In Asian countries such as Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan, there are perpetrators who use smartphones, smart glasses, or tiny cameras to secretly record people in public spaces such as trains, restrooms, and schools. Some of them use generative AI to easily swap faces and bodies, creating deepfake pornography. Others profit from selling these images or use them for phishing scams. Once digital information is uploaded to the internet or social media, it becomes a ¡®digital tattoo¡¯ that is difficult to erase. If such images are secretly and non-consensually taken for sexual exploitations and then edited, what kind of psychological state might the survivors be left in?
In this work, Usami uses 3D computer graphics to depict the process by which survivors¡¯ bodies are transformed into digital information and pixelated. The way this information is uploaded and rapidly dispersed across the world is rendered with immersive visual expression, while simultaneously revealing its underlying violence.
By narrating the situation from the survivors¡¯ perspective, the work allows viewers to access their urgent emotions and to understand the process through which they attempt to engage in self-care. Within the piece, Usami exposes her own body in public space and holds a ¡°clean up¡± performance. This metaphor reflects a desire to clean both the digital memories stored in computers and the memories inscribed in their bodies.
Usami Nao believes that by seeing the world from the same perspective as the survivors, it becomes possible to deepen mutual understanding and to imagine new ways of caring each other.