2022
Installation
Filtered Violence is a site specific art installation that emulates realtime censorship of violent information and victims of oppression, by actively showing the viewers live manipulation of media coverage. This installation utilizes three devices: a camera that broadcasts footage, a computer that processes raw video data and finally multiple commercial televisions that displays the manipulated content.
The installation uses projected footage of political protesters, and victims of police brutality. Their Human image becomes dehumanized and filtered into simple lines of text forming the original silhouettes of their bodies. The footage is replaced by multiple text-arrays of the word "SILENCE" emphasizing the erasure of their identities. this informs the viewers of how censorship can be used as a tool to subdue and undermine the lives of others. visual imagery displayed in the monitors where inspired by ASCII Drawings which uses specific characters to replicate the images processed through code.
This installation was informed by Rebecca Mackinnon's article “CHINA’S “NETWORKED AUTHORITARIANISM”, Mackinnon explored how an authoritarian state's ruling party can have absolute control over a wide range of conversations about the countries issues that may occur online, and in state-run television. With their systems of censorship being borderline-invasive and effective, that majority of its residents remain unaware of the ongoing issues within their society (33-34). This illustrates how censorship can be utilized to actively remove the existence of the oppressed, historical events, and also manipulation of facts.
Sources:
Cox, Joseph. "Bing Censors Image Search for 'Tank Man' Even in US". VICE: MOTHERBOARD, 4 Apr. 2021, https://www.vice.com/en/article/qj8v9m/bing-censors-tank-man. accessed Mar 2022.
Gilbert, David. "China Is Trying to Rewrite the History of Silenced Coronavirus Whistleblower Doctor Li Wenliang". VICE:News, 20 Mar. 2020, https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgqk9n/china-is-trying-to-rewrite-the-history-of-silenced-whistleblower-doctor-li-wenliang. accessed Mar 2022.
MacKinnon, Rebecca. “China’s ‘Networked Authoritarianism.’” Journal of Democracy, vol. 22, no. 2, National Endowment for Democracy, 2011, pp. 32–46, https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2011.0033. accessed Mar 2022.
US. Department of State, "China's Disregard for Human Rights: Repression in Xinjiang". Dec. 2019, https://2017-2021.state.gov/chinas-disregard-for-human-rights/index.html#CampaignofRepressioninXinjiang. accessed Mar 2022.