Context of Practice: Study Task 3 - Panoptocism

Panopticism is about social control where visibility was used to control peoples behaviours due an all seeing eye in which they were being watched by. This theory could be said to of been applied to many parts of society today in order control the behaviour of the general public and maintain them into conforming to set rules and morals. The gym in particular is an example of panopticism at work in the current society where 'visibility is a trap' and uses this to it's advantage. 

There is a cult of health which is displayed around us and we consume not only the information and images but the actual produce. This saturation of health related imagery which tells us what we should and shouldn't consume physically in our diets is how the consumer culture control our habits as we are persuaded and manipulated into supporting brands wether they are actually supporting our health or not. This creates a disciplinary society where we are told what our body should look like and what physical attitude we should have towards our image and therefore the power relations have an effect on our bodies. People begin 'self-monitoring' and 'self-correcting' themselves in order to ensure an appropriate and desired appearance. We invest time and money, train and torture our body and force our bodies to carry out tasks which we might unwillingly want to do but feel guilty we don't. Our bodies become 'docile' and we don't question these claims of 5 a day, workout videos or protein powder and we begin to conform in fear of feeling guilty if we don't act up to this image. 

The gym in particular makes us perform in certain ways due to the spacial layout and public use of it. The machines are all placed very close together therefore your work out is very visible to those around you and you feel compelled to go harder, faster and stronger. ‘The Panoptic mechanism arranges spatial unities that makes it possible to see constantly and to recognise immediately’ but the ‘omnipresent and omniscient power’ of presence everywhere is visible in the use of the space as well as the layout as there are always people around you and you become very conscious of that factor. This creates an  ‘automatic functioning of power’ as the space controls how you exercise and enforces this need to interact with it on a regular basis which in turn leads you to channel money into a membership.  The ‘permeant visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power’ is enhanced with the trainers who walk around the location as if monitoring your use and act as almost wardens patrolling the premises as well as the omnipresent of the space. They are made visible by there uniforms and therefore have this superiority above you. The ‘full lighting and the eye of a supervisor' create no sense of illusion as the brightly lit wide open and large space show every detail of your body with no place to hide or exercise in private. The openness of the space maintains the control and the sense of the panoptic visibility as the environment is owned by those who are leading the health cult you are forced to follow. 

This could be explained as a 'generalizable model of functioning' society in order to maintain other parts that are also panoptic or even just controlled by the state. By encouraging self improvement and standards of the body it could be said that it will improve productivity in the work environment as well as social and therefore enhance society in moving forward in a controlled and manageable state in the direction in which those in control want it to move towards. It also means that society remains docile as various aspects are being controlled in the same way through different systems which enforce each others productively even if it is not in the best interest of those controlled.