ASSIGNMENTS

Research ....Walden Supermax ....Links

Assignment 2
Issue date:
13 September 1999

Panopticon: from surveys of�Nature to technologies of surveillance
Pinup date: 2PM, Thursday, 16 September 1999

Darwin and Thoreau construct social and political space for the individual -- including the space of the prison -- within their respective surveys and visions of Nature.

In the "Panopticon", philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) locates the social and political space of the prison -- not within a natural history -- but�rather, within a spectacle of discipline and punishment deployed by a mechanistic, technological apparatus of surveillance.

Based on specifications detailed in excerpts from "Panopticon",� Explore Bentham's carceral paradigm through models and drawings. Contrast these diagrams to prison spaces posited by Darwin and Thoreau.

Additional reference:
Thoreau as Botanist by Rae Angelo