Artist Ruth Ewan explores the haunting story of the infamous Millbank Prison, now the site of Tate Britain, in this audio tour with a twist.
Playing on the format of a museum audio tour, The Darks invites visitors to navigate the area around Tate Britain, where the Millbank Prison once stood.
The original plan for Millbank Prison, which opened in 1816, was for a Panopticon. The design for the building, conceived by Jeremy Bentham in the late 18th century, would allow a single watchman to observe all inmates of an institution.
The Panopticon has long been a byword for absolute power, discipline and control. The Darks audio tour, created by Ruth Ewan and Astrid Johnston, touches on the utopian dream at its heart, and how this optimism switched into the hellish reality of what followed.
http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/darks-ruth-ewan-and-astrid-johnston
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