CTRL+Z

CTRL+Z

Imagine that every time we would have the chance to UNDO something we did wrong. “Ctrl+Z” is a shortcut that computer users use on a regular basis, I would say, very often. This handy shortcut allows us to go back to the prior stage and thus modify our work. We can UNDO as long as the software allows us and mistakes can be easily fixed. A couple of years ago, after having worked for a long time on my computer I went for a glass of water and this suddenly slid out off my hands. I am sure this has  happened to you, but the first reaction I had was trying to UNDO my accident by pressing (in my imagination) CTRL+Z and of course nothing happened because the water was already spread in the floor. It was a fraction of a second but I instinctively thought about UNDO-ing it. UNDO would be perfect! It would allow me to go to the prior stage and correct my mess.

I was thinking how many of the mistakes committed by (in)humanity during the last centuries could have been undone. I thought about creating a fictional animation project called “UNDO” with the objective to reflect on the behavior that we, by ignorance or convenience have executed against others and which has helped to escalate the spiral of violence. Understanding these actions as those that are seen as “normal” or “common” (stereotyping, prejudice, sarcasm, name calling, gossiping, threatening, to name a few) but which affect with heavy impact the way our humanity is being (un)developed. A couple of years ago I was exposed to the radical consign of “the necessary disobedience to all inhuman orders” by Juan Carlos Marin, an Argentinean sociologist. Many of us were taught to obey the doctor, the teacher, our parents or the authority. Disobedience, from the perspective of an authority/power should be forbidden or punished. Imagine this fictional animation that give us a control with a new opportunity to CTRL+Z those actions in which human beings, us, were part of the chain of violence. It might be just an illusion that we could tackle down all inhumanity at once. It should at least give us the idea that it is in each one’s hands to start UNDO-ing our beliefs that our body is an instrument to obey blindly rather than a body that struggles against inhumanity.

Now 2009 is ending but 2010 continues exactly where we left it – with conflicts and  issues but also with actions of resistance and disobedience against inhumane orders. In which way we are educating ourselves to start UNDOing the wrongs so we can exist in a meaningful human manner?

Paloma Ayala