Abstract
This paper engages with the former prison at Long Kesh in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and, in particular, with the republican inmates’ protests in the 1970s and early 80s. Addressing the penal institution itself, its architecture, interior designs and the rituals implemented there, the paper argues these were not only designed but involved on-going design processes to which inmates responded by the developing a complex design practice involving the site itself as well as their bodies and the way these are made to signify within the semiotic regime of the penal institution.
Keywords
design, politics, bodies, semiotics
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2016.236
Citation
Ståhl, O. (2016) Long Kesh: Site - Sign - Body, in Lloyd, P. and Bohemia, E. (eds.), Future Focused Thinking - DRS International Conference 2016, 27 - 30 June, Brighton, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2016.236
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Long Kesh: Site - Sign - Body
This paper engages with the former prison at Long Kesh in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and, in particular, with the republican inmates’ protests in the 1970s and early 80s. Addressing the penal institution itself, its architecture, interior designs and the rituals implemented there, the paper argues these were not only designed but involved on-going design processes to which inmates responded by the developing a complex design practice involving the site itself as well as their bodies and the way these are made to signify within the semiotic regime of the penal institution.