User:Pleun/sdr/TheLine

I'm in a crisis between two forms of society, where I'm conditioned by parents who grew up in a disciplinary society to follow that society which no longer existst, while fighting a society of controll I don't really want to be a part of but feel like I have to, because I'm not willing to flee either. A clash is coming, but it's moving slowly. I would like to speed up the process by doing a project about this.

A research/thought experiment about street-surveillance, sensory deprivation/overload and technologies of the self.

My parents told me a small anecdote of me as a child, where they portray me as the most happy and tractable child. My childless uncle also comically describes me as “a walking 'Have Children!' commercial.” It goes like this:

When my parents were building their modern white octagonal house, I was only two years old. I could walk, I could crawl and play in the sand on the building plot. One day, a concerned neighbour came by to ask my parents if they weren't afraid of me running away, as there were no fences or anything around the plot. 'But no way', they said. They only had to draw a line in the sand forming a circle around me and tell me not to cross it. And I wouldn't. And I never did.

The rest of my life I would continue to stay within the now imaginary lines in the sand. I would explore its borders and move from circle to circle, but I would never fully cross the lines. I was also afraid of grass apparently. But come on, grass is super scary.

To me this anecdote explains my fascination with control, borders and legislation. I try to be aware of where my and others' lines in the sand are and if, how and why we (need to) cross it. When is it necessary to make people cross a line?