A Day of Resistance - Questioning Dystopian Elements As I See It

On May 18th 2022, I had my thesis showcase at Habib University. The story that I chose to work on was written in April 2020, more than two years ago when I finally chose Communication and Design as my major after going back and forth four times. I can safely say that I had no recollection that the protagonist of my thesis emerged from a 30-minute cram screenwriting session from an introductory screenwriting?class until a friend (with considerably better memory) reminded me.

As senior year grew increasingly closer I spent months bouncing ideas ideas for the ever-looming thesis. I was advised by a friend to look at my roots - to think about what story I’ve always wanted to tell. In the effort to explore where I came from, I almost uprooted myself from reality and tried to explore a fantasy genre. I spent days exploring make-believe worlds until I settled on the encompassing theme of my life as a citizen in this country. My thesis was a take on colonialism - the way the British ravaged us and the exploration of the CPEC conspiracy surrounding us. It was a discussion on minorities, violence and the thirst to find a place where they could feel protected. When I was asked to pitch what the genre was, I chose dystopia; as it’s no secret that our reality is closest to dystopia to others.

The foundation

I knew the characters who existed in my world and I knew the themes I wanted to surround them with but I was flying blind with the mediums, the end-product, and the big gaps in their stories; they were essentially floating within a twenty page script and I had to build the world I wanted to situate them in. Our written component in our Fall semester was designed for us to explore our research question upon which our thesis would be based. It was interesting to me that despite living in a country so riddled with dystopian themes, the literature and art existing within it barely touched upon the genre. After multiple iterations questioning different themes within my topic I settled on this question: ‘What has been done in the genre of Pakistani dystopia so far and how can dystopian worlds be used as tools to represent Pakistan’s current, past and speculate its future politics.’ Through this I tried to explore the existing forms of dystopia nestled in our art and literature and tried to understand why there was a hole in this genre.?

Part of my research was going through existing papers on dystopia/Pakistani literature and related themes, and part of it was sitting and analysing Pakistani dystopian literature, animations, illustrations and speaking to these artists and writers to understand more about our cultural impact first hand. The research took me into an intense deep dive of comparing international dystopian literature and comparing it to the few Pakistani books that existed in this genre. The cross examination helped understand the politicisation of dystopia and how it served to escape censorship in the past. It also led me to stimulating conversations with my interviewees as they shared the dystopian elements in current society as they saw it. They also gave some valuable insights on the existing Pakistani literature and speculated the reasons the list (of literature) fell so short.

I had planned on developing my story alongside the research. As it so happened, the semester ended with a 60-page research paper and almost zero progress on the story.

Leading up to the story

With the research completed, the next (long overdue) step was the execution. The next two months were a whirlwind of finishing storylines, searching for loopholes, adding layers upon layers of backstories (most of which never saw the light of day) and finalising mediums. After a lot of contemplation, I decided on working on an installation - a Museum of Resistance. It was set in the future in 2030, retelling the (fictitious) events of 2010-2024.

In the world I’d built, Karachi had been overtaken by a country, Maihan. The takeover had been gradual - first trade, then alliance, and then a dictatorship. The events were parallel to that of the EIC; as established, we are not above repeating the mistakes of history.

While the world I built was the actual protagonist, the story revolved around three main families - with our main perspectives being that of young adults, people who were forced to fight to survive. It explored their relationships within themselves, with the war and with their identity. It explored the question of whether they were fighting for their freedom or their identity and if they considered the two one and the same.

A new perspective on reality

When the initial timeline of events within the story was confirmed, I shared it with my thesis advisor. He was already frustrated at my lack of progress and expressed concern about how this story would be criticized by the audience. At first glance, the story seems nationalistic - citizens of Karachi banding together to form an alliance to fight the foreign dictator, but first glances can be deceiving.

The subtext was everything in this story - remove the name of the fictitious country, remove the imaginary wall around Karachi, the violence remains and the atrocities committed in this dystopian world exists.

This story was a commentary on how society functions in Pakistan, the role of the government, the role of the military and the role of the elite - the layer of adding the term ‘dystopian genre’ only serves to escape censorship. However, the timeline held solely because so many of the ‘unreal’ events already had precedence in our own history (EIC, Zia, CPEC, USA military alliance, animosity with neighboring countries).

The museum

The museum was an immersive experience. It was curated by Isma Mirza (roleplayed by me in the exhibition), who had served as an amateur journalist in her teen years when the story had unfolded and as a would-be record keeper in the youth alliance. Isma used the Museum to talk about the people she had loved most and lost and the ones who had fought the fight. She talked about the resistance back when she was under Maihan control, and the resistance now; even in the present time in the story, where Karachi has broken out of the foreign control, the censorship prevails that allows no one to talk about the invasion and the fact that the country had lost control of its metropolis.

It's hard for me to summarise the contents of an immersive experience into an article but the installation entailed seven mediums and artefacts:

1. Newsreel as they transitioned from Azaadi News Channel to Maihan national TV

The first part of the room introduced you to a newsreel, snippets of news aired over almost 5 years showing the progression of the takeover. This was inspired by the clips that foreshadowed the Palestinian apartheid and the gradual reflection of the rising severity of Israeli invasion.

2. Newspaper clippings and the articles written by a journalist

The second artefact was the study room of the journalist. Isma, in her youth, shadowed a renowned journalist who throughout the takeover kept writing about the events as he saw them unfold even if he wasn’t able to publish them. A part of the room was a recreation of his study- his desk, typewriter (he was paranoid about his laptop/computer being hacked), and his softboard where he had curated a timeline of events and all the articles he’d written over the years. The journalist was a representative of people as a whole, instead of just a selective group like Isma. Reading these somewhat contradictory experiences raised the question of whether the working and middle class valued the concept of nationality and identity when it came at the cost of a better lifestyle (which the Maihan takeover seemingly offered). Again, these artefacts offered as much information as the visitor needed - the deeper the interaction, the more they understood the story and reality, but even a surface level view established the basic rules. The point being made in this artefact was to share the timeline of events whilst showing the discrepancies of the experience from both sides.

3. Posters, Articles and pictures of the family.

The third artefact comprised of restored or reprinted posters that were used for recruitment during the drawn-out war. This artefact was to solidify the fact that during the period of the invasion, the citizens were deprived of basic forms of digital or tele-communications.

4. Mural

The second section of the room was more personal to Isma. She had been a part of a youth-alliance set on defying the dictatorship. The mural (the fourth artefact) was the remains of a wall she and her friends had painted on a building where orphans and families were in hiding. The building had been blown up during one of their altercations and the pieces of mural were all that were left of that wall. It was a tangible reminder that although Isma’s other artefacts were focused on specific people, this mourned a space that had been occupied by hundred of people who had perished in a bombing. - it brought back the idea that this was a collective experience instead of a selective one.

5. Zaid’s montage

The fifth artefact was found footage from the perspective of her friend Zaid; Zaid had been a budding illustrator and videographer whose form of communication with his sister was mainly videography. The montage, dubbed Zeerak, followed his sister over the four years of them being under the foreign rule. The snippets showed how he accidentally caught pivotal moments in both her life, and in the takeover as well as capturing the moment that would signify his death. Alongside telling their story, this artefact humanised Isma and showed a glimpse of the people she represented.?

6. Graphic novel

The graphic novel (24 pages long) similarly had been a tribute to Zaid. It was created by a few members of the youth alliance, illustrating the last day of resistance; how they escaped the rule finally and how Zaid ultimately lost his life as well. . The snippets showed how he accidentally caught pivotal moments in both her life, and in the takeover as well as capturing the moment that would signify his death. Alongside telling their story, this artefact humanised Isma and showed a glimpse of the people she represented.?It was created as a way for these people to share their story without being censored- even within this fictitious world, they relied on the genre of fiction and dystopia to share their truth (reflection of the thesis as a whole).

Link:

7. Audio-Visual narration

The last artefact was a series of audiovisual clips - they were interviews of the people who were part of the alliance and ultimately survived. These were audio interviews of some of the people who had fought in the war and survived. The informational aspect and the emotional experience of the Museum ended at the graphic novel and this artefact was a way to get closure, sort of like a Q/A with the main characters. This medium was primarily added to give a solid voice to all the stories being shared. It was important to show that Isma wasn’t the sole narrator of this collective experience, but rather just a spokesperson.

The experience

The installation was divided into two sections - the historical accounts and the personal tributes. The room was a cacophony of sounds from the first step in - a mixture of the news-reel and the montage playing on a loop in the background constantly. Since it was an overwhelming experience, a tour guide, Isma, was necessary to help situate the visitors in the room and to be able to answer all the questions.

The newsreel was the first artefact, intended to be a transition from the outside world into the new world.

The next artefact, the journalist’s study room, would introduce contradictory perspectives. The posters and the family wall helped shift the museum from a factual space to a biased one by introducing the people behind the scenes and the motivation behind Isma’s efforts.

The mural, the montage and the graphic novel provided tangible proof of grief and loss; they were each an extension of each other - the mural introducing the collective experience, the montage showing a glimpse into their relationships and the graphic novel proof of their fight and loss.

The audio visual was designed to be the summation - it was a one on one interaction, complete with a set of noise-cancelling headphones to allow the viewer to fully walk themselves out of an overwhelming experience yet still exist in the fictional world.

Video tour:

The way art often goes

the impact of instances is often felt after a considerable time has passed

I hadn’t fully appreciated the communal effort it takes for any form of art to manifest. The response to my thesis was something that’ll stay with me for life, but so will the memory of all those who made it happen. It wasn’t just moral support, but a lot of people who were contributing hands on; people on camera, people behind the camera, people looking over my stories and my script, coloring my illustrations, editing my videos, helping me brainstorm and voicing my actors. There were helping hands in every facet of this thesis so while it felt amazing to walk on stage and collect the award for the best thesis display, I was and am constantly aware of the many people who contributed in some way or other to help me reach here.