master or slave

unbreakable bondage

unwaivering devotion

unquestioning loyalty

but who commands who

who leaders who follows

Today I went to the museum in Cadiz city centre. Having lived here for over a year, I could not actually believe it had taken me this long to visit it, especially since I have visited some in far away cities. Anyway, it was a lovely experience. From the archeological stuff that I could not care about to the art pieces that were simply amazing. The talent exhibited in that place was beyond description. Some of the pieces were so detailed all I could do was stand and stare. Then came to the final part of our hour-long tour, the contemporary art section. Let me tell you in advance abstract art is not my cup of tea. I find it very confused and confusing. I know it is not supposed to be interpreted as is but by the emotion/feeling it evokes emotion or something like that. Still I just don't get it. However, one of my friends is crazy over this art form so we indulged her. Piece after piece I tried to find meaning and/or emotion but nothing magical happened. Then we got to this piece that was just genius in its simplicity. First let me paint you a word picture of this piece; it was a dog with a human head seated in front of a TV mesmerized. This human-dog had a leashed that was chained to the side of the TV. Since this is contemporary art it must be contorted so the TV doubled up as a kennel for the human-dog with the door on the side complete with a feeding bowl right next to it. We all stood there and tried to explain this piece of art and what it meant to us. After 5 minutes of heated debate among peers at the cusp of getting their MSc, the general consensus reached was this was a representation of how humans have become enslaved by 'TV' and that their lives revolve around it seeing how this poor human-dog's life was centered around the device. 'TV' here could be loosely interpreted to mean technology or the media. So we all took turns making fun of what the TV in the piece would be substituted for if the piece was about us, if the students of Water and Coastal Management, 2009-2011 were indeed the human-dog. Again we quickly agreed that it would be a computer as our lives now completely revolved around them, from doing endless assignments to surfing the internet in between assignments to communicating with each other.

This got me thinking, what am I enslaved to in my day to day life? What is that one inanimate object that I think I have control over but in reality runs my life-without it my life would come to a complete standstill albeit for a short period of time? For the longest time, my slave/master was my phone. It ruled my life such that 2 hours away from it whilst on the football field was pure torture. The minute I got off the field I would run for it before even getting for a drink of water. What did I miss when I was away? Did anyone call or text me? It was the first think I thought of when I got out of bed in the morning. I would automatically reach for it to check for messages or missed calls before going onto the internet. What's new on Facebook? The two times I lost my phone or it malfunctioned, it was like I had lost a part of me-a limb if you may. I mourned for days on end vowing to do anything to replace it. Then I got to Europe and was free it only to replace it with a new slave/master-my laptop. I blamed it on the endless papers I had to write but in reality my attachment to this device runs deeper than that. This is evidenced by the fact that even after completing all works due, I still go to my computer every single morning when I wake up, every time I walk into my room from a short stint outside. Sometimes I even think about what I would be doing on my computer when I am out having fun with friends. I no longer let my phone govern my every second, I proudly proclaim to anyone who will care to listen. Sometimes I go for days without knowing where my phone is. However, I deliberately leave out the fact that I have merely replaced it with some other inanimate entity whose effect I fear is much greater.

As I stood there looking at this abstract piece of art, I couldn't help but wonder about its accuracy. Do we control technology or does technology control us? In this relationship, who really is the master and who is the slave?