http://flickr.com/photos/blanknoisethisplace
"My daughter ( 46 years) and grand daughter( 22 years) were walking by the lake. A mad man lift up his lungi and flashed his body parts at my daughter. My daughter was hoping that her daughter didnt see this. She panicked and tried to change her route. He flashed again. She yelled for a security guard from an resident apartment. In the meantime I the mad man ran away.
I told her never to walk there again."- (age 77 years)
It is familiar to most of us. I could hear my mother, father, grandparents, uncles, aunts, friends, all well wishers say. ' just dont go there. '
How many such city spaces will not be accessed because sexual violation was experienced there?
Shabana in Manchester never stepped out alone. She never experienced street sexual harassment either.
and then again Bangalore, Tokyo, Mexico City and other cities have women only public transport.
Blank Noise This Place is building evidence.
We ask you to revisit the site and exact location where you experienced harassment and photograph it. Please send in an account of what happened with a photo of that place. This project is open to women from across the globe, across age groups.
It would be fantastic if you could get others around you involved- more so if you got people without cameras involved and even shared them.
We could organize week long events with small groups of individuals who want to participate in this.
(Amrutha Bhushan and Goonja from Bangalore will be re -visiting their site. I will be doing the same from Kolkata. If you would like to get involved from your city and get others involved too- email us!)
All photographs will be uploaded at :
http://flickr.com/photos/blanknoisethisplace
and put on a world wide map at :
http://flickr.com/photos/blanknoisethisplace/map/
To participate email us and we will add you right here. Email us at blurtblanknoise at gmail.com subject titled BLANK NOISE THIS PLACE!
Also see: http://blog.blanknoise.org/2008/03/blank-noise-this-place.html
Why are we doing this?
- Because our experience of the city is based on fear and mapped with places to 'avoid'.
- Because we want to break the myth of site- that sexual harassment takes place only in 'certain places' at certain hours.
- Because we want women to reclaim their city spaces and not fear them.
- Because Blank Noise collects testimonials in different forms of media and disseminates them back in public.
- To build an argument collectively.
- The collective building of evidence will trigger towards social transformation
- this could also be 'fun'- something for all of us to do and make more meaning once people have participated.
- for those convinced- please add more!
List of Participants for Blank Noise This Place:
- Dianne Sharma Winter
- Amrutha Bhushan
- Goonja
- Jasmeen Patheja
- Purba Sarkar
- Poorna Banerjee
- Sunayana Roy
- Dana Roy
- Nabila Zaidi
- you?
