The Price of Silence
Content Warning: Sexual Abuse
In 2021, there were 3,332 reports of sexual violence against children in the Netherlands.1 More than three thousand shattered lives. And those are only the cases that have been reported.
Sexual abuse of children is a topic that is often not talked about. It's painful and easier to avoid discussing. Yet it happens regularly, with grave consequences. What is the role of the environment in the perpetration of abuse in a position of power? Shouldn't we as bystanders intervene more quickly and loudly, set aside our discomfort, and confront ourselves with the painful truth that causes so much suffering?
"The price of silence" is an interactive installation, featuring two opposing cubes. one small and white, the other large and red. In the background a music box version of Simon & Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence" plays. Gradually, the scene changes: a red light creeps closer to the small white cube, and the music becomes increasingly eerie. The only way to stop this process is to speak out, loudly and persistently, into the provided microphone. Can you overcome your discomfort and protect the white cube from its imposing counterpart?
Inspired by the book 'Het hele dorp wist het' by Rinke Verkerk2 and our personal stories, we present "The price of silence". An invitation to reflect on your role as a bystander to sexual abuse, a critical examination to tackle your discomfort, and an encouragement to break your silence.
1 Nederlands Jeugdinstituut. (2024, 9 februari). Cijfers over jeugd en opvoeding: Slachtoffers van seksueel geweld geregistreerd bij de politie.
Geraadpleegd op 9 april 2024, van https://www.nji.nl/cijfers/seksueel-overschrijdend-gedrag#:~:text=In%202021%20zijn%20er%20bij,tot%20en%20met%2017%20jaar.
2 Verkerk, R. (2024). Het hele dorp wist het (1ste editie). De Correspondent. https://kiosk.decorrespondent.nl/products/het-hele-dorp-wist-het-rinke-verkerk
price of silence (2024) - Dominik Podgórski, Esmeralda van Werkhoven & Robert Weber
Our project's title is a wordplay on the song "The Sound of Silence" which serves as the basis of our creature's audio.
Esmeralda came up with the original idea of sexual abuse for our creatures. Through plenty discussions both within the group and with our course's professor, Peter, we settled on focusing more on the bystander effect triggered by people (un)knowingly watching similar scenarios develop.
Through a dynamic visual-auditory experience, the bystanders will see a seemingly innocent situation distort more and more as time goes by, (possibly) causing discomfort among the bystanders. In front of the creature is a microphone, passively prompting people to speak up, and (possibly) stopping this situation from worsening.
Arduino Microphone attached to a Fifne K669B standing microphone, to better suggest bystanders to "speak up"
As an instrumental, nursery rhyme version of the sound of silence plays, the LEDs surrounding our creatures will turn change from white to red. The music distorts with time, as the red light starts overshadowing the white light.
Our goal is to place the audience in a situation where they are forced to act as a bystander and to see if they personally will actually attempt to stop the situation or not.
The Price of Silence aptly summarizes the consequences if the big, red part of our creature follows through with its intentions and abuses the smaller, white part of our creature.
The smaller, white creature gets abused and hurt and changed forever, paying the price of the bystander's silence.
