Passersby in central Madrid, Spain, can watch footage collected by a huge triangular surveillance obelisk. Small peepholes at ground level let them look inside, where numerous screens show feeds from CCTV cameras mounted near the top.
Panopticon is the work of Spanish artist SpY, who made it to examine the growing presence of surveillance technology in public spaces. Despite its menacing, cyberpunk look, the installation wasn’t built by a tech company acting on behalf of law enforcement.
Each side of the triangle measures about 65 feet. From their elevated positions, the cameras present unique, if dehumanized, views of the neighborhood. The footage includes places pedestrians can’t otherwise see because the structure obstructs their view.
“Through them, architecture, pedestrians, and traffic reappear from unexpected perspectives, revealing fragments of the landscape that the installation itself had concealed,” SpY wrote in a statement.
The surroundings sharpen the contrast. Design Boom noted that Panopticon sits directly outside the Palacio de Cibeles, an ornate government building that opened in 1919. Set against the palace’s elaborate architecture, the jet-black work looks particularly out of place. Its size dominates the public square, directly confronting pedestrians who must walk around it.
Putting something in people’s way was intentional on SpY’s part. The installation asks people to consider both surveillance equipment and the ways they adjust their behavior if they believe they could be under observation.
“This device introduces a reflection on the mechanisms of contemporary surveillance,” SpY writes. “The concept of the panopticon explores how the possibility of being watched can lead us to internalize surveillance and regulate our own behavior, even in the absence of a visible observer.”
People within the cameras’ field of view can also become observers by using the peepholes. From there, they watch the surrounding streets through the same equipment being used to record life in public.
“In a society where cameras, screens, and digital devices increasingly mediate our relationship with the world,” SpY continues, “we constantly observe, record, and share what surrounds us. In doing so, we voluntarily participate in systems that also expose us to the gaze of others, transforming our relationship with privacy and control.”
