Ok so I initially found a site which linked this animation/movie to the creator reading the Observer article. I contacted the creator and was told that he had not read the Observer article at the point of creation, so it wasn't necessarily directed as a reflection on the article. I couldn't really get past the similarities though (only some of which I mention in the post to follow), and so it was decided to post about the piece anyway.
Aleksander Wasilewski, author, also told me that he did read the Observer article a bit after making "Smile!," and made a print about it, aptly named
Tranquility.
Alek agreed that "Smile!" was very appropriate in the context of Tranquility Bay, and therefore I'll share with everyone else what went through my mind while watching it (or at the very least some of the striking similarities I saw).
I hope others find it as striking as I have, and please do post about what you thought.
----Original Post-----
This is an animation apparently made after the creator read the
Observer article.
<=False! =/ It illustrates the coercive practices used in the Tranquility Bay program and most WWASPS related programs. Highlighted is the use of a student's peers to be the facilitator of what is permissible and not. The Observer article states:
...they are employed for three days a week as a member of staff, and must discipline other students by issuing 'consequences'.
Every time a member of staff or upper-level student feels a student has broken a rule, they 'consequence' them by deducting points. Rule-breaking is classified into categories of offence. A 'Cat 1' offence, ie rolling your eyes, is consequenced by a modest loss of points. A 'Cat 3' offence, eg swearing, costs a significant number, and may drop the student's score beneath their current level's threshold, thus demoting them and removing privileges.
And again, in part 2, the article describes peers punishing each other:
Points and privileges are awarded to students who tell on each other. If you don't tell on someone for breaking a rule and get found out, you lose points. 'There is zero trust,' Scott explains. 'You can't trust anyone. It's not us against them. It's everyone against you.' Scott remembers a new boy being caught with incriminating used tissues; masturbation is strictly forbidden. 'And they got him up in front of everyone right after dinner, and the upper-level kids just ripped into him, this little 13-year-old kid. It was kind of the entertainment for the night. That's what I mean about breaking kids.'
The smile sign has a particular meaning to me because of how many days I spent there thinking about how I never smiled anymore. The nurse actually asked me one day why I never changed my expression, apparently unaware of the screaming emanating from O.P. Yet, we had to smile to advance.
The ending appears to be directly related to this:
Once a year, Tranquility Bay has a Fun Day. There are sports and special food; girls can braid their hair; staff are smiling. And there is music. Ceaseless, bass-heavy, deafening music. It sends the teenagers out of their minds. They can't stop dancing. Everywhere, students are dancing, demented with fever, as if a switch has been thrown and a surge of energy unleashed through the grounds.
It's absolutely true. Fun Day - A.K.A. the day parents and reporters arrived. Nobody was going to give up the chance to drink a soda (albeit generic), eat a piece of chicken (or something faintly resembling what we know as chicken), and play sports all day. It was fun. Everyone knew though, the next day was going to be back to exactly how it was before. But bring in music, and you couldn't get away from it. Music put everything in its proper place. Emotions aligned themselves perfectly to the rhythm, and you felt better even if nothing changed. The only sounds we usually heard were the other kids screaming from O.P., or the staff yelling for everyone to get in line. You could hear the waves crashing and we talked to each other intermittently in secret and in group. But other than that, it was really only 'emotional growth' tapes while we ate. 98 percent of the time we weren't allowed to talk, so hearing music, nearly any music, well it definitely affected you. This animation shows the student's peers doing something a bit vulgar at the end in response to the music. I did not see that happen while I was there, but I understand the point being made.
The animation is extreme, but to many of us who were there it represents the dark mental state that transpires. The pain, the pressure to conform, the absurdity of it all is portrayed rather well here... in my opinion
Go
HERE to view it.
This was taken from:
http://www.werehouse.net/Please visit the site for more work done by Alexsander Wasilewski
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