Panopticon
By Neil Watson
The Panopticon is not a mood board. It is a record of what happens when observation becomes infrastructure — when every street corner, delivery route, and living room is folded into a single pane of glass.
I began this series after watching a city learn to perform for cameras it could not see. The paintings track that performance: who gets to look, who must be seen, and what calls “engagement” when it means compliance.
We aren’t just watching the world anymore; we’re consuming it in 15-second fragments while being watched back by the very machines we hold in our hands.
The Panopticon is a circular prison design by Bentham in 1785, that allows a single observer to monitor all inmates without them knowing when they are being , promoting self-regulation and control.
Panopticon is a series born from the friction between classical art and surveillance. It’s where Vermeer meets the ‘Follow’ button, and where history’s most iconic moments are rebranded as content performance.
The series, in order
Complete
Musings
Who’s in charge and what means do they use to control and subvert?
How might we consume world-shaking events if they happened today?
1,989 Views challenges the viewer to consider how the “attention economy” changes our relationship with tragedy and heroism. When revolution is broadcast in real-time, does the world truly see it, or is it just another stream in an endless scroll?
Planned
Tap to watch a behind-the-scenes take: canvas on the easel.
Musings
Vermeer’s “The Girl with the Pearl Earring” is reimagined as a reflection of a more sinister modern world. Innocence is allowed to present itself to unknown viewers.
This work is finished in my head, but it's yet to be painted. – observe this space. Will your observation change the outcome?
Planned
Musings
The Sistine Chapel updated for the creator economy. Divine inspiration is replaced by digital validation. Adam reaches not for life, but for the “refresh” button, lit by the cold glow of an interface.
This work is finished in my head, but it's yet to be painted. – observe this space. Will your observation change the outcome?
Planned
Musings
The architecture of awe. This piece explores the sleek, minimalist temples of big tech where “The Update” has replaced the “Sermon,” and reverence is measured in battery life.
This work is finished in my head, but it's yet to be painted. – observe this space. Will your observation change the outcome?
Planned
Musings
The betrayal of the communal table. Twelve figures sit in shared isolation, their “daily bread” delivered by Deliveroo, their attention bartered to their phones, the Judas of the digital age.
This work is finished in my head, but it's yet to be painted. – observe this space. Will your observation change the outcome?
Planned
Musings
A landscape of “Techno-Feudalism.” – a commentary on the erosion of the Amazon and of our willing participation in allowing the global supply chain to remove the local shopkeepers.
This work is finished in my head, but it's yet to be painted. – observe this space. Will your observation change the outcome?
Planned
Musings
A Magritte remix for the age of social credit.
This work is finished in my head, but it's yet to be painted. – observe this space. Will your observation change the outcome?
Planned
Musings
A forced fisheye perspective of the sprawling megalopolis. The tower acts as a central guard post in a bowl of light, where the intimacy of a million apartments is laid bare to the central gaze.
This work is finished in my head, but it's yet to be painted. – observe this space. Will your observation change the outcome?
Planned
Musings
Romanticism under the microscope. The wide boulevards are reinterpreted as the corridors of a grand prison, where the beauty of the architecture serves only to frame the subjects being tracked.
This work is finished in my head, but it's yet to be painted. – observe this space. Will your observation change the outcome?
Planned
Musings
An industrial night scene where the Shard looms like a digital deity. A celebration of London’s history as a pioneer of surveillance, rendered in the gritty textures of cold oil.
This work is finished in my head, but it's yet to be painted. – observe this space. Will your observation change the outcome?
Planned
Musings
Verticality as authority. The Empire State Building stands as the ultimate observer over a grid that never sleeps, because it is never allowed to go dark.
This work is finished in my head, but it's yet to be painted. – observe this space. Will your observation change the outcome?
Planned
Musings
The series finale. A return to the garden where we choose to ignore the glowing “knowledge” of the screen. A hopeful celebration of real light, real touch, and the power of the unmonitored moment.
This work is finished in my head, but it's yet to be painted. – observe this space. Will your observation change the outcome?
The Genesis of Panopticon
Complete
Reflections
I took this photo from a National Express bus. I was just another passenger in the M32 flow. That’s when I saw it: the ultimate command. ‘Follow Jesus.’ In a world of digital ‘Follow’ buttons and algorithmic tracking, this felt like a glitch in the panopticon – an old-world authority shouting through the concrete of the new.
What does the path look like if you follow? Is it beyond what can be seen from the coach? Life is a divine comedy sometimes.
Complete
Reflections
Of Mice and Men wasn’t painted for the Panopticon (It was part of the Dubel Series), but without it, the Panopticon wouldn’t exist. It was my first exploration of urban isolation – the moment I realised that even in our most crowded spaces, we are being watched, yet never truly seen.
It was my first painting that questioned the motivations of those put in a position of trust.
Complete
Reflections
We could be ‘Eros
We are bombarded with external inputs and have been since the first cave painting.
Do these inputs have your best interests at heart? There is a difference between observation and obedience.
In the prison of the Panopticon, we are trained to self-regulate because we might be watched. ‘We Could Be Eros’ is about the moment you realise that even if they are watching, they don’t own your heart. We can be seen without being conquered.
Field Notes
Panopticon is the creation of Neil Watson, an artist agent currently in the field in the corporate world. Read about his agent profile that is used in the “real world” as cover for his true artist agenda.
