The Mechanisms of Power

            Although Foucault and McKeon both discuss power relations and how different types of architecture can contribute to the division of power, I believe that they are referring to power in two different ways.  Foucault explicitly refers to power as the Panopticon, where one powerful body watches over and guards another body (for example, a prison). He gives power a more negative connotation than McKeon. McKeon does not specifically refer to power, just the fact that the most important people live in certain parts of the house, which distinguishes them from the common people. McKeon also states that there is a great difference in something being “distinct” and something being “separate.”  At the beginning of the essay, McKeon touches on how the alchemists’ labs were part of their home, but they were just a distinct part of them, rather than being separate. Gradually, however, stores and shops became separate from the homes. This to me showed power because it was much more difficult to have a separate shop than it was to have one in a person’s own home. Both authors’ arguments about power are seen, but I think that Foucault’s argument more expressly shows how power is distributed.

            I think that McKeon’s argument is less convincing and compelling than Foucault’s because it is harder to tell what he is saying. Throughout reading “Subdividing Inside Spaces,” I am still not exactly aware of how McKeon feels about power relations. I would have thought that he would have mentioned Foucault while discussing this subject, and to be honest I am not really sure why he did not. Maybe he did not quite agree with Foucault’s outlook on the Panopticon and Pantopticism in general. I believe that Foucault’s ideas of power relations would have been an important factor in McKeon’s argument of power, distinctiveness, and separation. To be honest, I still have many questions about McKeon’s piece. What is his main point? Why is the evolution of architecture regarding houses for royalty and the poor important for the argument of power relations? Why did he choose to write about this topic and leave Foucault’s argument out? All in all, this essay was difficult for me to comprehend and it was hard to fully understand what McKeon was talking about.