Tomas Percival is an artist, researcher, and writer. His work critically investigates the intersections of space and security, with a particular interest in structures of assessment, risk governance, carceral geographies, data infrastructures, and border administration. He holds an MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles, and was an artist-in-residence at the Jan van Eyck Academie. He completed his PhD at the Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of London, where he was also a Lecturer on the MA Research Architecture / Forensic Architecture programme. He is currently an Affiliated Fellow at the ICI Berlin Institute for Cultural Inquiry.
tomas.percival@mailbox.org
Countering Risk: John, David, Edward
Media installation, 33-minute loop
Date: April–May 2025
Institution: Dropcity, Milan
Countering Risks: John, David, Edward is a media installation produced for the ‘Prison Times: Spatial Dynamics of Penal Environments’ exhibition at Dropcity Center for Architecture and Design in Milan. In the English and Welsh prison system, risk assessment systems play a critical role in determining how individuals are managed. Countering Risks examines these processes, focusing on the Offender Assessment System (OASys)—a database used to evaluate individuals and help determine the forms of oversight they are subjected to. This installation emerges from an investigative and experimental process in which Percival worked with three formerly incarcerated men to access and examine their OASys files and produce counter-narratives. In these audio works, the men share their experience of assessment and reflect on how the system shaped their time in prison.
The audios in the installation were developed in collaboration with three previously incarcerated individuals: John, David, and Edward. This installation is part of a broader research project titled Prison Records.
Artwork
Exhibition