Task 1: Choose an example of one aspect of contemporary culture that is, in your opinion, panoptic. Write an explanation of this, in approximately 200-300 words, employing key Foucauldian language, such as 'Docile Bodies' or 'self-regulation, and using not less than 5 quotes from the text 'Panopticism' in Thomas, J. (2000) 'Reading Images', NY, Palgrave McMillan.
A work office could be an example of a 'panoptic environment'. Each employee is situated at their own desk or cubicle to 'ensure that control over people is easily maintained,' and this total individualisation creates 'docile bodies' when 'he is the object of information, never a subject in communication', were workers are expected to automatically get on with their work with no distractions from others.
Surveillance cameras within the office enforces 'self regualtion' in the workers, as they think they are always being watched by the boss. This automatic function of power is visible by defiable as 'one is totally seen, without ever seeing' and 'must never know whether he is being looked at at any one moment; but he must be sure that he may always be so', therefore induced in the workers is a 'state of conscious and permant visibility', for them to then adopt their behaviour to how they think they should act. This 'panoptic mechanism' gives the boss automatic power, as it is 'unverifiable', and removes power from the individual.
Self regulation and discipline can also be seen within the office enviroment, when colleagues compete with eachother to gain the approval of the boss, who is seen to have 'omnipresent and omniscient power', therefore guaranteeing order within the office environment.
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