Lister

By Stina Møldrup Sørensen

Translated by Nadia Monique Duthiers

"Fifty-four seconds" an activist holding a stopwatch yells, as 17-year old Daniel jumps out of a large, black box. He's doing good time, much better than the rest of his camp. Daniel looks pleased. A new contestant is sent off. Two girls, holding water guns, are standing on top of the box. One of them sprays water into the box, and a howling grin escapes from within.

We find ourselves at perhaps the best surveilled area of the festival. There is a cinema here, where one can watch 17 short films on surveillance. The main attraction though, is an obstacle course, demanding active participation, from anyone who dares. The object of this particular exercise is to avoid being observed by the cameras on the site, or else you will be sprayed with water!

Entertainment with a serious message

A group of activists named Do you mind! is behind this project. "Our actions culminated this spring, where we organized a demo against increased surveillance followed by a party at "Den Grå Hal" (Christiania - red). "Actions will also be held following this year's festival." Pil from the press group says.
They all agree that the obstacle course is a fun way to deal with a serious subject. "We want to create attention around the fact that increased surveillance of the population is the focal point of a far reaching normalisation project. The utmost consequence is that certain parts of the population will be criminalised, for example by the introduction of body search zones in certain parts of Noerrebro (Copenhagen -red). We believe that this tendency is undemocratic." Pil says.

Who knows, maybe you will consider the consequences of increased surveillance again, after having run through the obstacle course. You'll definitely get wet if you don't look out!