Microestetica del potere. La linea gialla

Abstract

This article deals with the yellow line that in Italian banks, postal offices, pharmacies, hospitals, indicates the physic limit to not cross for respecting individuals’ right to personal data confidentiality. Called “ courtesy distance” in Italian laws and regulations, but established by no norm, this visual detail - formerly employed in prisons as a dispositif disciplinaire - has been spontaneously implemented by virtue of the cultural meanings of yellow, dating back to the Middle Age and still persisting, as further uses of the yellow line as a borderline demonstrate. The Author argues that the bureaucratic measure amounts to a micropractice of power, pertaining to the foucauldian process of normalization, and questions its possible results in the social body.