Panopticism in Design Studies Essay

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First Essay

Nostalgia is a concept traditionally referred to people’s inclination to look back at their past with regret. A widely-spread belief that what is old is necessarily good is a modern malaise. Lowenthal defined nostalgia as memory with the pain removed.1 Interpreting this definition, it can be stated that nostalgia is associated with a distorted perception of the past, according to which the phenomena and events of the past are idealized with their drawbacks neglected.

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Under the influence of nostalgia, even the most trivial things from the past can have their devotees. Sentimentalizing the bygones, people can be interested in such trifles as newspapers of the past or memorabilia belonging to the well-known individuals of the past. Modern marketers and advertisers frequently take the advantages of consumers’ nostalgia, selling the past. The intimate memories and associations arising in individuals allow using the attributes of the past as a selling strategy.

Along with creating intimate associations, nostalgia can attach even to the times people have never known and events they have never experienced. The term vintage refers to the tendency of creating objects obtaining certain features characteristic of the historical past with the aim of producing a particular impression upon the audience. For instance, buildings, furniture, clothes works of art and others can be made in vintage style to attract the attention of the viewers and potential consumers and influence their nostalgic sentiments. Another approach to producing nostalgic sentiments is to create the atmosphere of certain period of the past.

For instance, “Maharaja-style trip around Rajasthan … becomes an incredibly nostalgic package that brings back to life the vintage splendours”.2 Therefore, by recreating the atmosphere of ancient India, the tourist agencies attempt to attract travelers from all over the country and abroad. Used in clothes style, vintage can be associated with chic as it can be seen from the photos of Julia Roberts wearing a vintage dress by Valentino in 2001.

Mistrusting the future and experiencing the pathological attachment to the past, people may want to entirely surround them with bygones. To reach this goal, individuals may save certain objects commemorating them of the past that are referred to as souvenirs. For instance, a woman can carefully save “pieces of string too short to use”.3 It is obvious that these strings can be of no practical use, but a woman saves them because she has certain intimate associations related to them.

Along with personal memorabilia, souvenirs can be a part of tourist industry, such as small symbolic objects associated with certain places or historical events. Souvenirs allow people to map their memories and foster their nostalgic sentiments by commemorating them of certain periods of their life. An extreme type of souvenir is a tattoo referred to as a corporeal souvenir or body memories. By making a tattoo, an individual creates a souvenir to remind of certain specifically significant event that is especially meaningful to him/her.

It is believed that a strong emotion can leave a trace in person’s mind which can be reproduced in its connection to individual memories and nostalgic sentiments. For example, a beautiful song can be associated with certain romantic moments, whereas the flavor of an apple pie can remind of one’s childhood. Virginia Woolf admitted: “Strong emotion must leave its trace; and it is only a question of discovering how we can get ourselves gain attached to it, so that we shall be able to live our lives through from the start”.4

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Therefore, by following the trace left by strong emotions in his/her consciousness, an individual can reproduce a chain of memories, preceding and succeeding it. Though the emotional traces are highly individual, marketers have indicated particular tendencies which can be found in the vast majority of individuals to take the advantages of them to influence the consumers’ attitudes and purchasing decisions.

Nostalgic sentiments make people to believe that what is old is necessarily good and look back at the past with regret. Along with raising personal associations in people who tend to forget about all the disadvantages of the past, nostalgia can refer to the times which people have never experienced. It explains the popularity of vintage trends in art, fashion and design. Attempting to surround them with the attributes of the past, individuals may carefully save souvenirs (symbolic objects associated with particular memories) or even make a tattoo as a form of corporeal souvenir. It would allow them to reproduce a trace created by a certain strong emotion in their minds and foster their nostalgia.

Second Essay

The concept of panopticon first introduced by Bentham was further developed by Michel Faucault as an architectural principle implying a circular building in the centre of an open space surrounded by a secular wall. The panoptic mechanism arranges the space in such a way so that all the unities could be seen all the time and recognized immediately.5 Therefore, the main principle of panopticism is to make everything and everyone visible.

Initially implied for the places of confinement to control the masses, this principle was later used in urban areas. In such buildings, an inmate can be easily seen by a supervisor, but at the same time is separated from his/her companions by the walls on both sides of the cell. The panopticon mechanism was intended to decrease the dangers of disorders and collective escape. Used in schools or industrial enterprises, this principle of design can improve the discipline and outcomes.

The main function of panopticon design is to ensure the permanent and automatic functioning of power of those who observe over those who are observed and act as sources of information. “This architectural apparatus should be a machine for creating and sustaining a power relation independent of the person who exercises it”.6 Therefore, the main target of this architectural project is the perfection of power. By making power visible and unverifiable, the design can improve its efficiency.

In other words, due to the fact that the prisoners cannot know exactly if they are observed or not at a given period of time, they have to behave as if they were looked at all the time. It allows the power to improve its effects even if its functioning is discontinuous. Additional measures are taken for providing apparatus with opportunities to regulate its own mechanisms so that the senior management could spy on the supervisors located at the central tower.

The individual’s awareness of being looked at inevitably influences his/her behavior and is referred to as the gaze. The consequence of the increased use of panopticon design was the increased militarization of the urban spaces and destruction of the public space. “Inside malls, office centers, and cultural complexes, public activities are sorted into strictly functional compartments under the gaze of private police forces”.7

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Consequently, the power is everywhere and the citizens are made aware of its surveillance whether it is permanent or not. Entering a mall, an individual understands that he/she can be looked at at the given period of time, and this awareness and the effect of the gaze are intended to have impact upon his/her behavior. The new ideal of the public space is based upon the principle of panopticon design and includes the principle of the gaze of the power so that the citizens were aware of it and could better control their behavior.

Along with the effect of the gaze as understanding of being looked at, another side of the process of surveillance is the party exercising the visual control. These two sides of design create important binaries because its application is intended to have dual effects. Panopticism contributes to the perfection of power by reducing the number of those who exercise it and increasing the number of those who are controlled at the same time.8

Therefore, the binary of those who exercise the power and those who are exercised explains the functioning of the architectural mechanism and its enhanced effectiveness. Additionally, the mechanism of controlling the inner functioning of the system enables the power to observe its supervisors. This is, for example, the case with the policemen in whose uniforms are built in small cameras. Recording the actions of delinquents, this tool records the actions of the police at the same time.

The panopticon design initially developed for the places of confinement requiring enhanced control and surveillance was further applied to the urban areas and public spaces. The main function of this architectural principle is to perfect the power by reducing the number of those who exercise it and increasing the number of those who are controlled. Making the surveillance visible but unverifiable, the power can control the masses regardless of the fact whether its functioning is discontinuous or not. At the same time, du to he binary of those who observe and those who are gazed at, the structural design has effects upon not only masses who are controlled, but also those employees who exercise this power.

Bibliography

Davis, Mike. “Fortress Los Angeles: The Militarization of Urban Space”. In Variations on a Theme Park: The New American City and the End of Public Space, edited by Michael Sorkin, 154-180. New York: Hill and Wang, 1992.

Foucault, Michel. “Panopticism”. In Design Studies: A Reader, edited by Hazel Clark and David Brody, 238 – 245. New York: Oxford International Publishers, 2009.

Lowenthal, David. The Past Is a Foreign Country. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985.

Footnotes

  1. David Lowenthal, The Past Is a Foreign Country (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 8.
  2. Ibid, 7.
  3. Lowenthal, 12.
  4. Ibid, 13.
  5. Michel Foucault, “Panopticism”, in Design Studies: A Reader, ed. Hazel Clark and David Brody (New York: Oxford International Publishers, 2009), 238.
  6. Ibid, 239.
  7. Mike Davis, “Fortress Los Angeles: The Militarization of Urban Space”, in Variations on a Theme Park: The New American City and the End of Public Space, ed. Michael Sorkin (New York: Hill and Wang, 1992), 155.
  8. Foucault, 243.
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IvyPanda. (2021) 'Panopticism in Design Studies'. 14 February.

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IvyPanda. 2021. "Panopticism in Design Studies." February 14, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/panopticism-in-design-studies/.

1. IvyPanda. "Panopticism in Design Studies." February 14, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/panopticism-in-design-studies/.


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IvyPanda. "Panopticism in Design Studies." February 14, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/panopticism-in-design-studies/.

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