I had the general idea of Panopticism in mind when creating the "Audience" performance. However, I honestly put off reading Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punish, the origin of the theory, as long as possible and even so narrowed my reading to the section headed "Panopticism". It only mentions people being law-abiding on pain of death five times in the first three paragraphs. Perhaps some consider Foucault's intellect astounding. I, on the other hand, find reading gruesome details of a person being condemned to death by having his flesh torn from him with "red-hot pincers" (Foucault 3) prior to being doused with boiling oil and drawn and quartered disgusting.
All those jokes my dancers made about being drawn and quartered with the elastics - not funny.
Anyway,
The point of this post was to discuss the philosophy/theory of panopticism: the idea that when a person is being observed, or believes they are being observed, they act differently. In the case discussed by Foucault a cylindrical prison with a watch tower in the center, the Panopticon, would be ideal since the prisoners would all behave under the assumption of constant surveillance.
Panopticon:
All those jokes my dancers made about being drawn and quartered with the elastics - not funny.
Anyway,
The point of this post was to discuss the philosophy/theory of panopticism: the idea that when a person is being observed, or believes they are being observed, they act differently. In the case discussed by Foucault a cylindrical prison with a watch tower in the center, the Panopticon, would be ideal since the prisoners would all behave under the assumption of constant surveillance.
Panopticon:
In the case of the "Audience" performance the theory is clearly reflected. People passing by react to the idea that they are being observed by the performers with cameras. The catch of the performance is that they are always being observed by others in these types of public settings whether or not cameras are in the equation. The cameras force people to realize this observation, just like the watch tower serves as a symbol of observation in Foucault's theory.