Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon: A Digital Insight

A precise digital construction of Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon prison offers a subtle commentary on power and surveillance.

Video by Myles Zhang (https://www.myleszhang.org)

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The British philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham was, for nearly two decades, consumed by how to construct the ideal building for institutional supervision – and in particular, a better prison. Published in 1791, Bentham’s plans for a ‘panopticon’ building (from the Greek for all-seeing) proposed what he believed to be a cheaper, more efficient and more humane alternative to the prisons of his time. While today the panopticon is more often thought of as a metaphor for power and surveillance than as a flawless prison layout, Bentham believed his proposal was highly practical, applicable ‘without exception, to all establishments whatsoever, in which … a number of persons are meant to be kept under inspection’. This short video from Myles Zhang, a PhD student specialising in US urban history at the University of Michigan, crafts a precise digital construction of a panopticon prison based on Bentham’s plans, with the design’s broader commentaries on punishment, power and surveillance sitting in the subtext. You can read more about Zhang’s project here: https://www.myleszhang.org/2019/11/11/jeremy-bentham-panopticon-animation/