Automated Formations from The Panopticon by Melissa Finn

The woman prisoner in this formation
She is seen, but cannot claim to see
The power of the gazer
Is so automatic
So permanent is the actual exercise
Of the architecture of the master

It’s unnecessary
Machines of control
Of women’s form and expression
Anything can be titillation or a national security situation
They operate
Independent of the presence
Of the inspector
Panopticons automated in social deep learning
Judgments are passed faster
Than the thoughts that are turning

Woman knows that she can be spied on
At any time
And thus there is no need of her to be spied
For she self-corrects
To permanent spying
It’s the living-if-ravishing
Mentality she’s denying

The dualism of seeing
And being seen
Is broken
Woman is completely seen
Without ever seeing
That she is doing her own patrolling


The spy sees woman
Without ever being seen
Shadowy and formless
Spier AI, an Orwellian machine
Spier AI, an Orwellian machine

The spy sees woman
Without ever being seen
Shadowy and formless
Spier AI, an Orwellian machine
Spier AI, an Orwellian machine


Likewise, as Foucault assures us
The motivations of the inspectors
When they are inspecting
They are inconsequential
In a system that runs on a battery
And can be made everywhere mobile

No consequence sticks to them anyway

The curiosity of their indiscreet malice
The inspectors’ thirst for tips
To give
At the museum of curves
And lumps
In this place
Women can rest their anxiety
Knowing the numbers of anonymous
Permanent and temporary observers
Are mysterious

The social enablers of this system
Enjoy a power that lacks
Symmetry, equilibrium, similarity
We can call them out
As toxic masculinity
And toxic femininity

One investigator gone
Only means that one can be replaced
The old house of security
Control of women folk for their own sake
Is now the new house of certainty
Control of all women, for everyone’s sake

And the spies find ways
To avoid their own capture
Or a direct confrontation


The spy sees woman
Without ever being seen
Shadowy and formless
Spier AI, an Orwellian machine
Spier AI, an Orwellian machine

The spy sees woman
Without ever being seen
Shadowy and formless
Spier AI, an Orwellian machine
Spier AI, an Orwellian machine

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