Journal May 2026 Release_Full Edition - Flipbook - Page 34
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us beyond traditional power structures of surveillance and hierarchy. Are we at
the margins, at the center of the universe, within a panopticon, or a small part of
the larger whole? Art clearly shows the importance of the human subject's
location in shaping our stories, depicting multifaceted views of space and time
that differ from Western divisions of subject and object. I consider how
therapeutic conversations might shift clients from passive observers to interactive
participants while also challenging anthropocentric assumptions.
Foucault plays a crucial role in my understanding of the political implications of
spatial and organizational strategies. He compares Bentham’s panopticon prison
model with society’s invisible, subjugating gaze and describes the regulatory
effects of space, stating, “... space is fundamental in any exercise of power” (1984,
pp. 247-252). For White and Epston, narrative therapy offers “counter-practices”
to the self-policing and conformity produced by panoptic structures. At Otis
College of Art LA, my mentor, Simeon Wade, agreed with White and Epston and
challenged his students to imagine “non-panoptic space,” asking us, “How does
an artist design space to produce the opposite effect of the panopticon?” and
“What are spaces that invite participation?” A panoptic space relates to the term
‘anthropocene,’ the human dominance of Earth, as both refer to arrangements of
space that objectify people and the planet through separation and power.
Alternatively, the art critic O’Sullivan (2001) writes, “Art opens us up to the nonhuman universe that we are part of” (p. 128). Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room
helps me imagine a post-humanistic environment beyond the inert silence of
traditional Western materialism.
The world speaks
In the 1960s, a shift in the social sciences known as the “spatial turn” recognized
that space plays a role in our stories. Rather than a neutral background for the
protagonist’s main action, space participates in meaning-making through
aesthetics, place, culture, and geography. In a solely material world, language is a
form of spatial conquest occupying discursive spaces and colonizing geolocations.
Narrative therapists demonstrate how “naming” can empower clients to reauthor
their relationships to problems as externalized objects. Yet language can objectify
Breaking the Frame: Aesthetic Encounters with Narrative Practice – Part Three
Journal of Contemporary Narrative Therapy, May 2026 Release, p. 25-51.
www.journalnft.com
