Since I have been teaching performance art, I have run across several powerful pieces that I hadn't even been aware of before. Dread Scott's On the Impossibility of Freedom is one example. I plan to share the video in class as a model performance piece- one that involved planning and thought but perhaps not practice. It was a one time event. You can see how Dread's movements change within the piece, something he surely couldn't have anticipated or choreographed. Rather, they were a direct result of his thoughts as he is moving through the water. It seems apparent he has emotionally transported back in time and is responding to events as they were, as they are, as he wants them to be. His deep inner reach for power and strength is visible. He begins by walking into the water trying to protect himself, not sure, perhaps, of what to expect. By the end, he has found determination to overcome the water, to face the heavy stream and to defy it.
Browsing through his site reveals many powerful performance pieces. Money to Burn has the unique potential to reach over and connect with our students, especially when related with the story of Kemi Seba. US history or current events are not always a strong point- or the most relevant point- from many of our students' perspectives. It all seems as far away and foreign to them as we must to most of the rest of the world. (Heard any word lately on the political situation in Mali? Any idea what some of the big issues are behind recent protests....did you even know there were recent protests?)
Dread Scott is a great example to move us into preparation for their next series of performance pieces about social issues. But the piece by Ai Wei Wei will help us take things into an international context. And it fits in nicely with themes of technology or lack of control (terrorism) that some of the groups have been exploring already.
My trip to Dakar was filled with a million anomalies. The easiest to explain is the drone experience. The Ecole des Sables has two main dance areas, both look out onto a scruffy grassland leading up to the lagoon. There are trees and brush and not much in the way of a walking path (although guests are invited to venture into the savannah as long as they watch where they put their feet.)
It was our second morning there and class had been underway for at least 30 minutes. A break in the drumming revealed a loud buzzing sound. A small drone came flying in near the studio. It hovered for a bit, flew in closer and then retreated. It had our attention.
While everyone else was busy laughing and shooing it away, I was much more distracted by it. Being the only one from Bamako meant my thoughts were in a slightly different direction. Attack. I thought of all the ways that little Star-Trek destroyer could actually destroy us. I imagined it flying in and exploding. Or spewing a poison gas. Or even just marking our position while the real rebels marched in through the front door. Even as I began scoping out escape routes, I realized it was futile.
While I realized I was being maybe a bit over dramatic, I was also amazed at how quickly our responses adapt. I've only been in Mali for a few months and I am already on high alert- even though I haven't been feeling any tension. It's there on the periphery. I was extremely uncomfortable with the buzzing drone behind me and found it difficult to turn my back. I was closest to it, but understood realistically, in the face of an attack, there would be nowhere to go.
I felt everything at once. Lack of control. Invasion of privacy. Fear. Anger. Confusion. Once the drumming started, it retreated and then fled. Or perhaps it simply ducked behind some bushes, because it returned again in minutes.
Finally it departed for good. But it left me feeling as though I'd been covered in a scummy film of grime. Who was watching? Who, in this sleepy fishing village full of abandoned beach houses and overpriced falling down villas, who would even have such a device?
After I got back to Bamako, I shared the story with a few friends. One of them sent me a playful link about bird drones. A little research revealed military bird drones are everywhere. (Even more research revealed that birds just might be the natural defense against these kinds of drones.) The drone we saw was not bird like at all. A google image search of drones didn't conjure up anything that looked quite like what I saw. A search for Star Wars ships, however, came much closer.
Who and why would someone be spying on a dance class held in the middle of nowhere on the edge of a Senegalese beach? Was it a remote controlled device....and if so, how close do you need to be to the site? What will they do with whatever video they collected? Was it an experimental run, some controller out to have fun and see what his or her drone could really do? In the end, there are no answers. All I can do is educate myself about this world of technology I previously hadn't given much thought.
The availability of drones only raises more questions. What are my rights to privacy? To not being spied on? How can you control the sky above you? Much of Africa is already filled with high security walls. What kind of defense systems will be developed to prevent invaders from the skies? How will humans respond to this phenomena, which is only likely to increase?
"Willingly or not, we are being recorded."
