Our 'invisible theatre' idea:
We wanted to explore how people would react to an extreme example of the use of mobile phones while shopping in a department store. We decided to do the 'rehearsal theatre' both in Danish and English to see how this would affect the reactions of the 'spectators'.
We went to the H & M store on the main pedestrian street of Arhus and 2 of us walked around shopping while speaking to each other on our mobiles. The third person observed the speakers and the reactions of other shoppers, or the unaware 'audience'.
The people on phones started off separately and then came together occasionally. They chatted about the things they were looking at at that specific moment and asked for each other's opinions, for example - 'do you think I should wear green to the party tonight?'. They also held up items of clothing and pointed to each other across the shop.
The Reactions:
Scenario 1 (English)
We found that in this scenario the language was an important factor in attracting people's attention. Even when we were walking around separately other shoppers would look and smile at us, although trying not to be obvious. For example the shop assistant smiled at Emma as she described the colour of a top on the phone. This amusement perhaps stemmed from the fact that Emma was clearly not Danish, whereas Sara attracted strange looks when speaking English (with Danish accent).
A particularly interesting stage was when the 2 of us speaking on mobiles started to come together while still talking to each other and made eye contact- so it was obvious that we were talking to each other. An older woman (about 30) was sitting nearby talking on her mobile and observing this. When she realised that we were talking to each other she stopped talking and seemed to be a bit stunned by what she was witnessing.
At the same time the reaction of 2 teenage girls was quite different. When they worked out what was going on they began to circle around us while chatting, whispering, giggling and pointing. When that became too obvious they turned to the mirror so as to keep watching but without drawing attention to themselves.
We found these 2 different reactions to be interesting because it seemed to reflect how age affects our responses. The acts of pointing and giggling are particularly associated with teenagers but we thought they were quite smart to think of observing us through the mirror. Their actions seemed to demonstrate Goffman's theories about civil inattention because they were aware of the societal norms about staring. In this case the mirror acted as their 'involvment shield' as described by Boal.
While the girls thought it was funny, the woman seemed to be disturbed and a bit shocked by this use of mobiles. Even though the age difference was only about 15 years these different reactions show a different relationship to technology and how it can be used. This became even more clear when we moved onto another shop.
Scenario 2 (danish)
The same thing was repeated, but this time in danish.
There wasn't the same amount of attention this time because of the language. When a lady of about 50 years noticed that we were talking on mobiles in the same shop she was really shocked- looking from one of us to the other, rolling her eyes and even shaking her head. We could imagine how she would recall the incident to her family. It seemed that she was shocked by the use of technology and how it has changed the way we socialise and interact with each other in public. For the teenagers the use of the technology acts like an extension of the body and the self for communicating, whereas for the woman it was probably more like a practical tool.
It also became obvious that gender played a role in people's reactions. A young guy obviously noticed what was going on and followed us with his eyes, he didn't seem to be shy about staring, and we thought this may have been because of gender norms. He didn't need a shield like the teenagers as it was as though he was observing a strange thing about the other gender. This was like his excuse for watching, it's even as if the gender became his shield. This was particularly emphasised because he was in the shop with 2 women.
Final Thoughts:
The invisible theatre was a useful way of exploring how people are reacting to the increasing use of mobile phones in the public sphere. Gender, age and language all seemed to affect the norms and corresponding responses.
ps. Video is coming up - we just need some help…:)
Sara (mobile)sara-thetmark, Emma (urban)emma & Lone lone-daubjerg(mobile)
