The British thinker and social theorist Jeremy Bentham was, for practically 20 years, consumed by learn how to assemble the best constructing for institutional supervision – and specifically, a greater jail. Revealed in 1791, Bentham’s plans for a ‘panopticon’ constructing (from the Greek for all-seeing) proposed what he believed to be a less expensive, extra environment friendly and extra humane various to the prisons of his time. Whereas right now the panopticon is extra usually regarded as a metaphor for energy and surveillance than as a flawless jail structure, Bentham believed his proposal was extremely sensible, relevant ‘with out exception, to all institutions in anyway, during which … numerous individuals are supposed to be stored underneath inspection’. This brief video from Myles Zhang, a PhD pupil specialising in US city historical past on the College of Michigan, crafts a exact digital building of a panopticon jail based mostly on Bentham’s plans, with the design’s broader commentaries on punishment, energy and surveillance sitting within the subtext. You’ll be able to learn extra about Zhang’s mission here.
Through Open Culture
