Logic of Control

Logic of Control gives material form to the Panopticon, Jeremy Bentham’s circular model for an observation system in which a central authority may see without being seen. Michel Foucault later understood this architecture as a diagram of disciplinary power: the possibility of observation is enough to alter behaviour, even when no observer is present. Engraved sheets of glass assemble the structure as a suspended volume. From the principal viewpoint, repeated architectural sections align into a symmetrical and apparently rational order. Move aside and that certainty disperses into intervals, reflections, and competing alignments.

The work does not reconstruct a prison so much as isolate its governing principle. Transparency is not opposed to control. It is the means through which control operates. Those within the system are exposed to a possible gaze, while the centre from which they may be observed remains absent and opaque. The viewer occupies an unstable position in relation to this structure. To look is to recognise the logic of surveillance, but also to momentarily assume the privileged viewpoint upon which that logic depends. The sculpture therefore holds vision in tension with responsibility. It asks not only what can be seen, but who is permitted to see without becoming visible in return.

The architecture of visibility

The work draws a distinction between transparency as an image of openness and transparency as a condition of exposure. Its glass construction appears visually accessible, yet the arrangement it describes is founded on concealment: the watcher remains hidden while every subject is made legible.

As the viewer moves around the sculpture, the position of observer and observed becomes unstable. Looking into the work means entering the logic it represents. The act of seeing is no longer neutral, but organised by a structure that assigns authority to one viewpoint over another.