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In Gilles Deleuze’s “The Diagramme” and Michel Foucault’s “Panopticism,” organization is connected in some manner to the creative process. In Foucault’s article, spatial organization is interpreted as extending one’s power rather than representing it. On the other hand, Deleuze’s argument reveals that the diagram, which is removed from “optical organization,” is used by the artist to suggest to him how he should create his work (Deleuze 1). Therefore, it can be argued that although both readings focus on the importance of organization both authors have different approaches in dealing with this topic. Foucault in “Panopticism” discusses spatial organization in architecture is discussed as a means of “sustaining” or extending the “power relation” outside of the person who exercises this power or control (201). However, in Deleuze’s “The Diagramme,” organization is not significant in the initial stages (which is symbolized by the diagram) of a creative process. The diagram is free from “optical organization” so as to guide the artist or the architect in creating an edifice or artwork, and not to control, dominate, or give power to the artwork or physical structure itself (Deleuze 1).
In Foucault’s article, the writer describes how spatial organization can be used in a manner that “assures the automatic functioning of power” (201). In demonstrating his point, the author describes the “architectural apparatus” of the “Panopticon” in the context of the penitentiary (Foucault 201). Foucault explains that in the penitentiary the “inmate” is placed in a “state of conscious and permanent visibility” (Foucault 201). The writer explains that the spatial organization or the arrangement of “things” in the “Panopticon” allows “surveillance” to become “permanent” in its effect despite it being “discontinuous in its action” (Foucault 201). In the “Panopticon” spatial organization, within the context of the penitentiary, the power relations expressed are both “visible” and “unverifiable” (Foucault 201). In the penitentiary, this accomplished by placing “venetian blinds” on the “windows of the central observation hall” to ensure that the inmates do not see any officer watching them (Foucault 201). In addition, there are “partitions that intersected the hall at right angles” and “zig-zag openings” are used instead of doors to “pass from one quarter” to the next without the “guardian” being identified (Foucault 201).
On the other hand, Deleuze describes in his article the role of organization (in the form of “optical organization”) is a “figurative” one rather than a literal one (1). Deleuze explains that the diagram is an “operative set of lines and areas,” which do not represent the “brushstrokes and daubs” of color that are to be placed on top of these lines (2). The writer adds that the diagram is used to “suggest” or introduce the “‘possibilities of fact’” (qtd. in Deleuze 2). The author indicates that the lines of the diagram are not “sufficient” because they do not “constitute a fact (pictorial fact)” (Deleuze 2). Deleuze reveals that the lines of a diagram are “irrational, involuntary, accidental, free and random” (Deleuze 1). A critical assessment of the reading implies that in architecture, the diagram or the architectural sketch is the suggestion or an “introduction of ‘possibilities of fact’” (Deleuze 1). The architect should not allow this suggestion to control the final outcome or the physical structure itself. This is because of the lines of the diagram totally influences the “visual whole” of the edifice and remove it from the realm of “optical organization” (Deleuze 2).
In conclusion, both Deleuze and Foucault recognize the role that organization plays in the creative process. However, both authors differ in their approach when discussing this theme. Foucault sees organization has having significance in giving permanence to a power structure. On the other hand, Deleuze uses organization in comparing the role of the diagram in relation to the completed artistic work. The diagram is seen as “nonrepresentative” and “nonillustrative” and lacking the “optical organization” of a completed work of art (Deleuze 1).
Works Cited
Deleuze, Gilles. “The Diagram.” The Deleuze Reader. Trans. Constantin Boundas and Jacqueline Code. Ed. Constantin Boundas. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.1-6.
Foucault, Michel. “Panopticism.” Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Trans. Alan Sheridan. New York: Penguin Group, 1977. 195-228.
