Black light. Drawing, music, and theatre as sensory practices in the encounter between incarcerated people and university students

This chapter recounts a university workshop conducted within the prison of Milano-Opera (Milan, Italy), employing a theoretical and methodological framework that integrates sensory, affective, and performative criminology. The initiative is based on recognizing the crucial role that the university’s entry into detention settings can play in increasing public awareness and filling the gap between the prison and civil society. The workshop brought together prisoners and university students to collaboratively explore and reflect on the meanings of “inside“ and “outside.“ The aim was to foster a meaningful encounter in which participants could connect different dimensions of the human experience and be involved in co-production of knowledge. To achieve this goal, three creative experiences were introduced: (1) the “subjective” production of mental images engaging sensorial and emotional imagination; (2) listening to music as an auditory and affective reflexive practice; (3) participation in theatrical performance, which involved embodied, spatial, and interactive forms of expression. Through processes of active self-listening and attentive listening to others, participants engaged with the emotional, embodied, and sensory dimensions of life during incarceration. This approach facilitated the development of self-reflexivity and brought forth perspectives on the lived social reality that are often overlooked or taken for granted.