The prison experience is understood to be isolating and depriving of visual stimulation. Prisons are not quiet places where reflection and reparation occur. Incarcerated people develop a special sensitivity to sound. In a place where their bodily agency is restricted, listening –or refusing to– is a political act. Based on my friend’s recollection of detention sounds, I recreated soundscapes that have been weaponized by both the detainees and their guards, as tools of surveillance and resistance. By addressing misconceptions of detention and focusing on prisoners' knowledge, this aural experiment is a reflection towards prison abolition and the damage and futility of punishment.

The piece was made as part of Un/Besieged, a microfestival by first-year MA students at the Center for Human Rights & the Arts at Bard College, developed apart of The Politics of Interactive Live Art course taught by Tania El Khoury.

out of tune, out of time, out of here

mauro