In Search of True Safety: A Performance of Resistance and Data

The stage is a place of inquiry, a laboratory where ideas are distilled not through mere words, but through actions, through the confrontation of the human spirit. It is where we stand face to face with our deepest questions, not just as individuals, but as a society. One of these questions that looms in the present, especially in a time when data surrounds and envelops us, is What makes us safe?

In the world of prison, where bodies are confined and surveillance is omnipresent, the concept of safety is not a simple one. It is not about protection; it is about control. It is not about healing; it is about discipline. And yet, as we search for alternatives, we must ask: Can safety ever exist in a system that was never built to protect those within it? Can data offer any form of healing, or will it merely become another tool of oppression?

Data and the Body in the Prison System

Consider, for example, the constant data streams that surround us—whether it be biometric readings, facial recognition technologies, or even environmental sensors embedded within prison walls. These are not neutral instruments; they are designed with intention, to categorize, to control. But what happens when this data enters the realm of performance? When the body, the human form, responds not to the authority of the warden, but to the data itself? When the cell becomes a stage, and the movement of the body in space is triggered by the very data that attempts to hold it in place?

In the prison system, data is both a product and a producer of fear. As we investigate these questions, we must turn our gaze not just at the prisons themselves, but at the power structures that shape them. As “What Makes Us Safe?” suggests, safety is an illusion—at best, a construct designed to maintain order. The question then becomes: How do we build real safety? And can this safety be enacted through performance, through the very embodiment of resistance?

The Movement of the Body and the Body of the Prison

In Grotowski’s work, the human body was not merely a vessel but a site of transformation. It is through the body that one might confront the seemingly inescapable, the unchangeable. If we take this approach, what does it mean for the body in prison? Does the prisoner’s body cease to be a human body, becoming merely a vessel for punishment? Or can the body, even in such a constricted space, be a site of transformation, capable of responding not to authority, but to the unseen forces—data, trauma, and memory?

The intersection of performance and data offers a unique lens through which we might explore this question. By using data—be it environmental, biometric, or even digitized narratives—as a catalyst for movement, we introduce an unpredictable element into the performance. Just as Grotowski’s actors used the spontaneity of the body to break the boundaries of language and time, so too can the incarcerated body respond to data in ways that transcend the control systems intended to restrain it. But the question persists: does this offer any true safety, or simply an illusion of freedom within the confines of a controlled system?

Questions for Research: Safety, Prison, and Data

1. What is the role of data in creating or limiting safety within prison systems?How can the data collected within prisons (e.g., biometric, environmental) be used to empower inmates, and can it be restructured to ensure that it does not further oppress?

2. How can performance using data as a stimulus challenge or reinforce existing power structures in the prison system?What would it look like for a prison performance to embrace data not as a tool for surveillance but as a catalyst for personal and collective transformation?

3. What are the ethical implications of using personal, digital, or biometric data within a performance context?How can we ensure that the use of data, particularly in spaces of confinement, does not perpetuate harm but instead contributes to healing and liberation?

4. Can we create a performance framework that allows for both safety and resistance?In prison systems designed to break bodies and spirits, can we design artistic experiences that allow for bodily autonomy and the cultivation of true safety through movement, healing, and data?

   
   

Through these questions, we aim not only to investigate the nature of safety but also to challenge the structures that define and limit it. In this exploration, performance becomes not just an art but an act of resistance, using the tools of data and the body to build, not just critique, the world we live in.