Desire of Codes, Seiko Mikami

Seiko Mikami’s interactive installation Desire of Codes premiered at the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (YCAM), critically merging human sensory perceptions with digital surveillance technology to reflect on the pervasive encoding in an information-oriented society. The installation featured wall-mounted sculptures made of human skin-like silicone engraved with barcodes, which moved in response to audience movement, visualizing the intimate and often unseen interactions between human behavior and digital tracking systems. Enhanced with a matrix of sensors, mini light spots, and surveillance cameras, the artwork dynamically mapped visitor movements, illustrating the blurriness between organic human identities and digital data profiles. This exhibition not only underscored Mikami’s long-standing themes around the integration of technology with human corporeal form but also served as a poignant commentary on privacy, desire and control in a digital age, positioning her as a pivotal figure in contemporary media art. The work anticipates the body-surveillance work of contemporaneous digital artists such as Operator.