Helpless
Group 10
Mara Erml (MIC), Ulrik Sarp Hansen (MIC), Rachel McCabe (UA), Christian Søgaard (MIC).
Abstract:
We've all seen the person walking around in the supermarket buying groceries with a mobile phone glued to their head, getting instructions on what to buy. What happens when you take it to an extreme level? You get Helpless in Føtex. Completely helpless, she needs instructions for every decision she has to make. Five minutes away, Helper sits patiently at a crowded café, giving directions and instructions.
This project explores how the helper and the helpless insulate themselves in a bubble with the help of mobile technology and how this isolation impacts their immediate environment.
The project also shows how the mobile phone keeps Helpless isolated from the people in her surroundings. She does not discover or negotiate with the unwritten rules of social interaction, but rather remains dependent on one piece of technology, and the person she knows at the other end. In this way, the mobile phone keeps Helpless locked in her helpless state.
Helper, by contrast, is chained to his phone as a life-line. He is not only giving instructions to Helpless, but letting this conversation dominate his immediate surroundings.
Objectives:
1) To make visible the invisible social structures and unwritten cultural codes of shopping.
2) To expose the "Automaton" – a person completely unable to accomplish anything without the help of his/her cellphone. The idea is to take indecisiveness to the extreme in an effort to emphasize how technology can sometimes take over.
3) To demonstrate how the cell phone can insulate/isolate the user, making them less aware of their place in public space. To highlight the increasingly blurred lines between public and private in the digital world.
Plan:
Rachel will go shopping at Fotex on a busy Saturday afternoon. She will be playing the role of Helpless, making little, to no effort to "act" without asking Ulrik first. Example: “What should I buy?", "Where should I go to find that?", "Do I have to weigh that on a scale?”, etc.
Mara will be (inconspicuously) following Rachel, observing the dynamics that unfold and taking the occasional photo to document the "performance".
Ulrik will be sitting at a busy café with a laptop, a headset and a cellphone. He will guide "helpless" Rachel step-by-step through her mundane shopping expedition. He will be secretly recording (through built-in laptop cam) the cell phone convo from his end.
The spectacle will have two performance dimensions:
1 - Rachel, who will no doubt attract attention to herself, without giving away the fact that she is acting.
2 - Ulrik, who’s constant "guiding" is bound to make people around him curious.
The action:
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Helpless begins to insulate/shield herself in Fotex. Rachel: I really felt like I was in a private zone, rarely did I make eye-contact with anyone in my surroundings. |
| Apples-what kind?, to weigh or not to weigh? Rachel: At this moment I am trying to hold the phone and put apples into the plastic bag. I am asking Ulrik a million questions and there is a Fotex employee standing just opposite me. The employee did not dare try to penetrate the shield I erected around myself. I could have politely asked him to assist me but instead I continued to rely on my mobile life-line. I could feel people staring at me incredulously as I proceeded to "think out loud" and make my private thoughts known to everyone in my surroundings. |  |
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Mara: |
| Toilet Paper: how many, what kind? Rachel: Finding the toilet paper section was pretty funny. Instead of looking myself (in silence), I was asking Ulrik where it was. At one point I was saying something like, "oh yeah, I think I saw it somewhere around here" and a fellow shopper (who looked rather amused at my clueless antics) actually pointed me in the right direction. This was the only contact I made with anybody aside from the teller at the cash register. |  |
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Mara: |
| Rachel: At one point I actually asked Ulrik if I could take the exact number of rolls we needed out of the package! |  |
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Tomatoes: Sun-ripened? Instead of logically doing all the produce at the same time, after the toilet paper, I returned to the fruit and vegetable area to get tomatoes. I had no idea how to locate the sun-ripened variety and proceeded to spell out the Danish words on the package. My "foreigner" profile certainly must have added another dimension to the performance. |
| Healthy Cereal? -How can I tell what is healthy? Rachel: Ulrik was trying to coach me on how to tell if the cereal was healthy or not. I was trying to read the label on the side of the box indicating carbs, protein, sodium, etc. |  |
| Cash Register Rachel: Here there were many more questions -"I have to pay for this downstairs?", "Is there an express line?", "Where would it be?", "Am I able to pay with my Visa Electron card?", "What's a Dankort card?", "Do I have to pay for a plastic bag?, "Oh, I have to bag the groceries myself?", etc. The teller looked as though he thought I just landed from Mars. | Insert Video Clip taken on Mara's cell phone. |
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Lotion -Hypo-allergenic please. Rachel: Here I was trying to find a body lotion without perfume or allergins. I imagine the conversation at Ulrik's end was hilarious, trying to guess at a brand that might carry a line of products that was hypo-allergenic. |
| Mara: |  |
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Rachel: There was another employee within earshot of my questions who could have intervened to assist me but she, once more, did not attempt to penetrate the shield. |
| Cash Register II Rachel: Here I am in the cosmetics section counter. I have finally found the desired product but still I remain on the phone and fail to make real contact with the teller. | Insert Video Clip taken on Mara's cell phone. |
| Tomatoes continued… Rachel: I left the Fotex and proceeded to follow Ulrik's instructions to a nearby grocer in order to find the right tomatoes. |  |
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Finally Leaving |
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Helpers experience
I entered the nearby cafe and quickly found the perfect seat. At the window was a long small table with three seats all facing the window. A guy in his thirties was sitting in the left chair in deep concentration, taking notes in his notebook. I sat down in the right chair and unpacked my stuff.
Rachel called me and said she had forgotten the shopping list, and for the next 25-30 minutes I guided her through Føtex. The man besides me was working in the beginning, but after a few minutes, he started looking at me with shorter and shorter intervals. After 10-15 minutes, he wasn’t working anymore, but was alternately putting down his pen, taking it up, putting it down and looking at me. Then he left for about five minutes. As he came back, he stopped and looked at me for thirty seconds before sitting down and returning to the routine of picking up and putting down his pen. Five minutes later he packed his things and left the cafe.
While a lot of people saw a little of Helpless’ performance, one person saw all of Helpers.
The bubble effect made it much easier to do this performance, since you didn’t have to notice your surroundings.
Suggestions for improvements if the performance is ever repeated
- Having 10-20 people who are all Helpless in a bigger shopping mall. The Helpers should probably not all be sitting in the same cafe, but each have a location of their own.
- As this performance is annoying to the spectators, putting in breaks would make it more effective. If they had hung up after 15 minutes to the relief of everyone near both of them, it would have made an even bigger impact if they had resumed the call after a break of five to ten minutes.
