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Consider how the layout, design, and architecture of a building affects the behaviors & activities performed there.
Say you walk into a gym, and all the cardio equipment is facing toward the front door, so that you're subject to the gaze of all cardio equip users as you walk in.
Say you walk into a gym, and all the cardio equipment is facing toward the front door, so that you're subject to the gaze of all cardio equip users as you walk in.
The cardio equip is at the back of the gym, facing the front door, and most of the weight machines, dumbbells, etc are near the front door, also in front of the cardio equip.
How might your behavior be affected by being subject to the gaze of 20ppl as you enter the facility?
How might your behavior be affected by being subject to the gaze of 20ppl as you enter the facility?
You walk over to the weight machines & start to lift. Your entire routine is at the weight section in front of the cardio
The cardio ppl can't ignore you, even if they don't want to stare directly at you--and you can't exactly tell when or if they're looking at you or not at you
The cardio ppl can't ignore you, even if they don't want to stare directly at you--and you can't exactly tell when or if they're looking at you or not at you
How might the energy be distributed between the body being gazed at & the inadvertent gazer?
Consider layout #2:
You walk into the gym and all the cardio equip is facing *away* from the door, toward the back of the room. No one busy on the cardio equip can see you enter.
Consider layout #2:
You walk into the gym and all the cardio equip is facing *away* from the door, toward the back of the room. No one busy on the cardio equip can see you enter.
You have to walk in front of the cardio equip for anyone using those machines to know that you're in the gym, but the weight machines are still in front of the cardio equip at the back, so that you're still the subject of the gaze, but voluntarily this time.
The second layout you have a choice--you can enter the gym & go in any direction, either toward the weights or toward the cardio equip, and only the mirrors in front of the cardio would give away your position & presence.
The first layout would be Panoptic, because of the
The first layout would be Panoptic, because of the
uncertainty of being gazed upon by the other gym goers. The unknown gaze has the power to distribute behavior & activity in a different way than the second layout. Bodies in the first layout might move about the gym differently while they're unable to tell who is watching.
Anyway, I never noticed these dynamics until I read Discipline & Punish by Foucault, but it's now something I think about any time I'm inhabiting a new building.
There's one excellent essay by Lacan that builds a bit on this idea, called "Seminar on the Purloined Letter."
There's one excellent essay by Lacan that builds a bit on this idea, called "Seminar on the Purloined Letter."
