Pentridge Prison Tours
Set against a contemporary urban backdrop, Pentridge Prison, once a symbol of Australia’s dark past, now lies at the heart of an urban renewal initiative. The prison’s redevelopment contextualizes 150 years of a hidden regime, reimagined as an immersive experience and a new destination for locals and visitors to uncover its unsettling truths. Collaborating closely with the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), we spearheaded the creative transformation of Pentridge Prison.
Agency
Practice Area
Client
National Trust of Australia (Victoria)
Industry
The Challenge
Our challenge was to authentically portray daily life in Pentridge, drawing on firsthand accounts without glorifying the crimes yet highlighting the humanity of the incarcerated. We also had to align our interpretive strategy with Pentridge’s heritage status and address its location on unceded Wurundjeri territory with honesty, recognizing the painful intersection between First Nations culture and Australia’s carceral system.
Project Vision
By eschewing intrusive physical interventions and instead infusing layers of interpretation into the existing environment, we not only preserve the integrity of the historic structure but also leverage it as an authentic storytelling canvas.
The design is based on thorough research and nuanced storytelling. We interviewed former inmates, their families, and correctional officers and consulted historical records. Collaboration with the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation was crucial due to the site’s location on Wurundjeri Land. Their insights offered a critical perspective on the relationship between First Nations people and the penal system.
Due to the sensitive and potentially harmful subject matter, we implemented a rigorous process to protect the safety and well-being of all individuals involved. This included the use of trigger warnings, careful curation of content, and a great duty of care to avoid causing fresh trauma.
Set against a contemporary urban backdrop, Pentridge Prison lies at the heart of an urban renewal initiative, reimagined as an immersive experience for visitors to uncover its unsettling truths.
Mel Desa
The Warders’ Residence serves as the tour’s starting point. Here, visitors can select “B Division: Pentridge Through Time” or “H Division: Unlocked” or both tours. Each one lasts 90 minutes.
Mel Desa
Design + Execution
Through authentic set-dressed cells, life-size projections, historical artifacts, and photographs, our design solution drew inspiration from the concept of ‘if these walls could talk.’ We aimed to put the people of the prison at the core of the experience, bringing their unheard voices to life through two location-aware audio journeys: “B-Division: Pentridge Through Time;” and “H-Division: Unlocked,” which confront some of the most brutal elements of the site’s history. The experience was designed to provoke visitors to consider the nature of retributive justice in our society and to confront the complex and sometimes unsettling history of Victoria’s penal system.
Using location-aware immersive technology, visitors are enveloped in the stories and voices of Pentridge as they explore the prison at their own pace. Throughout the historic Warder’s Residence and inside the cells, we integrated the original bluestone walls as storytellers, where projected media is displayed directly on the surface. Four-channel atmospheric soundscapes immerse visitors in the prison’s story, aided by technology that triangulates visitors’ location via Bluetooth beacons to identify which cell narration to play. The bluestone construction of the prison is leveraged to provide an excellent barrier to signal bleeding into other cells. Another innovation, a bluestone sculpture equipped with bone-conducting technology, allows visitors to activate the sounds of the prison by touching their elbows on the stone, a unique and intimate way to experience the site.
The bluestone itself holds profound significance, sourced from the surrounding land, symbolizing the intersection of First Nations people and Australia’s penal system, a source of deep and ongoing trauma. With great reverence for this material and its connection to the land, we ensured it served as both a storyteller and was safeguarded from intervention.
In the heart of the Warder’s Residence, a Bluestone sculpture with bone-conducting technology lets visitors trigger prison sounds by touching their elbows on the stone, offering an unexpected first encounter.
Ed Blake
Inside the cells, original bluestone walls serve as storytellers, with projected media displayed directly on the surface. Life-size projections transport visitors back in time, placing former inmates at the center.
Art Processors
In H Division’s rock-breaking yards, visitors witness prisoners’ harsh labor firsthand. Four-channel atmospheric soundscapes immerse visitors in the prison’s story, as two inmates vividly recount the brutal reality they endured.
Mel Desa
To recreate the starkness of “separate and silent” 19th-century imprisonment, we restored one cell to its original condition, revealing the bluestone walls excavated by the prisoners themselves.
Mel Desa
The experience provokes contemplation on Pentridge’s history, urging reflection on transgression, retribution, and rehabilitation, revealing our modern collective ethos, where visitors ultimately discover there is no one truth.
Brent Lukey
Project Details
Design Team
Art Processors
Photo Credits
Brent Lukey, Mel Desa, Ed Blake, and Art Processors
Open Date
April 3, 2023