The Power of the Gaze

In looking at the concept of the "Power of the Gaze" several things came to mind. I was immediately drawn to the concept of panopticism, and its relationship between images and power, as introduced by Foucalt. Likewise, the panopticon penitentiary structure really made this concept that much more real to me. Chapter 3 talks about how the gaze normally gives the viewer more power over the image and I think the concept of the panopticon penitentiary structure really illustrates that point well. Personally, I have thought about the concept of being under constant serveillance by cameras and whatnot during everyday life and it really is quite unnerving to think about. Psychologically and oftentimes emotionally, this concept really gets in your head if you consider that you may be under surveillance at any given moment by someone that you may or may not know. Much like the movie that we watched in class on Wednesday ("Rear Window"), you never know who could be out there gathering information from you that you may consider to be private. Also, if you think about yourself being viewed and under constant surveillance you may be more inclined to behave more properly than you would otherwise. Thus, the concept of panopticism really does give the viewer a great deal of power over the image being viewed. In dealing with the Power of the Gaze, I believe that there really is a great deal of power given to the viewer, especially when the gazing that they may be doing could be considered surveillance.