Shakespeare’s Richard III from 1592 is a play in which Richard of Gloucester becomes king through a series of grotesque acts of violence.
And here is the key point. Once Richard of Gloucester grabs power, after he murders everyone in his path to power, having shared those plans and ambitions with you, me and all in the audience before he enacts them, we ALL become co-criminals. When Richard no longer needs our silent, delicious acquiescence, or our complicity, guess what happens? Yes, the direct addresses to us stop. He stops addressing or acknowledging us. We become dispensable. We are his next victims.
Around the middle of June, just over two weeks ago, an image started to circulate widely around the world, of a queue of people snaking through a series of wire fences. There must be a thousand or more people crammed into this labyrinth of corridors. Outside of the fencing are three men clearly wearing white base-ball caps and high viz jackets.
It immediately reminds me of the images of Auschwitz and of Srebrenica. But there are obvious and striking differences. The guards are not in military uniforms but rather the gear of any corporate organisation trying to adhere to health and safety regulations. And the image, rather than taken at ground level by a photographer, has been taken from above, either from a satellite or by a drone. From the pixality of the image I presume it was most probably taken from a satellite.
The image captures an incident connected to the distribution of aid to Gazans. It is indeed a perfect example of how both surveillance and incarceration technologies have “evolved into tools for indiscriminate targeting of the Palestinian population,” to quote from a recent report by Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
In this podcast I explore how academics of history, human rights and memory studies are responding to the catastrophe of Gaza. And I ask whether we European artists, festivals, and cultural networks have decided to follow the strategy of the Silent Satellite.
Text: Chris Baldwin - based on the Clickbait Citizen publications The Audience in the Era of Post-Shame (22nd May 2025) and The Silent Satellite (June 13th 2025).
Original Music: Paul Alan Barker
Other Sounds:
Who is "Madleen", the woman for whom the aid ship approaching Gaza is named?
AI generated video of post-Genocide Gaza - see Prompt: Five Arenas
Sounds of Satellite: Ian The Space Nerd
Notes and References:
“From economy of occupation to economy of genocide” - report by Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
“Sanctioning Ben-Gvir and Smotrich Is but a Tiny, Sad Step in Ending the Gaza Massacre” by Gideon Levi in Haaretz June 11th 2025.
Share this post