Panopticon
an interactive video toy 2002
"It is obvious that, in all these instances, the more constantly
the persons to be inspected are under the eyes of the persons who should
inspect them, the more perfectly will the purpose X of the establishment
have been attained. Ideal perfection, if that were the object, would require
that each person should actually be in that predicament, during every
instant of time. This being impossible, the next thing to be wished for
is, that, at every instant, seeing reason to believe as much, and not
being able to satisfy himself to the contrary, he should conceive himself
to be so."
(Jeremy Bentham, 1787 on the Panopticon)
Michel Foucault saw Bentham’s Panopticon prison system as the embodiment of the principles that underpin modern society. The possibility of being watched automates and internalizes discipline. The underlying assumptions are that the prisoners are either interested in being rehabilitated and rejoining society, or out of fear of the reprecussions of failure to comply with the curative regimen. What happens now, when the inmates simply do not care that they are being watched, or take pleasure in their stardom? A tree falls in the woods, but only if there’s a camera crew there to see it.
[from the House
of Tomorrow catalogue]
...By interacting with the miniaturised space of Panopticon, the user
is transformed into a controlling giant. Although the link is not immediately
apparent in the gallery, when the user picks up a box on a plinth, the
furniture on the screen in-front begins to move. Depending on the actions
of the user, it can slowly creep across the room, or dance about, violently
smashing into walls...
[excerpt from SCAN
2003, by Bec Dean]
...It is cleverly simple— constructing internal environments with
some moving parts in tiny boxes that are recorded by an in-built camera
and projected large, or connected to monitors with gallery environments.
His boxes have an entirely functional aesthetic: they can be approached
and picked up by viewers in many different ways, from gleeful abandon
by enthusiastic children, to cautious and almost frightened anticipation
by others. The ‘user’ in this case is able to “play
God” (an apt description by critic Robert Cook) with the almost
primal and childish motion of shaking the box...
[panopticon, interactive video toy, 2002, during SOFA02
@ John Curtin Gallery, Perth, Western Australia]
[panopticon @ house of tomorrow, experimenta, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia]