Private: Invisible – Can You See It?

Portfolio: Nam_Portfolio

I propose to develop and complete my robotic installation, Invisible. Invisible explores the political implications of how freely discrimination is expressed online, where these discriminations can easily be hidden. At the same time, it is not limited to representing discrimination, but also revealing a lack of conversation as well as voices representing individual feelings of the victims of derogatory words.

Invisible incorporates Arduino microcontrollers, motors, and Raspberry PI microcomputers to receive data from online platforms. Invisible prints sentences that include any derogatory racial term representing discrimination of African Americans, Asians, Hispanics and Caucasians on papers from four thermal printers. The installation prints phrases every 20 seconds while digitally fabricated robotic hand sculptures imitate cutting and hitting gestures with scissors and hammers. After the sentences are printed, the papers pile on the ground. As the falling papers pile higher and higher, and audience members can pick up the papers to read, take, or throw away. The audience can listen to the voices reading those sentences when they come closer to Invisible.

I hope the use of digital technology in Invisible evokes understanding and a discussion of the current racial stereotype issues. Amongst piles of ignorant messages, one can find examples that seek to educate the speakers to the injured feelings and sensitivities of the races.

Bio – Hye Yeon Nam is a digital media artist working on interactive installations and performance video. She foregrounds the complexity of social relationships by making the familiar strange, and interpreting everyday behaviors in performative ways. Hye Yeon’s art has been showcased in The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C, Times Square, Eyebeam, FILE, SIGGRAPH, CHI, ISEA, and several festivals in China, Istanbul, Ireland, the UK, Germany, Australia, Denmark, and Switzerland.