Between 2011 and 2013, Cuban artist Rodolfo Peraza recreated the now abandoned panoptic Presidio Modelo, located on Cuba's Isla de la Juventud (formerly known as Isla de Pinos) using Unity 3D. Built under President-turned-dictator Gerardo Machado between 1926-1928, the prison was closely inspired by Jeremy Bentham's panopticon model and featured five circular blocks, with cells constructed in tiers around central observation posts. Between 1953 and 1955, Fidel Castro and his brother Raul were imprisoned at Presidio Modelo. Interestingly, after Fidel Castro's revolutionary coup in 1959, Presidio Modelo was used to jail political dissidents, counter-revolutionaries but also outcasts, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and anyone else considered "different" and/or unable to conform to the new protocols and laws of the Socialist Cuban State. In Peraza's simulation, the player can choose between different avatars: a guard, a prisoner, a priest and a doctor. Infirstlife can be accessed online here. Photographic documentation of the "real" prison can be found here.
Previously: Play to Learn
LINK: Rodolfo Peraza
Submitted by Matteo Bittanti
