About the project
Music is an integral and vital part of human life in times of joy and triumph, as well as in times of crisis and isolation. PRISONS OF NOTE will investigate the experiences of, circumstances surrounding, and approaches to music and imprisonment in the lives of prisoners, staff, and stakeholders.
The project will examine the relationship between prison music – including music education, music therapy, music-making and listening initiatives – and the sociocultural, political, ethical and aesthetic implications of this creative practice from multiple perspectives. Using an international, comparative approach grounded in empirical research, the project maps the nuances and asymmetries in penal exceptionalism from smaller, peripheral jurisdictions within the global West, to untangle the ways music is used –and is useful– in prison.
PRISONS OF NOTE builds on recent scholarship from musicology and comparative penology, drawing from models of prison ethnography, sociology and ethnomusicology, led by a musicologist PI and a diverse research team of criminologists & sociologists. This significant, ambitious project compares prison music experiences in smaller jurisdictions of penal exceptionalism – places that have been largely overlooked in comparative criminological and musicological discourse in favour of an Anglo-American bias.
As we tackle rising incarceration rates around the world, this project is unique in that it collects qualitative data from prison case studies in Norway, Iceland and the Republic of Ireland in order to contribute new, interdisciplinary knowledge on how music is used and is useful in prisons from a peripheral perspective. Thus PRISONS OF NOTE will change how we study music and imprisonment, from isolated, single-nation case studies to connected, transcultural experiences that transcend national borders, that gives a special voice to experiences of penal exceptionalism and prisons of note.
The project addresses the central questions:
- What is the relationship between music and imprisonment in cultures of penal exceptionalism?
- What are the aesthetic, sociocultural, and political implications of music and imprisonment?
Objectives
The project objectives are:
- to deliver new knowledge on the experience of prison music from a peripheral perspective;
- to strengthen understanding on how the cultural conditions of music in prison affect those imprisoned, as well as prison officers, music facilitators and wider society;
- to unpack how music activities foster unique pathways to citizenship for prisoners who’s fundamental status means certain rights have been denied.
Financing
Research Council of Norway, FRIHUMSAM, Unge forskertalenter. Nr. 315759
Cooperation
- Dr. Ruth Armstrong (Cambridge University / Prison Radio International)
- Professor Helgi Gunnlaugsson (University of Iceland)
- Associate Professor Þorbjörg Daphne Hall (Iceland University of the Arts)
- Associate Professor Kjetil Hjørnevik (The Grieg Academy, University of Bergen)
- Professor Fergus McNeill (Glasgow University)
- Fíona Ní Chinnéide (The Probation Service, Department of Justice, Ireland)
- Åse Svenheim Drivnes (Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences)
- Dr. Katharina Swirak (University College Cork)
- Professor Thomas Ugelvik (University of Oslo)
Duration
09.05.2022 to 08.05.2025.
Events
The project team are participating in the following conferences & events:
- Workshop on sonic & sensory methods // LISTENING TO // SOUNDING WITH // (ainemangaoang.com) in collaboration with Malmö University and the EASA Sensory Media Anthropology Network (22 September 2023).
- IASPM XXI Biannual Conference (iaspm-us.wildapricot.org) IASPM (International Association for the Study of Popular Music) International, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA (26-30 June)
- EPEA (European Prison Education Association) conference, Tønsberg, Norway (www.epea.org) (13 -17 June 2023)
- Care: NECS (European Network for Cinema and Media Studies) 2023 Conference (necs.org), University of Oslo, Norway (13-17 June, 2023)
- Prisons of Note: Conversations on Music & Detention. Forskningsforum (Public Research Seminar) 24.04.2023, 12:30-14:00 (CET), Stort møterom, University of Oslo HumSam Library.