So recently I was given the opportunity to look at the PVI Collective's tts: Australia and it just blew my mind.
There is something amazing with the PVI's work. They managed to put people or coerce people into operating outside their ethical boundaries. I speak about the scene where an audience member is taken off the bus and put in a public toilet and placed a black bag over their head. Quickly following, several other audiences join them to reenact the infamous photos taken in Iraqi prisons by the U.S Army. The pictures of Abu Ghraib were shocking to see, a civilized western army degrading and humiliating, even torturing prisoners under their care. Of course we as individuals sit aloft in our secluded spaces saying, "How despicable, those reprehensible people, I'm not like them! I have standards! I would have said no!"
But we just might.
Audiences are guided by the ever creepy and friendly host to pose and take pictures with the 'prisoner' who only moments ago was one of them, another audience member. Nobody said no, nobody stopped or protested, but there were a lot of nervous laughs and smiles. Why do they smile? Why do we smile? Shouldn't we be questioning why we are continuing to be coerced by people and things to behaving unethically.
While I'm not sure what the answer might be, I certainly believe that by accessing this unethical space and engaging with it, it certainly allows the question, "What have I done?"