Michael Foucault's Panoptic Theory

Michael Foucault believes that modern society is a society of surveillance, and his predictions could not be more accurate. Through the intention of producing something as lighthearted as entertainment, we have relied on the panoptic order to secure this gaze. This essay will use Foucault’s theory of the ‘panoptic’ order to discuss the ways the, ‘Funniest Security Camera Moments of All Time’ from America’s Funniest Home Videos uses found footage comedies to define our modern day visual culture. Through the opportunity of profit, loss of individualization and disengagement of freedom, we as a visual culture have sacrificed these components of our everyday for a few laughs. Ultimately, due to the panoptic order in entertainment, our desire for …show more content…
The primary theory of Michael Foucault’s panoptic order is that it achieves, “the goal of watching without being seen to be watching” (Murray, 2). This serves a multifaceted range of possibilities in the successes of surveillance, but also as an additional layer of humility. Had the person in Figure 4 known a camera was recording him, he may not have tried to do a backflip in his chair. Additionally, if he had tried it despite knowing the camera was there, the response after the mistake would have been slightly more contained due to the control of panoptic view. Nonetheless, due to their disengagement with being watched the viewer is capable to function in a free will of power which ultimately heightens the comedy. This is similar to Walter Benjamin’s view of the aura. Additionally, the reproducibility of the instance would in fact, allow the video to lose its entire essence and humorous nature. As Wong suggests, “individuals seek reassurance that there are still unscripted, authentic moments in life” (Wong, 4). However, although the person on screen does not intend for their embarrassing moments to be seen, they can initially elicit the power of viewing upon themselves. Figure 1 and Figure 2 demonstrate scenes outside of a residential home. Given likely that the person has put these cameras up themselves, they establish power through the assertion of a panoptic gaze upon society to induce upon those around them. Our visual culture begs for any sense of realism within media, due to an overload of fiction. With this, Foucault believes any one has the power to partake in this surveillance as, “we have seen that anyone may come and exercise in the central tower the functions of surveillance, and (…) he can gain a clear idea of the way in which the surveillance is practiced”