developed in 1997 with
Beth Stryker on concept & construct
Auriea Harvey on art design & coding
Based on Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon Principle (1787),
a close circuited panopticon interface houses
cases of sexual deviants and prison inmates.
Serving both as hospital wards (6) and prison cells (6);
both as transient station and surveillance apparatus;
this interface is set up as a prelude to the installments
at Theatrum Anatomicum, Amsterdam.
In Spring 1998, we visited (with photographer Uta Eisenreich)
the Arnhem Koepel Prison, arranged by Mr. J.de Goede,
Algemeen Directeur of Penitentiaire Inrichtingen De Berg.
The prison was built according to Panopticon Principle and
remained functional. The all-seeing eye in the center, however,
has become a gym and a new high tech surveillance syetem is
built with one way mirror.
--shu lea cheang, 6/29/1998
In spring 1999, in collaboration with Mardi Gras Festival, Sydney,
Australia, Anna Munster and Michele Barker uploaded cell 5 and
Sarah Waterson uploaded cell 10.
script and author upload datafile for 12 cells.