Every once in a while, a bright spark in the local entertainment promotions conjures up the magnificent idea of bringing down a favourite band of mine to grace our humble Singaporean shores. Of course, I understand that getting an international act perform here is no walk in the park. Logistics, ticket sales, bands availability are just a few of the gazillion factors that need to be taken into consideration.
However, after witnessing a handful of concerts in the past couple of years, I have come to the conclusion that protecting the band is numero uno. Not only do security comes in part of the bands entourage, the country they are playing in needs to beef up the security coverage; from the starched blue police officers at the airport to the hefty moustached fellas at the concert venue itself. The main idea here is to secure the proximics of the band members from any oncoming threats. (read: overzealous crazed female fans)
I have seen one too many females get manhandled by these officers. Yes, giddy fanaticism plus raging hormones can equate to animal-like strength. Obviously security officers have been subject to plenty of physical abuse. Call it the work hazards but then again, muscles are job requirements in this line.
The Who: Alexander Kapranos, lead vocals of Franz Ferdinand
The What: Autograph signing after concert
The When: 16th February 2006
The Where: Outskirts of Singapore Indoor Stadium
The Why?
As you can see, I have garnered the full attention of the moustached fella’s attention. Although his muscles are questionable, his company’ name printed on the back of his shirt is not. As it is not a video, I will provide an insight to this freeze frame snapshot. Simply put, he was instructing me to quit taking pictures. What irony. Considering the multitude of flashes that was going off, my camera was solely pointed out as the main offender.
Sousveillance is such a new word that my Microsoft Word does not acknowledge the term. But in actuality, sousveillance is merely the opposite of surveillance. It denotes bringing the camera down to human level in which ordinary people are doing the watching. One of the things that brought inverse surveillance to light was the reactions of security guards to electric seeing aids and similar sousveillance practices. It seemed, early on, that the more cameras that were in an establishment, the more the guards disliked the use of an electric seeing aid by the public. It was through simply wearing electric seeing aids, as a passive observer, that it was discovered that surveillance and sousveillance can cause conflict and sometimes confrontation. (“Wikipedia” 2007)
So we have gathered thus far that security folks and electric seeing aids like digital cameras and mobile phones do not go well together. I understand that these people are merely carrying out a job duty but what escapes me is the simple fact why they allow certain people to get away with it but clamp down on those few that they manage to get.
This happened again during the John Legend gig that took place in January this year. I was seated in the upper levels of the theatre where ushers were apparently so free; they shine a blinding torch your way should they even glimpse a digital camera in your hand. Yet the sea of concert goers on ground level got away scot free. I suppose paying 30 to 50 dollars more entitles you to such practices.
References:
Sousveillance. (2007, February 7). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved March 10, 2007 from <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sousveillance>
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