EMERGENCIES
Appropriating the State's Apparatus of Crisis Signification
The consistent use of the signifiers of crisis, even in the absence of any
real emergency, can disquiet the people and artifically create the pervasive
sense of an impending catastrophe. The use by Homeland Security of heightened
conditions of alert for political purposes has been well documented (cite\
reference on elevated alerts prior to elections or in conjunction with government
vulnerabilities). Invoking the signifying apparatus of emergency creates a
response of fear and uncertainty, even in the absence of any real threat.
This is signification of crisis without the substance of crisis. Despite the empty
nature of the display, the viewer is unable to quell a pervasive sense of unease,
of foreboding and disquiet. In this way the works palpably provide an enhanced
experience of how the apparatus of crisis signification can itself, even in the
absense of crises, invoke fear.
Far from being pedegogical works on the mechanisms of the creation
and maintenance of fear on the part of the state, the Emergencies works
are direct, experiential confrontations with the creation of fear and
unease by employing the signfiers of emergency and crisis.
xx million domestic airline passengers each week are subjected to a regimen of
search and violation of personal privacy commesurate with total martial law.
One reason that this is endured and even welcomed is the result of the consistent
employment and manipulation of crisis signfication on the part of the state.
Six years ater 911 and in the complete absence of any further attacks within the US
the population still welcomes this profound government intrusion. One reason is
the fear continuously provoked by the consistent employment by the state of the
appartaus of crisis signification.
12/17/2007
The Emergencies Series consist of site-specific installations of first responder
vehicle emergency lighting systems; police car rooftop light bars, fire engine
flashers, strobe lights, search lights, and rotating beacons. These diverse
signifiers of emergency are arrayed in a dark interior or exterior space in the
same orientation and configuration as if they were attached to real vehicles.
They are illuminated and activated, providing the primary signifiers-at-a-distance
of emergency, but the space is totally devoid of the actual vehicles they normally
accompany. Instead, they are distilled to thier primary social function of signifying
crisis. Paradoxically, their strident and glaring presence further obscures the
fact that there are no emergency vehicles present and there is no emergency in
progress.
Preston Hollow, New York