Chapter 2: Carceral Geographies: Spaces of Exception and Internment

Patrick Brian Smith

From Spatial Violence and the Documentary Image (2024), pp. 71-120, doi:10.59860/mi.c05659c

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Part of the book: Spatial Violence and the Documentary Image

Patrick Brian Smith

Moving Image 15

Legenda

ContemporaryFilmHistoryopen


Abstract.  Global prison populations continue to rise, chiefly through the tightly interconnected expansion of disciplinary governmentality and the industrial carceral complex. Experimental non-fiction works seek to visualise, and also critique, the shifting spatial and infrastructural relations of these expanding carceral spaces. Focusing on works that aim to unpack how carceral spaces operate between the inside and outside of prisons, this chapter also examines forms of internment whereby supposed temporary conditions become permanent: migrant detention centres, concentration camps, holding sites for political prisoners, and others. Key works considered include Hans Haacke, A Breed Apart (1978); Susan Schuppli and Steffan Kraemer, Omarska: Memorial in Exile (2013); James Bridle, Seamless Transitions (2015); and Jonathan Perel, Toponimia (2015).

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