Perimeters

Perimeters’ highlights the unnoticed racism in football commentary. The media tends to represent athletes from different origins in a biased way, reproducing common racial and ethnic stereotypes. The commentators harden the view of black athletes being less intelligent and hard‑working than their white counterparts and able to succeed only because of their “God-given” physical and athletic attributes.

As long as the spectator focuses on the game’s visual assets, these whispers will unconsciously affect the viewer’s perception. The game is still riddled with injustice through noticed and, maybe more dangerous, unnoticed racism, such as this biased commentary. We need to recognise and acknowledge racial prejudice to address the real impact of structural racism for the future of a more inclusive game, starting off with our own listening habits.

In their isolation, the words appear harmless, so I wish to bring this systematic problem to light by exposing them through this installation. The commentary of a combined 90-minute selection of various games has been carefully highlighted in the eyes of ‘sensitivity readers,’ focusing on cultural representation problems, biases, stereotypes, tropes and language that a listener could consider problematic.

Thinking about ‘breaking patterns’ the statement by Marshall McLuhan comes up to mind “One thing about which fish know exactly nothing is water, since they have no anti-environment which would enable them to perceive the element they live in.”

This is a new method of demonstrating in-depth research on a topic that the majority are unaware of, namely the silent racism indoctrinated in football. Without being too scientific with the findings, I translated them into the contemporary aesthetic of football through the eye-catching billboards. Using an ancient technique to grab viewers’ attention, this installation serves as a medium to make them instantly aware of this undetected pattern seen in broadcast football week after week.

I know how visual culture plays a huge role in how we see the world, that it can work in a corrupting way, but also in a way that can translate something unnoticed into something noticed. I also know how the media works; it navigates us, but it also serves us. Once the wider audience notices injustice and how we are tricked into believing someone’s opinion, the media will quickly adapt to be more inclusive to satisfy their consumers.

Until then, it’s important not to leave out the important stuff. I think it is crucial to emphasize the questions such as; why is this happening? Why do we listen to this voice? Where does this voice come from? Who is behind this voice? We need to understand this context so that it will never happen again, or if this exact mechanism is visible in other themes, such as newscasts, narratives, voiceovers, etc. If the larger group does not agree with changing the format as we ‘ have known it for years, without them knowing why it has to change, it can be quite a misunderstanding. Therefore, the first step is to confront the viewers by showing how the voice of football has shaped how we view footballers from different backgrounds.