A Machine to Unmake You

2019 - ongoing

A Machine to Unmake You is a design, performance, and pedagogical project created by Melanie Crean in collaboration with incarcerated ex-military and other participants affected by the justice system in Liverpool, England between 2019 - 2024. The project was commissioned by the Learning Team at FACT Liverpool, with the goal of working with incarcerated veterans to explore notions of identity and contemporary citizenship. The goal was to create a shared language for participants to represent themselves, rather than be represented by others, opening up a conversation with the communities they were meant to return to.

Project themes were developed in a series of storytelling workshops at Altcourse prison in Liverpool, where participants described that - if bootcamp is a “machine” that makes soldiers, then there is no corresponding machine to “unmake them;” to facilitate former soldiers to return home again - which was the basis of the work’s title.

The ongoing project has 3 forms of output. The first is a series of silent performances designed with veterans at Altcourse prison to represent their dignity and mutual aid in supporting one another, despite the context of incarceration. The videos, shown at FACT from March 1 - June 2, 2024; are all clocks in various forms, exploring concepts of time, the body, labour and mutual aid amongst the men.

The second is publication which includes interviews with veterans and justice-studies researchers, artists working collaboratively with incarcerated populations, and a photo essay (a hacked “style guide” for the the project’s “M2UY brand”) interwoven with writings by the participants. The publication also describes methods and curriculum used in the project that center the lived experience of those affected by the justice system. Digital copies of the publication can be downloaded HERE.

The final output is a program being designed in collaboration with Dr. Emma Murray at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) to pilot ‘a machine to unmake you’ - an idea resulting from the participatory futures exercises done with the veterans - to create a restorative course and support group for formerly incarcerated students entering LJMU to continue supporting the students as they move through their educational journey.