21 - Polyrhythmia Revisited

Summary

Discerning the rhythms of everyday life at Midtown revealed the polyrhythmic nature of a stable, orderly day. Further distinguishing between the comings and goings in prison spaces illuminated the ways people experienced and remade them in everyday activity. Phasing was part of this broader spectrum of activities in which the polyrhythmia of daily activity was implicated in the maintenance and re-affirmation of order. These multiplicities of daily rhythms comprised the substance of order and it is the instructive potential of this I return to.

The everyday tune was the benchmark. Motivation for compliance was cooperation rather than acceptance of authority. It was about the comfort of community and the ontological security offered by rhythms and routines rather than acceptance of legitimacy of the regime which provided the spur for going along with the hustle and bustle. There were many reasons individuals identified for seeking a ‘good day’, but these motivations were not obviously related to conditions for the breakdown of stability. Listening to the Midtown soundscape presented further disruption to the idea of a direct antonymic relationship between order and disorder (Carrabine, 2004).

Humming along to the everyday tune

The polyrhythmic tune of everyday life at Midtown was used as a means of gauging an orderly day, as well as being a signifier of disruption and instability. Bell rings and shouts took a while to decipher. As I made sense of the sonic environment, these pace-setting markers, reassuring in their consistency, served to punctuate more fluctuating and disparate aspects of the soundscape. Nevertheless, it was the broader soundscape which provided vital information about the climate on the wing and its state of order.

‘How can I put it … You can always tell how a prison's gonna be when you come in in the morning, if you can hear … Say you come in this prison at quarter past, half past seven in the morning. It's nice and quiet, you know everybody's calm and seckled … but you know if you come in in the morning and you can hear music playing early, and banter, you know there's trouble in the place … seriously.’ (Stretch)