Lind states, “collaboration has again proved to be a good instrument with which to challenge artistic identity and authorship and therefore to stimulate anxiety,” and I think this is particularly relevant to the “Black People love Us” page. In the letters section on this site, there are those who support the work and those who are offended by it. The fact that there are gatherings of white and black people in the photographs does not necessarily mean they are original. Photos can always be manipulated by someone (and it is also not clear if the white or black people are the main characters/artists), therefore it is not clear if collaboration between the two groups really happened, which may produce the two types of responses seen in the letter section. In either case, I think the site succeeds because it receives responses at length, but those too may be fabricated; there is really no way of knowing and further creates anxiety in the viewer. Still, the two main responses where one supports the raising of awareness and the other accuses the white people of ignorance and racism perhaps must affect the artists. If the two groups are indeed collaborated, then they created the site knowing that people would respond largely in these two ways and will now carry some sort of label with them relating to those two. This must have required that the artist be flexible and prepared to deal with remarks directed at them from viewers.
At length, this site qualifies as an oppositional device, as described by Holmes, because it opposes someone’s views. In any case it brings the issue of some sort of disconnect (or not) between the two groups, which will get people thinking in those terms regardless if they are in favor or opposition.
Virtual Guantanamo is arguably more in step with general ethics whereby ordinary people may be opposed to the types of torture that went (go?) on in the institution. It is designed to give participants a chance to live a “second life” in which Guantanamo is a possible destination for them so as to experience first hand what it may be like to be a prisoner. Obviously, this oppositional device opposes the institution’s methods, which have been directed by powerful personnel in some branch of the federal/military government. I would assume that if Guantanamo’s leaders wanted to terminate the virtual project, they would find a way. For now, the project is raising awareness through simulated experiences and free speech and does not pose a serious threat. Projects like these, I think, underscore the way people rise up against injustices, through creativity, flexibility, and if shut down, through even more of that.
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