Marking Time with Nicole Fleetwood

Episode four of "Reparative Histories of Art and Architecture" features Nicole Fleetwood, professor in Media, Culture, and Communication at NYU. While primarily referencing her book, Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration, Dr. Fleetwood focuses on the impacts of her work resulting from her approach towards justice.  She uses her concept of carceral aesthetics to understand how art made in and about prisons is conditioned by the particular circumstances of the US punitive system. These conditions can be the source of further insight rather than cause for devaluing the artwork. Marking Time features a diverse collection of art made by prisoners while incarcerated, and she uses this art to demonstrate the impact of the conditions that led it to be created.  Fleetwood, Nicole R. Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration. Harvard University Press, 2020. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11vcfjs. 2:39 Dr. Fleetwood discusses how her family sparked her path in a life of inquiry.  7:28 Dr. Fleetwood redirects the conversation on social justice in her work towards justice in general, and how she views justice as being love in action through a forward-facing approach.  13:38 Dr. Fleetwood talks about her views on methodology, holding the belief that methods are tools for inquiry, so while people need to make their work legible, they also shouldn't confine themselves to one approach.  18:12 Dr. Fleetwood emphasizes the global influences her book holds despite focusing solely on the US penal system. Additionally, she references her collaboration with Mark Bradford to speak to the cross-cultural connections that her work has enabled. She also discusses an exhibit for the artist Malangatana.  27:40 Dr. Fleetwood examines the balance between wanting to create a valuable space for the work of the incarcerated artist and the unavoidable limitations her project had while doing so. She also mentions Steven Fullwood's and Miranda Mims' Nomadic Archivists Project as an inspiration for the archive she hoped to create, as well as artists featured in Marking Time, Jerome Washington, Ojore Lutalo, and Kasmisha Thomas. 35:42 Dr. Fleetwood talks about the value of using conceptual terms to describe the work she's doing. For example, prison art and carceral aesthetics recognize art's direct relationship to institutions. As a specific example of this relationship, she mentions artist Sable Elyse Smith.