ABSTRACT
Panopticism is centrally concerned with visibility. As derived from Jeremy Bentham's 1791 architectural plans for the Panopticon, the term refers to that which is 'all-seeing'. Michel Foucault used Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon as a device to explore these overlapping ideas of vision and visibility. The extraordinary efficiency of the panoptic design is such that it merges geometry, economy and morality. In Bentham's phrasing, the Panopticon was intended to offer 'morals reformed – health preserved – industry invigorated – instruction diffused'. The Panopticon was rooted in physical architecture. In Discipline and Punish Foucault states that the Panopticon 'is the diagram of a mechanism of power reduced to its ideal form. Critiques of Foucauldian panopticism are largely premised on the notion that Foucault took historical discussions of the practice of punishment for the reality. Critics also argue that a panoptical model is simply too reductive for advanced Western societies.
