Barton, B. F., & Barton, M. S. (1993). Modes of power in technical and professional visuals. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 7(1), (pp. 138–162). https://doi.org/10.1177/1050651993007001007

In Ben F. Barton and Marthalee S. Barton’s (1993) article, “Modes of Power in Technical and Professional Visuals” they predicted that “technical and professional visuals are not only instruments of communication or even of knowledge but also instruments of power” (p. 138). Barton and Barton utilized Michel Foucault’s Panopticon theory to demonstrate the power of visuals, technical visual diagrams are examined through Foucault’s synoptic and analytic modes of power, these modes of surveillance are then observed in tandem to show their combined influence, and the use of Edward Tufte’s micro/macro design approach to understand how maps function. Barton and Barton’s purpose was to reveal the “relevance of the panoptic modality of power to the design of technical visuals, its pervasiveness as a modern design principle, and its value as a heuristic tool for both generating and assessing new visual designs” (p. 156). Barton and Barton’s intended audience was Foucauldian scholars and instructors of visual rhetoric. Barton and Barton clearly illustrated how the visual of the Panopticon embodies the domination of power and how the visuals used are visibly technical communication.