From Panopticon to the Drone: The Evolution of Surveilling Gaze and Transformation of the Urban Space

Abstract

This article offers some conceptual remarks on the evolution of the techniques of power and the so-called “surveilling gaze” in the theories of security and its impact on the transformation of the urban space. The author develops Michel Foucault’s idea of the movement from techniques of exclusion or the surveillance of a security perimeter of a city to the disciplinary techniques of the surveillance of individuals in an isolated space. Disciplinary architecture is an embodiment of a number of previously elaborated concepts of normalized behavior in the context of disciplinary institutions. An example is a 19th century hospital built according to the ideas of panopticism. Using material from the American military practice of using combat drones, the author develops a hypothesis of the formation of a new conception of the surveilling gaze that aims to realize the utopian idea of the Eye of God. The arguments proposed by philosopher Grégoire Chamayou are used to justify the understanding of the basic principles of a new dispositive of security and its potential in police work and the enforcement of antiepidemic measures. In conclusion, the author discusses the influence of antiepidemic measures with their specific surveillance techniques on the transformation of the urban space.