The Théâtre de la Bastille (Paris 11th arrondissement) hosted an “Occupation” by the collective of actor-authors L’Avantage du doute. Rooted in the present and in the debates stirring our society, they put on a show and several participatory initiatives to question our relationship with screens.
Citizens and schoolchildren were invited to choose a “Screen-free week”, following the principle initiated by the Quebecer Jacques Brodeur. But what particularly interested us at 3-6-9-12 was that it was much more a week to tame screens and explore the possible alternatives!
So the journalist John-Paul Lepers helped a group of CM1-CM2 pupils (aged 9 to 11) from a school in Paris’s 11th arrondissement make a short film questioning our connected society. We discover that this generation, which we are so readily told has been sacrificed on the altar of digital technology, takes an infinitely critical view of its own parents’ relationship with screens! And indeed, according to 2 surveys carried out in France, 50% of parents admit to being distracted by their mobile phones while talking with their children, 36% of parents check their phones during meals with their children, and even 28% while playing with them. 45% of 8-13-year-olds think their parents check their phones too much, and 27% even dream of confiscating them! The film shows testimonies that go entirely in this direction, but beyond that, the experience led by John-Paul Lepers above all introduced the children to a creative screen practice that generates conversation. They built the outline of the film, and became familiar with filming, sound recording and editing techniques. Finally, they went to meet various people whom they interviewed: other pupils, digital content designers, passers-by, and even… a child psychiatrist from the 3-6-9-12 Association!
Another highlight of this “Occupation” of the Théâtre de la Bastille was the performance of the play “La Caverne” (The Cave), written and staged by the Collective L’avantage du doute. This funny, intelligent and (im)pertinent show takes as its starting point the famous allegory set out by Plato in Book VII of “The Republic”: men chained and immobilised in a cave can see only their own shadows cast on the walls, along with those of the objects around them. Where is reality? Where is illusion? What is the status of these images constructed by projection? In the play, the year is 2518, and Humans have had to flee the surface of the Earth, which was in danger of being scorched by the sun. They live in a hyper-connected cave: the world reaches them only through images constructed under the reign of King Apple Apple Apple Apple (any resemblance is not coincidental!). But a little girl discovers the existence of the outside world… Suitable for all audiences from age 7, the show is wonderfully lively and inventive, and questions the status of images, how they are made, their power, the beliefs they generate and the critical eye we must cast on them.
To contact the Collective L’avantage du doute and find out about upcoming dates: https://www.lavantagedudoute.com/
Are you running original initiatives on screen education? Tell us about your experiences!
Sources:
- Tech observatory, Observatoire des pratiques mobiles (mobile practices observatory), CSA Research, survey carried out between 20 and 30 July 2017 on a sample of 201 French people aged 12 to 14.
2017 edition: focus on 12-14-year-olds - Survey carried out in 2013 by AVG Technologies among 6,117 parents and children
