Powerlessness and fear vs being used to something... a feeling, a body, an economic reality.
By day three I am feeling really comfortable, convinced of our new shared technological reality, that we will all be wearing cameras and filming the mundane live feed of our lives because the camera is weapon, it is proof- but it is also a break with reality. I started this project when I read the story of Philando Castile who was shot in Minnesota by a police officer after being stopped for a broken taillight. His girlfriend Diamond Reynolds immediately began streaming the event live on Facebook while her daughter sat in the back seat and Philando bled in the passenger seat. This particular use of live streaming, in the face of your assailants (who are police officers) while your loved ones remain in danger, seems to signify a permanent shift. We have the power to broadcast our lives as proof of our existence, will we reach a time when no one is watching anymore? I am reading an essay written in 2015 titled, Watching Sandra Bland". I am being watched by the guy in the yellow sunglasses, the guy in the black sunglasses...he quickly peels them off to get a better look, at my reading, at the camera I am wearing. We are all watching, at least for now. The last frame on Video B- the look that becomes frozen on the face of the little girl who sees me when her father doesn't. 9:52 into Video C I finally get my first interaction!
READING:
WATCHING SANDRA BLAND By Margaret Talbot, The New Yorker, JULY 29, 2015
**I know this is a double post of a reading, but I was reading it from day 2-3