“ The panoptic mechanism arranges spatial unities that make it possible to see constantly and to recognize immediately. In short, it reverses the principle of the dungeon; or rather of its three functions - to enclose, to deprive of light and to hide - it preserves only the first and eliminates the other two. Full lighting and the eye of a supervisor capture better than darkness, which ultimately protected. Visibility is a trap.
-Michel Foucault
From Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison (NY: Vintage Books 1995) translated from the French by Alan Sheridan © 1977
Quote tagged as: foucault
