REplace: idea, journey, film, installion, theatre, exhibition, research, debate and more about African migrants coming to Europe – if they make it.

• New project: BLIND (on human trafficking and beyond: contemporary slavery)
• The exposition with our video-art installation REplace was huge success; 15.000 visitors to St. Petersburg exposition!
• Interview at VPRO’s De Avonden (Dutch) on day before premiere
• React on documentary? Click here. Travellog. Missed it? Order a DVD here.

These page are our digital notebook for a new project: BLIND. An art project about human trafficking an what lies beyond: contemporary slavery. View CONCEPT project plan.

See more pages using the menu above (Research – BLIND Research – …)

(click here to add an article) (we’re looking for sponsors!)

Books (click for list).

Open questions:

Definition of slavery?

A slave is considered to be a human being (a) forced to labour under (b) threat of physical violence with (c) no pay beyond subsistence (Bales 2000, Skinner 2008). (more…)

Otto Karl Werckmeister divides two different image sferes in the context of the medialandscape. One he calls the informative image sfere (informative Bildersphäre) and the other one is – according to him- the operative image sfere (operative Bildersphäre). The operative one is the archive of images which virtually exist, but which would never reach the broad public. The informative image sfere is the name for the published images which are used for the news and displayed without limitation. (more…)

Patterson, Orlando 1982: The Constituent Elements of Slavery; In: Patterson, Orlando 1982: Slavery and Social Death. A Comparative Study, Cambridge, Massachusetts, S.1-16.

Abstract by Ricarda:

• „All human relationships are structured and defined by the relative power of the interacting persons.“ p.1
• Power- according to Max Weber- means to „carry out one´s will even against resistance“ and in that framework slavery is one of the most extreme forms of the relation of domination.  (more…)

I’d like to find the slave and master in me. How obedient am I towards authority? How far will I go when inflicting pain to others?  Looked into Milgram experiments again: Migram who asked test subjects to inflict electroshocks to -we know to be- actors. 60 to 65 percent of all test subject consistently go as far as delivering 450 Volt shocks, just because doctors are watching. In the 1960s these experiments were used to explain why so many people cooperated with Hitlers destructive plans. Implications are devastating: violence is in us. I’d like to make the audience experience this. First try how to experience this myself. The BBC did a documentary on the experiments recently:

Continued… (more…)

Click here to view enlarged at National Geographic website.

Last weekend again Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad ran a story with strong evidence against the popular idea that ‘we’ are ‘flooded’ by undereducated migrants… Download article here.

How during the civil war in Sierra Leone just about a decade ago children were trafficked and subsequently employed by Lebanese traders under violent verbal and physical threat… And could the employment of children to fight wars be considered as another form of slavery? Or would you say those children had a free choice, good pay and weren’t forced? The book ‘Long way Gone‘ by Ismael Beah gave me some insights on this. (more…)