Now, 50 years on from when Foucault brought back the panopticon, its power seems even more prescient today. Unverifiable: the inmate must never know whether he is being looked at at any one moment but he must be sure that he may always be so. Visible: the inmate will constantly have before his eyes the tall outline of the central tower from which he is spied upon. To quote (opens in a new tab) Foucault: 'Bentham laid down the principle that power should be visible and unverifiable. In a 1975 book called Discipline and Punish, Foucault illustrates how modern societies are based on creating normalised behaviour, where people police themselves to act in a certain way. A society of knowledge and information about every individual participating in it. A society of order, discipline, and laws. Credit: Nikolay nikolov/Gettyįoucault brought back Bentham’s panopticon and used the design as a metaphor for society at large – a system of insiders (good) and outsiders (bad). Portrait of French philosopher Michel Foucault in Paris, France in February 1977. All you need is a watchtower that the prisoners assume contains watchful eyes.Īnother great adaption of the panopticon experiment is Oz: the popular TV series about an experimental wing of a prison – nicknamed 'Emerald City' – in which all the cells are see-through. But, it's especially important in the case of the prison because, within the panopticon, you don't even need guards. You act differently, according to the socially constructed etiquette of the physical place you find yourself in – bank, workplace, bedroom, library, bathroom, etc. It's a simple, but undeniably thought-provoking idea. (Or workers, children, patients – all depending on the functional use of the architecture.) But the cell cannot see into the watchtower the occupants are perpetually unaware whether, if, or when, they are being observed. Here’s how Bentham figured the panopticon would work: it would consist of a central tower surrounded by cells, just like in Guardians. Drawing of the panopticon from Bentham's book 'Management of the Poor.' Credit: The LIFE Picture Collection/Gett

Michel foucault on prisons