SHAPE AND SCALE OF THE PANOPTICON WITHIN THE CITY

Following the crit in December, one of the references that was give to me was Super Studio's Continuous Monument.  When looking at this piece of work, it made me question, not only the role of the panopticon within the city, but also the scale, shape and programme.  

 

Does the panopticon act as a boundary for the entire city? Or does one exist within each borough?

If one exists within each borough, are they all physically connected? Does it have to be restricted to the circular shape or can it, for example, follow the river Thames, which would allow the 'cells' to move, and to observe both the north and south of the city?

How will the structures look when the cells are all moving across the city?

PROJECT 2.2 FINAL FILM

This is the final film that I presented at the Christmas Crit, 14th December 2011.

GOOGLER AND WALKER: INTERACTION WITH THE PANOPTICON ON-SITE

These following sheets show how the walker and googler experience the  Panopticon on-site.  The idea is that Panopticon surrounding the RBS building, acts as a control room and library where it translates information from the banks into information that we can understand and read.  This information is accessible by both the googler and walker and they are able to interact with the building in different ways.

These last three images, play with the idea that as the googler and walker become one, not only are they able to access the information but they are also able to interact with and physically change the building.

PANOPTICON ON-SITE

I was initially struggling to move forward in the project so I decided to place the Panopticon on-site, with the RBS building taking the place of the watchman's tower.

I then began to deconstruct the Panopticon on-site as it began to react to it's surroundings, such as roads, pathways and existing buildings.

SCENE 1

For the first scene I wanted to use the Panopticon in order to introduce the project and the idea of the imbalance of power and its reversal.  The following sheet shows the movement of the camera in red, although I want to rework this slightly in order to make the intentions clearer.

SITE

I decided to choose the RBS building as a starting point in terms of the site and have once again looked at the building in terms of the googler and the walker.

THE FINANCIAL TRANSPARENCY

The project is now looking at the idea that the power within the panopticon has been reversed.  Therefore, instead of the one watchman being able to observe all of the inmates in the surrounding cells, these inmates are now able to watch the person in the tower, and so the many can now observe the few.  This has then been applied to the city, where the banks become the few being observed and the whole of society becomes the watchman.

When looking at the existing architecture of the banks, it is evident to see that it promotes a sense of transparency although the majority of the time, we cannot see into the structures.  It is a 'fake transparency'.