You don’t need to interact with the man in an underground bunker wearing an aluminum hat to hear the latest discussion on surveillance and paranoia.
Under the guidance of communications studies professor Tony Perucci, 12 students in his COMM 564 class, "Paranoia in Performance," will perform a piece today called “You’re Being Watched” to start a discussion on how much people are watched on a day-to-day basis.
The play will discuss paranoia in all of the same depths covered in Perucci’s class. From each unit of the class, the students have collaboratively created ensemble-based performances that explore each topic. The students have split into separate groups, and they will perform a discussion of paranoia and surveillance in each of their particular aspects.
“The bulk of this performance consists of the students compositions engaging with the question of what surveillance is and how it changes our experience of the world,” Perucci said.
“One performance, for example, focuses on how the constant surveillance that we are under makes us obsessed with the desire to be seen at all times while another looks at the way social media seems to be something that gives us freedom through connection but could end up being a form of digital enclosure.”
Carol Desalva, a sophomore communications studies major, will discuss the duality of paranoia in a modern context in her part of the performance.
“There is a duality when it comes to paranoia nowadays,” Desalva said. “There is a constant paranoia of worrying about are we being watched while at the same time there is a selfish paranoia about wanting to be seen on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. For example, one might say 'Happy Anniversary' on Facebook to someone that they might be sitting right next to all so other people can see them saying it, too.”
In a context where over half of the U.S. Internet users have Facebook profiles, Desalva said she feels that this discussion of paranoia in today’s world could be interesting information to an audience.
“The idea of privacy is one that doesn’t seem to matter as much in our society today,” Desalva said. “I’m not sure if we would know how to revert back to the way things were if we needed to.”
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