Following the lecture, seminar and task, I feel like I understand panopticism a lot better, so have found some examples of graphic design that relates.
Graphic design can be used as a panoptic device to warn that we are being watched and to make people want to behave in fear of the punishment that would follow.
Graphic design can be used as a panoptic device to warn that we are being watched and to make people want to behave in fear of the punishment that would follow.
Panopticism is the shift in power, where discipline is about surveillance and training, not just punishment
The first examples I can think of are "smile, you're on CCTV" signs and similar things to stop people shoplifting and committing other crimes.
I think these signs are quite creepy! They don't appear to be threatening, they just warn the viewer that they are being watched. The smiley face tries to make this sign seem more friendly but at the same time is quite creepy.
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I have also found this advert from London Transport Museum, to reassure customers that they are safe as CCTV is watching out for them. I like the vintage style design of the poster. As well as making customers feels safe, it it panoptic, as at the same time its puts them off from committing a crime as it reminds them that they are being watched.
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These posters were designed by artist Anna Barriball, they work as a series, with I think I'm being watched alongside things like "Oh boy, what a wonderful city". They were placed all over the London Underground, and were designed to be art, but they also work as a panoptic device, to remind the public that everything they do while using the underground is being watched and recorded. These work with the constant announcements about CCTV as well as the many cameras about.
The way this set of posters has been photographed shows a CCTV camera above, proving that the thoughts of the artist are right, and we are being watched.
This series of posters
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Examples of panopticism in graphic design are not limited to things about CCTV. These billboards remind people that they need a TV licence, as the TV licensing company have ways of knowing who is watching TV without a licence. They are simple to get the message across quickly but specific to really get personal and scare people.
Another example of an advert to get a TV licence, trying to scare the customer to buy a licence, not by showing the punishment they will get from not having one, but just by reminding them that they know who does and doesn't have one.
Another advert to remind London that the TV licensing company knows who has a licence as they are on the database, this time with the simple threat: 'evaders will pay'.
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As well as adverts to remind people to pay their TV licence, there are other adverts out there reminding people they are being watched for other things.
Such as for benefit frauds there are these adverts. The colour scheme connotes crime and is alarming, and the tagline, "No ifs, no buts", is threatening enough to scare the frauds as there is no excuse for what they are doing.
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