Citizen X (2022) Digital print on acrylic panel

 

This photography series intends to provide the artist’s speculation about the future living style in which wearable devices can protect natural biometrics from digital authentication systems.

           “Citizen X” is about how normal people would look with a wearable biometric authentication contact lens in the near future. Each photograph has a close-up scene of an individual’s eyes in black and white, except for the colors of their iris. In the photograph, there are two natural eyes. However, each photograph’s right-side eye has a unique pattern in a participant's favorite color (based on a survey). This unique pattern is based on the participant's autograph (hand-written signature), which can be redesigned and discarded whenever the user chooses. In other words, through “Citizen X”, I propose an alternative iris authentication system: using customizable contact lenses instead of natural iris patterns.

           Bio information is called biometrics in digital authentication systems. In such systems, when one registers their biometrics in a company’s storage, that information can be treated as the company's private property. It means that information no longer belongs to an individual. Additionally, once their biometrics are uploaded into systems, they cannot be revoked, replaced, or canceled.

           This work is based on a plausible future scenario with the question, “What if we have renewable bio information by using wearables?” I imagine a pair of custom-made contact lenses with a customized iris pattern on the surface based on its user’s handwritten autograph. “Citizen X” exhibits symbiotic imaginaries regarding combinations of the natural bodies with the digital worlds in the near future living style. Also, it pays attention to biometrics information, redefines the human body as an extended form of a cyborg, and amalgamates the biological body into a digital authentication system.