With the project Prison Times - Spatial Dynamics of Penal Environments, consisting of a book, an exhibition and a series of talks, Dropcity reaffirms its vocation: a place dedicated not only to the culture of the project, but also to debate and dialogue on issues that are not always the focus of public attention. 

The entire project, produced by Dropcity, investigates the contemporary state of incarceration, exploring the causes and consequences of penal structures on both an individual and collective level, and represents an initial synthesis of testimonies on prison environments in Italy and around the world. 

From the question ‘what is a typical day for a prisoner?’ came research that reveals prison as a space governed by its own time zone. Time is the fundamental metric of incarceration and a key element in criminal sentencing around the world. Yet, time remains subjective: it can speed up or slow down, acquiring different meanings depending on individuals, places and institutional practices. Often, punishment manifests itself as suspended time - a condemnation of lost time. Perhaps this is why, in prison corridors, the clocks never show the same time: manipulating the perception of time is one of the useful strategies to maintain discipline. Prison Times - Spatial Dynamics of Penal Environments analyses the non-historicality of incarceration through the ritualisation of procedural deadlines and the use of objects in prison routines.

THE EXHIBITION
Spread over an area of more than 1,500 square metres, Prison Times - Spatial Dynamics of Penal Environments explores time and space in prisons: through objects and furnishing elements designed and produced for prisons, it invites us to question and reflect on how much and how architecture and design can affect the prison environment. The initiative connects people, objects, spaces and the meanings they take on in the penal context with architecture and legal, bureaucratic and social aspects.

Divided into five sections (Entering Time, Eating Time, Monitoring Time, Cleaning Time and Sleeping Time) housing a selection of objects and devices designed for prison environments, the exhibition adopts the format of showrooming, understood as the practice of visiting physical shops to examine products before purchasing them online at a lower price. This curatorial choice allows visitors to observe products that would otherwise be inaccessible in everyday life. Objects are displayed clinically and taxonomically, combining design data with market data. The exhibition sequence analyses a selection of furniture on the basis of its function, offering an international perspective on the prison industrial complex and its commodification.

THE BOOK
The book Prison Times: Spatial Dynamics of Penal Environments analyses the material, technological and formal conditions of prison furniture, examining in particular how security parameters, recognised as design requirements, express the ideological concept of punishment within prison furniture, transforming them into instruments of control and surveillance over bodies in space.

The time scale within the prison is such that even an apparently innocuous object, if used repeatedly, can gradually alter the spatial order imposed by the prison walls. Prisoners and objects are deprived of any form of autonomy; actions are performed in a functional, almost mechanical manner - certainly to minimally acceptable standards, but often at a distance, with little human intervention and without recognition of the individual or his need for comfort.

The design components, often the work of anonymous designers, emerge as key elements in understanding how architecture and design shape the identity of the incarcerated individual and the collective imagination associated with them. They reflect the logic of prison government, which aims to reduce the autonomy of people convicted of a crime. Just as prison cells are not private spaces, the objects inside them are not mere furniture, but embody and perform a disciplinary function.

THE TALKS (Auditorium di Dropcity, tunnel 40)
Reform Trust: Ideas on Penal Environments, curated by Federica Verona and Valeria Verdolini, is a programme of debates scheduled until 28 May, in parallel with the exhibition Prison Times: Spatial Dynamics of Penal Environments. Each session analyses the existential function of prisons, addressing legal, political, administrative and social issues. The transversal nature of the discussions opens up unexpected perspectives and raises further questions about the role of architecture and design as disciplines that, consciously or unconsciously, contribute to the mechanisms of security, (in)justice and mass incarceration.

The sessions address different themes: Entering Time explores security, penal populism, politics and control; Eating Time addresses overcrowding and the materiality of prison life, focusing on prison labour and economic deprivation; Monitoring Time examines surveillance and expanding spheres of control; Cleaning Time explores perceptions of violence in penal environments and the use of the body as a means of resistance; Sleeping Time reflects on prison reform and transformation.