Exposed Panopticon

Exposed Panopticon consisted of the installation of a simplified scale-model of Jeremy Benthams architectural invention into a public space where it could be viewed in its most raw physical terms. During a two week residency, I worked with a team of assistants to construct the model in cardboard; a material I knew would eventually be reclaimed by forces in the environment. The main users of the space were children and young people. They became fascinated by the structure which many recognised as a prison or instrument for control. I expected it to last for some days the local graffiti and children's chalk drawings to extend onto it, the weather to play a part in its destruction. In fact, the work lasted five hours, destroyed by over-enthusiastic play. The Panopticon is an architectural mechanism designed by the architect and social-reformer Jeremy Bentham in the late 18th century. Invented in response to an opaque prison system in which corruption was rife, Benthams invention aimed to reveal the processes of reform. Removing the need for physical punishment, the subject, its individual cell would correct its behaviour through the paranoia of being constantly watched. Not built in his lifetime the mechanism has since taken its place in the evolution of a form of social control based on the all seeing eye.