Installations
The museum’s light and audio installations bring The Prison to life, with holographic characters recounting prisoners’ stories and various soundscapes echoing in the cells.
The stories behind the writing on the walls
The wall of cell number 20 on the 1st floor features a collection of prisoners’ drawings and writing from The Prison’s walls. Behind these drawings and writing are seven stories collected from former and current prisoners and guards. Some of the stories are genuine excerpts from interviews with prisoners and guards, while others are voice-acted stories assembled after the fact based on interviews. The installation also includes an expert’s comment on the symbolism of the far right.
The interactive installation offers interpretations of issues such as racist symbolism and features the voices of a female prisoner, an adolescent prisoner, a person who lived in a spiral of imprisonment and crime, and a prison guard.
Stories from the inside with holograms
The Prison features two holographic installations. Cell number 8 features a holographic work centred around a male prisoner, that was created based on the writings of former prisoner Jan Jalutsi. Jan Jalutsi (formerly Jan Stefan Moilanen) spent nearly twenty years of his life in prison for burglary and bank robbery. At the start of the millennium, he shut the prison door behind him for good. Jalutsi has worked to improve the conditions of prisoners both during his own imprisonment and after, and nowadays he works full-time doing non-profit work aiming to prevent social exclusion and repeat offending.
The female prisoner modelled for holographic glasses was created as part of the WhatsUp2.0 project, the aim of which was to strengthen cooperation between Häme University of Applied Sciences and businesses through practical trials. The unit responsible for the project was Häme University of Applied Sciences’ HAMK Smart Research Unit, and the project was funded by the Regional Council of Häme.
Sounds in the cells
Sounds and music echo in The Prison’s ground floor and 2nd floor. The audio installation Dream located on the ground floor is based on the writings of Jan Jalutsi. The 2nd floor audio installation The Long Seconds of a Sentence was written and realised by Antti L. S. Ikonen. There is also a cell on the 2nd floor where you can listen to prison-themed music from two playlists compiled by music reporter Jukka ‘Limppu’ Lindfors entitled Songs from and about Prisons and Murder Ballads.