Logic of Control

Transparency is often associated with openness and democracy. In civic architecture, glass can suggest accessibility and democratic accountability. In Logic of Control, David Spriggs explores these associations through a transparent representation of the Panopticon, a prison design that has become a reference for modern surveillance and vision as a form of power.

Developed by Jeremy Bentham in the late eighteenth century, the Panopticon organised prison cells around a central observation tower. Prisoners could be watched while remaining uncertain whether anyone was observing them. Michel Foucault recognised in this arrangement a model of disciplinary power: the expectation of surveillance encourages people to monitor their own conduct. Control becomes internalised, sustained by the possibility of observation.

Spriggs’ sculpture takes a half cylindrical form, with sheets of engraved glass fanning out from the centre. This radial arrangement echoes the Panopticon’s organisation around a central point of observation and evokes an all seeing perspective.

Transparency operates here as both a material and a metaphor. Spriggs also explores surveillance in the related work Transparency Report (2014), in which personal belongings are exposed to examination. Both works connect transparency and seeing with the exercise of power.