When Jules Spinatsch photographed the most extensive office and residential complex in Geneva for the CPG show Cherche appartement, he wasn’t aware yet that Edward Snowden had in fact l ved at 16, Quai du Seujet, from 2007 to 2009. In 2003 CPG was the first institution to show his early panoramas, created with a special program that made it possible to compose a panorama from thousands of individual shots.
For his 10th turn with CPG, Spinatsch created one such panorama, done inside a prison in Manheim that was constructed according to the panopticon design as Jeremy Bentham had envisioned it in the late 18th century. In reality, however, several computer screens were installed on the desk of the sole guardian who keeps an eye on all the prisoners. One of the points of reference for Caméra(Auto)Contrôle was the idea of stressing this change of paradigm, the replacing of supervision from a single point of view by one with multiple observation points in the age of computers and the internet.
*1964, Davos, lives and works in Zurich
