Preamble Narratives and Social Memory - Universidade do Minho

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Drawings and Narrative: the Inmates Memory and Experience (At the Prison of Monsanto)Mariana Carroloand a counter-knowledge – applied as a practice in the daily life, happening in the sameplaces and with the same actors where the power is exercised. Certeau regards that ‘thetactics are the art of failure, and that the Arts place themselves beyond the dominantreasoning, playing with the emotions’ (Alves, 2009, p.10).The knowledge (counter-knowledge) from these practices constitutes a surprise forthe present power and, therefore, is feared and even negligently understood. In any case,there are just few experiences in which the contemporary institutions capitalize theseknowledge and practices, as well as the creation of an understanding and reciprocity inbetween the parts. The tendency, which is rooted in fear (the danger of security) leads to anexacerbation of the control procedures, as such, coercion mechanisms amplify the dominationwish. This situation is frequently seen within the prison environment.This way, it seems essential to mention not only the main role of the inmate, as wellas to explain its specificity. The prisoner is not a viewer, is not a bystander of its surroundingreality. The prisoner participates and builds the prison reality: the space where he livesand the one he is shaped by. More importantly, regarding the current law, the prisoner is anentity that is extinguished by the end of its imprisonment time, but consequently supplantsthat same reality as its witness 5 .3. ResearchProduced in the Creative Arts Studio (CAS), the research in the Prison of Monsanto wasbased on the artistic work of the inmates, as previously mentioned. The fieldwork involvedme, as an Art Teacher, and it involved the inmates. The creative arts’ activities took placein a class, under my supervision, while teaching and developing artistic techniques in thepresentation of work propositions and work themes, during the four years of research 6 .It was sought to build, during that time, a model that was more centred in the students,rather than centred in the teacher, aiming to search for alterity rather then directivity. That isrelevant in way that, in the current research, the organization of the programs’ contents andthe attainment of results also depends of the ability to negotiate, conciliate and integrateaffective and cognitive matters during the work progress. Informed about the project, theinmates question the nature of the ‘hidden’ goals related to the elaboration of the drawingsand the conclusions, as a group and as a subgroup; they showed reluctance sharing theirKnowledge, informing the Power, through drawings that would get them ‘exposed’ .The inmates’ information and their transmission of experience aim then to make visiblewhat is invisible to the outside visitor: an invisible structure made of schedules, rituals,and behaviours that lays the place bare in its multiple facets.To give notice, for instance, that in the environment of the high security prison, timeswhere the inmates are gathered and out of the cells is limited (not considering the dining5This essential difference is registered by Agamben (2003).6In 2007/2008, this teaching experience in a prison environment was due to my hiring by the Portuguese Education Ministry:teaching ‘Arts’ in the Prison of Monsanto. During the following years, from 2009 to 2011, my abidance was due to the beginningof this research, under the Doctorate degree, at the New University of Lisbon, with the thesis entitled: ‘The PortuguesePrison Architecture: Shape, Experience and Space Representation. The Prison Facility of Monsanto’, under the supervision ofManuel Villaverde Cabral and Raquel Henriques da Silva (FCSH-UNL).Narratives and social memory: theoretical and methodological approaches302
Drawings and Narrative: the Inmates Memory and Experience (At the Prison of Monsanto)Mariana Carrolohall and common area times). This only occurs in certain activities, like the CAS, as well as the‘big yards’ activities. Apart from that, they can be locked up for up to twenty two hours per day.That is also why, regarding this environment, that time spent at CAS was used to theinmates’ socialization: to get to know the others; to define limits; to share confidences; tooffer help to create relationships, contacts and groups.The activities took place in a closed room with a closed-circuit television (CCTV) - isthe use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors- with a maximum of two sessions per week, with inmates serving time or waiting fortrial. The average time of the activity was about 90 minutes. The number of inmates for eachactivity never exceeded six people.The inmates could participate, which was due to the exceptionality of the place, butonly after showing interest in the school and administrative services of the Prison and afteran evaluation and approval. During the four years, the collected work was done with theinvolvement of twenty-one inmates.There were school breaks (the activity followed the Portuguese School Planning);some inmates quit since they did not want to carry with the activity and some were transferred,but there were also some inmates that came back to the activity, three years after ithad started, due to Prison’s punishments. The planning was authorized by the Prison’s Headand by the General Head of Prison Services (DGSP).The work done was focused on varied themes and goals, searching a harmonybetween several aspects of plastic and artistic background. It was proposed to the inmatesto work with Drawing (charcoal/colour/wax/pastel), Illustration and quick Sketches; Painting(gouache and watercolours) and Models; all this with a Substantial Forms and a FormStudies view; Free Drawing; Drawing with Interpretation – exploring Memories, Landscapes(whether real or fictional), Fantasy, Experimentalist or Metaphors; Perspective Drawing;Reality Observation and Representation (Still Life, Substantial Forms Drawing).Figure 2 – Landscape (2009). Acrylic painting – free drawing. (Anonymous)The goal of this work was getting to know the inmates and find out how they communicationand interpretation styles. In addition, it also allowed me to understand, as anactive agent, their communicational products, their plots and narratives, their work, withoutneglecting the ‘educational’ view (to teach and to amplify) in the areas they care the most,Narratives and social memory: theoretical and methodological approaches303
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Cinematic Landscape and Social Memo
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comprises both remembering and forg
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include important questions related
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Part ICognitive and Emotional Proce
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Narratives and Social Memory from t
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The Lay Historian: How Ordinary Peo
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Cabecinhas, R. & Abadia, L. (eds.)
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Emotional Processes in Elaborating
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Transitional Justice Processes, Sha
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The Past and the Present (re)Visite
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Part IIMedia(ted) Narrativesand Pub
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Hard News Cognitive Shift: from Fac
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Narratives of Death: Journalism and
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Researching Identity Narratives in
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Journalistic Narrative: a Story of
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The Works of Sísifo: Memories and
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Audiovisual Post-colonial Narrative
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The Subject-Matter of Audiovisual H
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Criminal violence in Brazilian movi
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Part IVEthnic, National and Suprana
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Narratives of Redemption: Memory an
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Memory and the Flows of Identity in
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‘Diaspora Space’ as Heard and O
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Preamble Narratives and Social Memory - Universidade do Minho

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