Ethnography and Voyeurism

As I've now completed my fieldwork in prison, it's good to reflect upon the experience. The ethical tensions of prison ethnography cannot be ignored, and this has come up in discussions over the last couple of days with academics and other doctoral candidates. Is prison ethnography inherently coercive and voyeuristic? Or does it represent an opportunity for researchers to be the ears and eyes that can reveal a world inaccessible to most? More stuff to contemplate.

Grounding Law

I've been at the Melbourne Doctoral Forum on Legal Theory 'Grounding Law' which has been a really well curated conference featuring diverse and challenging theoretical papers. I presented in the first panel 'Techne and Technology' with my paper 'Video Conferencing from Prison: Reconceptualising the Place and Space of Criminal Law'... much discussion and response followed, useful to the ever-evolving thesis.

http://www.law.unimelb.edu.au/index.cfm?objectid=DCA83080-2698-11E1-B6610050568D0140&diaryid=6227

Art & Surveillance

As I'm in the process of drafting a paper "The artist as voyeur" that probes how surveillance is appropriated by artists both as a methodology and canvas, it was great to come across this issue (how did I miss it?!):

http://www.artlink.com.au/issues/3130/art-26-surveillance/

Luckily,  a back issue was available and has just arrived in my PO box. Now, off to read ...

The Choir: story from a South African Prison

Currently on SBS TV is The Choir directed by Michael Davie. Apparently shot over several years, the film shows the story of Jabulani Shabangu, both a victim and perpetrator of crime and now incarcerated in Leeukwop Prison, South Africa. He is recruited into the prison choir that goes on to compete at the National Prisoner Choir Competition. The story tells of the transformative possibilities of music and immersion in a new community, even within the closed environment of prison.

http://www.sbs.com.au/films/movie/3304/The_Choir
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0929735/plotsummary

Watch the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g59RZCsxEkA

Prison ethnography continued

With thanks to various online friends (Fabio and Maggie via crimspace, facebook and mendeley) who are also researching prisons, here are some more references:

Ben Crewe, The Prisoner Society: Power, Adaptation and Social Life in an English Prison
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Prisoner-Society-Ben-Crewe/9780199653546

Patenaude, A.L., 2004.No promises, but I’m willing to listen and tell what I hear: Conducting qualitative research among prison inmates and staff. The Prison Journal, 84(4 suppl), p.69S–91S.

Crewe, B. & Maruna, S., 2006. Self-narratives and ethnographic fieldwork. The Sage handbook of fieldwork, pp.109–123.

Alison Liebling's idea of "appreciative inquiry" a bit, and Dot Golding's work in WA is interesting. Other prison researchers like Ben Crewe are also a great help and I found Mark Halsey's work with juveniles in WA great. 

More reading ... just what I like!

Prison ethnography

As my research increasingly implicates me in the world of prisoners, it's been good to engage with some literature dealing with prison ethnography, including:

• Loic Wacquant, “The Curious Eclipse of Prison Ethnography in the Age of Mass Incarceration.” Ethnography 3-4 (Winter 2002), Special issue on “In and Out of the Belly of the Beast: Dissecting the Prison”: 371-397. http://loicwacquant.net/debates/theory-and-ethnography/
• James Sutton, "An Ethnographic Account pf Doing Survey Research in Prison: Descriptions, Reflections, and Suggestions from the Field" Qualitative Sociology Review, Vol VII, Issue 2 - August 2011
• James B Waldram, "Challenges of Prison Ethnography"Anthropology News January 2009 p. 4
• Shanta Singh, "Being a Criminology Ethnographer in a South African Prison: A Search for Dynamics and Prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the Westville Prison, Durban, South Africa" J. Soc. Sci., 15(1): 71-82 (2007)
• I missed this conference on 'Resisting the Eclipse: An International Symposium on Prison Ethnography http://www.open.ac.uk/icccr/events/prison-ethnography/

Anyone got any other suggestions?

Image source: http://www.onelargeprawn.co.za/2011/03/15/marked-men-russian-prison-tattoos-2/

Prison fieldwork commences

Google maps

Over the last few weeks I've commenced my fieldwork in  two NSW correctional centres. The process has been intense and not without difficulties as I try to negotiate inmates' (understandable) reluctance to be interviewed and the prison system's occasional partial or full lockdowns.

Nevertheless the work has been rewarding and I've found willing inmate participants to be both articulate and insightful of their experiences in using video links between prison and courtrooms. Corrective Services' staff have been incredibly helpful and obliging making the whole process as smooth as possible.

Bodies in Distress

This is slightly old news now but I just realised that I hadn't blogged about this already ... Last month I took part in 'Bodies in Distress' during Critical Animals (This is Not Art festival in Newcastle) at The Lock-Up. The event, organised by Gabriel Watts from the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, was a collaboration between researchers Drs Una McIlvenna and Rebecca McNamara and artists Mimi Kelly and me. 

The event commenced with Grace Turner singing 17th century execution ballads (beautifully) in a small cell of The Lock-Up while Una provided insights into the ballads. Throughout the performance was Mimi's ethereal and haunting video installation and haze machine serendipitously puffing smoke every time Grace sang of a death by fire. Two cells up the corridor was my audio piece 'Felonia de se' (felony of the self) installed in the historic padded cell. My soundscape was a response to medieval legal records concerning suicide cases in England, as researched by Rebecca. I aimed to evoke uneasy imagery through text fragments and dark, otherworldly audio loops.

http://www.historyofemotions.org.au/news-media/news-listing/bodies-in-distress-at-critical-animals.aspx

A panel discussion followed concerning sin, death, punishment, corporeality and the intersections of academic research and artistic practice. A fun day out!

http://criticalanimals.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/bodies-in-distress.jpg

Antony Gormley: bodies in space

Thank you to a friend, CB, who sent me this link:

http://www.ted.com/talks/antony_gormley_sculpted_space_within_and_without.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TEDTalks_video+%28TEDTalks+Main+%28SD%29+-+Site%29

It's interesting to hear a sculptor discussing the space of bodies, the body as a site of potentiality and relational to architecture and site. When we close our eyes, we can become aware of the intimate subjective collective space of the body - a place of imagination and potential, a place that is objectless and dimensionless. This is the elemental world he seeks us to engage with - the darkness of the living body and somatic experience, as distinct from the technological world.

And, of course, I was so lucky to see his work at the mouth of the Mersey near Liverpool recently.

'Covert' solo show

COVERT

CAROLYN MCKAY

12 – 30 SEPTEMBER 2012

OPENING PREVIEW FRIDAY 14 SEPTEMBER 6-8PM

galleryeight is pleased to exhibit a solo show of recent work by Carolyn McKay.

Covert presents a suite of four HD videos created by McKay while travelling around Japan last year. Filmed covertly from behind glass, windows of trains and hotels afforded her the opportunity to be a watchful eye observing the unsuspecting, revealing unconnected episodes of strangers’ lives. What she found particularly appealing about this form of surreptitious spectatorship was that the images revealed people unposed, introspective and natural. However, she sensed that she was secretly thieving a portion of someone’s daily life for her own artistic purposes. The videos appropriate and fix private moments that would normally have remained ephemeral, compelling these strangers, through DVD looping, to repeat their experiences indefinitely. On the other hand, these stolen episodes have gained a poetic resonance that may have otherwise passed unnoticed.

Thank you to Carrie Miller and The Art Life for a review:

http://theartlife.com.au/?p=7000

Sydney College of the Arts Graduate School Conference and PhD Exhibition

It's a busy week at SCA with the PhD exhibition opening tomorrow night (Wednesday 12 September) and the conference on Thursday 13th. I'm taking part in both events, with a series of light boxes in the exhibition related to my research and I'll be presenting at the conference "Videos and inmates: digitising the criminal body."

For more details, see http://sydney.edu.au/sca/graduate_school/current_students/conference/about.shtml

Biometric recording @ Long Bay gaol

In preparation for my forthcoming interviews with inmates at correctional centres, I attended the Long Bay complex today to have my biometrics taken.

Source of image: http://wasp.workbuddy.com/biometric.html accessed 21/08/12

This is the building I went to (and it's always an interesting experiential moment when you enter a custodial situation, albeit temporarily):

http://www.randwick.nsw.gov.au/About_Randwick/Heritage/A_to_Z_of_people_and_places/Long_Bay_Prison_Complex/indexdl_172.aspx accessed 21/08/12

I had prints taken from my left and right index fingers by tapping a pad three times with each finger. The diagram above was at the prison and demonstrates how the biometric fingerprint is reduced to a binary data stream. And so my bio-data and I enter the digital archive ... 

British Society of Criminology Conference

http://www.hmswarrior.org/history/construction

I can breath a sigh of relief – I've just presented at the BSC conference at the University of Portsmouth and had a, seemingly, very positive response to my paper "Video conferencing and inmates: a new observatory of the criminal body".
It's been great to make contacts and have conversations with various postgrad students and academics from England and USA following my presentation. I can now relax, enjoy the rest of the conference, especially tomorrow night's dinner on board the HMS Warrior.

Virtual Courts and Prison Video Links in London

“Are you doing the decent thing?” a poster asks outside the Virtual Court at Camberwell Green Magistrates’ Court. Designed by HM Prison Service (now http://www.justice.gov.uk/) and the National Offender Management Service (http://www.justice.gov.uk/about/noms), the poster goes on to state that prison video links allow defendants to attend court without leaving prison. A few days in London has revealed some insights into the British model of video conferencing. Apparently, there are about 60 prisons, 30 Crown courts and 153 magistrates’ courts linked to the network.

Within a few hours of landing in London, I had a meeting with Professor Linda Mulcahy, Department of Law, London School of Economics: http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/law/staff/linda-mulcahy.htm

I was keen to meet Linda as her research and publications address the significance of courthouse design, the dematerialisation of courtrooms and changing spatial relationships in legal procedures, for example: Legal Architecture: Justice, Due Process and the Place of Law (Routledge: 2010). Linda is aware of a small group of people located around the world who work in this area and who, collectively, are amassing a profound knowledge base. It was a very engaging meeting and I hope that there will be opportunities for further interaction again.

Linda suggested that I visit Snaresbrook Crown Court as video links are commonly used there in evidence and for defendants’ appearances. The architecture of this courthouse is impressive, originally constructed as an asylum for fatherless middle class children around the 1840s.

Carolyn McKay Snaresbrook 2012

However, none of that ambience is evident in the blandly functional contemporary courtrooms attached to the magnificent original building. I introduce myself to the helpful court clerk in Court 6 and she tells me to sit on the side of the courtroom, next to a probation officer and very close to the bench. On the desk in front of me is a collection of religious texts and laminated cards for administering various forms of oaths and affirmations. The first appearance I watch is of a man on remand, dressed in a green T-shirt. His face and top part of his torso fill only a tiny portion of the screen. Behind him is a sign identifying his video booth as ‘HMP Thameside Video Court No1’. I hear later that Thameside is a newly opened, high-tech prison. There are many audio issues that exasperate both the defendant and the judge. At one point, the defendant is waving madly and gesticulating to attract attention, and no one notices him for quite a while; he can’t hear the procedures. The volume is adjusted and the judge tells the defendant to ‘stay patient’ and asks his counsel to speak slowly and clearly, and to turn off her mobile phone which is causing audio interference. At the end of the appearance, the judge tells the defendant that he will be ‘produced’ again by video link at a later date.

The judge retires from court as the courtroom officials seek to set up a new link for another defendant. This takes some time and there is quite a delay as no one at the other end of the link responds, but eventually the new plea and case management commences. There are three defendants in a case of assault. One man appears from prison by video link, while the other two men appear ‘in person’ but are located in the plexiglass enclosed dock at the back of the court, accompanied by two guards. The younger defendant in the dock smiles and visually interacts with some people in the public gallery. The judge asks the video-linked defendant if he can see and hear, and he replies very casually ‘yeah, yeah’. He’s wearing a white buttoned shirt, no tie. He sits forward and looks downwards presumably at the screen vision of the court; he sits back and yawns; he motions to someone who is either in the room with him or at the door – it is not apparent where or who this other person is.

This is an interesting case to observe having both physically present defendants and one remote, video-linked defendant. Because of the design of the fully glassed enclosed dock and its location right at the rear of the courtroom, it is very difficult to see the physically present defendants although, as mentioned, one of these men interacts through facial gesture with people in the public gallery. I feel that I actually have a better view of the remote defendant who, coincidentally, seems to be the one treating the procedure with the least amount of gravity. The two defendants in the glass enclosed dock seem to be sitting very still and upright, while the remote defendant yawns and slumps in his chair.

Gaining access to the Virtual Court at Camberwell Green Magistrates’ Court proves challenging. First of all, being unfamiliar with the court’s location, it is tricky to find in the back streets off Camberwell Road. When I finally find the Virtual Court, in Court Room 11, I approach a court officer and introduce myself. He tells me I have to wait … and wait … for permission to enter. And so I stand, then sit, for about 50 minutes in the very basic waiting room that has insufficient seating for the number of solicitors and clients, until another court officer comes around. I tell him that I wish to observe the Virtual Court and he says: “Well of course – open justice and all!” Before my trip, I had contacted The Ministry of Justice about observing the Virtual Court. I had been advised that it is open to the public to observe proceedings as a matter of routine, and all I need do is to turn up on the day.

Carolyn McKay Camberwell Green Magistrates' Court 2012

 So I enter the court which is actually a small office room – bland and functional, lacking any aesthetic sensibility. When I enter, I’m not immediately sure whom to acknowledge as the bench. This is not a designed court space, rather more an informal arrangement of desks, cabling and hard drives, microphones, two Panasonic wall-mounted screens, a few chairs for those members of the public who succeed in finding and accessing the court, and a wooden Coat of Arms dangling on a chain suspended above the heads of three magistrates. I am the only person who is not part of the courtroom machinations, and I feel like a conspicuous intruder in this legal microcosm.

There is a young man appearing unrepresented from Peckham police station on a charge of causing criminal damage. He’s wearing a white T-shirt that he constantly picks and pulls. It takes me a while to realise that the screen I can see shows a large image of the defendant, a small ‘picture-in-picture’ image of the remote video booth as seen from the ceiling, and a small ‘picture-in-picture’ image of the court that the defendant would be seeing. I cannot be seen by the defendant as there is only one camera in the Virtual Court that captures the bench and legal counsel. The defendant’s view is restricted and partial. I also realise that a Detention Officer is in the remote room with the defendant. Her voice can be occasionally heard and her hand can be seen passing documents to the defendant.

The next link is to Charing Cross police station with another unrepresented defendant. At the commencement of each session, the court clerk asks if all parties have any comments about the live link. There are more audio issues with this defendant as he leans back away from his microphone and does not speak clearly. He was arrested the previous night for stealing clothing. Drug testing found traces of opiates. For various reasons, his case is adjourned, bail denied, and he is told that he will be ‘produced’ by video link in two weeks time. When the magistrates retire, the defendant stands up and walks out of sight of the screen, clutching his belt-less trousers.

We are asked to clear the courtroom as a solicitor wants to have a conference with her client before his appearance and it’s easier to do this in the courtroom, rather than establish a link in one of the private rooms, and then again in the court. When the hearing commences, the solicitor is present in the courtroom sharing a desk with the Crown prosecutor. The young man appears by video link on a charge of begging at a KFC. He was hungry, his counsel tells the court. He’s been in care since the age of 8 and is estranged from his parents who have substance abuse issues. A fine is issued that is set aside as the defendant has already spent more than 24 hours in custody.

Yet another young man appears on the screen, withdrawn and holding his head in despair. The lighting is insufficient to see his facial features. He is represented and pleads guilty to stealing computer equipment. His counsel asks the court to consider that his girlfriend is pregnant and that this situation may provide an opportunity for him to better himself. However, he has many previous similar convictions for theft, and was released from prison only a month ago. He receives another custodial sentence.

The final matter I observe involves a young man from the United Arab Emirates who is charged with assault by beating his girlfriend. The defendant speaks no English so an interpreter has been sought and there is a delay in procedure while waiting for the interpreter to arrive. While waiting, I chat with the court clerk who is surprised that I want to wait and see the next matter with the interpreter – “it’s nothing magical” she tells me. I say that I’m interested in seeing the interaction between the physically present interpreter and the remote defendant.

The interpreter arrives and sits in the Virtual Court between the Crown prosecutor and the defense counsel. The defendant appears from Belgravia and the Detention Officer sits next to him, clearly visible on the screen. Actually the defendant’s screen face is obscured by the small picture-in-picture image of the remote booth. I’m surprised that no one clicks and drags the small image away to another part of the screen. The defendant is obviously incredibly distraught and starts sobbing several times during the hearing. He pleads not guilty, a trial date is set for October and he is given bail with conditions.

Reflecting upon my observations of the Virtual Court, I found that the unrepresented defendants had minimal interaction with the court and were mostly reticent, or unable to engage in expressing their situation in a, perhaps, intimidating environment. Rather their participation was limited to brief yes or no responses to questions, and whether they understood what was happening (they almost always answered yes that they understood, although I felt that they sometimes looked confused). Counsel for the represented defendants provided a greater understanding of the defendant’s back story and context of the alleged criminal act, creating more engagement and empathy with those people.

Carolyn McKay The Old Bailey 2012

There were many delays in procedure, and seemingly delays for the defendants in being heard (at least one had been in custody for over 24 hours). None of the defendants appeared to have the ability to pan around the courtroom – their view was dictated by the one fixed camera so they had no knowledge about all their observers, such as me. The impossibility of eye-contact is always an issue. With all the defendants, I found frequent audio and lighting issues to be problematic, and considering the notion of open justice and public procedure, I was a little troubled by the difficulties I had in accessing the court. Comparing the mise-en-scène of a traditional trial that I watch later that day at the Old Bailey, it is evident that law’s aesthetic is being transformed by technocratic concerns, an emphasis on functionality and the speedy dispensing of justice.

I will bear these observations and reflections in mind as I finalise my presentation “Video conferencing and inmates: a new observatory of the criminal body” for next week’s British Society of Criminology conference, as well as my presentation “Visualising the Posthuman Courtroom” for the Arts in Society conference at the end of July.

Talos: the world's first cybernetic organism?

The World's First Robot: Talos by Adrienne Mayor http://www.wondersandmarvels.com/2012/03/the-worlds-first-robot-talos.html
Mayor suggests that the "physiology of Talos, described by ancient writers in mytho-bio-technical language, seems to presage today’s scientific “cybernetic organism” projects that employ neurological-computer interfaces to integrate living and non-living components. Hephaestus gave Talos a single internal artery or vein, through which ichor, the mysterious life-fluid of the gods, pulsed from his neck to his ankle. Talos’s biomimetic “vivisystem” was sealed by a single bronze nail."

Thank you, RLG, for your reference to Talos. And anything that allows me to reference the stop motion animation of Ray Harryhausen and the 1963 film 'Jason and the Argonauts' is OK by me.