Lockdown: On the Materiality of Confinement

Abstract

Any meaningful exploration of internment immediately raises an unsettling cluster of underlying questions. Why does confinement exist? Why would a modern state expend tremendous resources (both financial and political) to maintain groups of people within an institutional compound? Who becomes subjected to confinement, and under what sort of circumstances? When we turn towards our unique archaeological exploration of these stark environments, further paths of exploration emerge. How do people experience confinement? How do the built and natural landscapes of these places reinforce the process of internment? What mechanism do the various types of occupants use to sustain a sense of social being? And ultimately, what material conditions characterise daily life within these institutions?