Covert operations

21Oct07

Well after a rainy start to the day (well, most of the day in fact) I decided to step things up a bit. From the past day and a half of observation it has become clear that my double is not going to be found easily. I’m tempted to talk of him/her as prey, and myself as the wily hunter, but that’s not really fair, and besides, I’m not going to kill him and stuff him and hang him on a wall. Although, come to think of it, perhaps taking his photo and sticking it in a gallery is basically tantamount to this. Something to consider…

So I spent the evening peppering Bonn with passport photos of me, and then retracing my steps and taking photos of those photos. Altogether a very strange experience. I am so bad at trying to look natural when I feel guilty, and its not as if I was even engaged in illegal activities (I don’t think dropping multiple photos of yourself is against the law, but I have not actually checked). It felt a bit like tagging, marking my territory, something quite primeval (had to check the spelling of that) about it. Sowing the city with my image.

This act done I am already beginning to feel a bit shifty. In the back of my mind is the thought that maybe someone will mistake these photos of me for a wanted photo and jump me, take me to the polizei and claim their reward. The poor cleaning lady already thinks I am bananas. She came in to find me surrounded by hundreds of photos of me everywhere! Its a small room, and they were on most available surfaces. She hurriedly changed the towel and backed out nervously.

THis evening I will put up more photos, this time, in a slightly different format. I’ve been trying to figure out how many people I can reach with these tactics. Bonn has 350,000 inhabitants. How many are mobile. How many would would pass by an image of mine if I distributed 500? How many would look? How many would know someone that looks like me? How many would act on what they see? I have not actually done these calculations but I fear the resulting number would be pretty small. If anyone reading this has spare time and a passion for mental arithmetic, do get in touch..

Bonn has a very different feel to it this evening. And I don’t think it’s entirely my delusional projection. It is one of those days when you are allowed to chuck out anything you want so the streets are filled with piles of old furniture, little knowles of mdf shelving, pyres of stained cushions, even fridges and freezers (the better ones have already been picked up by burly men in vw trucks). Its dark now and it seems to be an evening for fireworks, which together with the detritus scattered about lends the scene a slightly post apocalyptic quality.

And then, on the way home I saw a truly beautiful sight. One of the main streets in Bonn festooned with German and British flags, most of them limp and sordid in the rain, as preparation for Oxford week. I just don’t like flags. It’s as simple as that. More tomorrow.

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