The technological perspective of the 19th and 20th centuries: foundations of the design of tools and methodologies based on control

Abstract

Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, tools and methodologies were designed and developed that changed the way we see and understand the world. The technological perspective extended the human vision of its environment based on the principles of control conceived and proposed by J. Bentham by the Panopticon, a utilitarian system aimed at reforming the prison system. In the development of new paradigms of use related to the technified vision, researchers and theoreticians from different fields intervened in the initial stage. However, given the relevance of the results obtained in research carried out on tools and techniques by scientists, photographers and inventors, it was the governments that became most interested in improving and expanding the possibilities of some of the proposals so that they could be used as systems for control and defense. Given the costs of development and exploitation of many of the technologies analyzed, once used for military ends, they often evolved into tools for everyday use. On many occasions, the experiences acquired, along with the appropriation and research undertaken by designers and artists, have helped to adapt and instill these devices in creative activity.