ways without them knowing.
Foucault stated that before, power was found in a single person; This was the only one in charge of exercising the laws and enforcing them. It was under the command of a monarch or a king. "In this modern disciplinary model, the exercise of power is faceless, because anyone can be a representative of the central power to monitor others."[4] It does not matter who monitors. Everyone can be guards because the guards, in turn, will always be watched by other superiors, and so on until reaching those who lead the maintenance of order.[5].
The two fundamentals that determine the ways in which the modern panopticon is exercised are the image and the light.[6] The light will allow the camera to have a better view of the image or point that it wishes to monitor. The best surveillance today is that which occurs through cameras and satellites that capture images of everything that exists on the surface of the planet. Cameras have become another element of our daily lives. There must always be a visible image of the person being monitored. The new information and communication technologies, together with the active presence of surveillance cameras - where everyone sees and is seen at the same time - become complex and powerful panoptic surveillance devices;[7] flow paths of people's behavior.
Thanks to panopticism, the borders in cyberspace are diluted, forming a new state model. A world state with its own police and its own time, as it becomes something relative and virtual, ceases to be real. You lose track of what is real and what is not. Where the network enables interconnection between millions of people, regardless of their origin, sex, ethnicity or nation. This surveillance model has gained strength in the world since the events of September 11, 2001.[6].
The most powerful states create complex and determined intelligence networks to control society. Hundreds of satellites in orbit spy on us from the depths of Earth's orbit to offer us meteorological data or indicate our location or the route to follow on our GPS. Programs such as ECHELON, ENFOPOL use satellites for espionage work: intercept communications made via mobile phones, radio and even the Internet, just as the CARNIVORE software "Carnivore (software)" does.[6].
Other examples of modern panopticon
Places where this type of surveillance exists today:.
[3] ↑ Freire, Vitor Albuquerque. Panóptico, Vanguardista e Ignorado. O Pavilhão de Segurança do Hospital Miguel Bombarda (2009 edición). Livros Horizonte.
[4] ↑ a b Villavicencio. M. (2009). El panóptico moderno que surge con el uso de las nuevas tecnologías de la información y comunicación. Tesis de licenciatura. UNAM.
[5] ↑ Rafael Vidal, Jiménez (enero-junio 2014). «El nuevo “panóptico” multidireccional: normalización consumista y espectáculo.». Culturales.