Internet censorship from the Iranian government on one side and restrictions on travel imposed by the U.S. government on the other side caused a separation, which defined my experience as an immigrant. Ever since moving to the United States, my only way to connect with my loved ones was digital due to the travel ban. Throughout our 1177 day separation, I regularly talked to my family on Facetime. Unfortunately, instead of their faces, I occasionally saw beautiful, chaotic glitches caused by network malfunctions. As a result of the government’s internet filtering systems in Iran, my family has to use censorship circumvention tools (VPN) to communicate with me. Sometimes the outcome is magnificent imagery based on the failure of their attempt to bypass the censorship.
In this installation, I intended to captivate the viewer through the beauty of colors, but I also aimed to observe something beyond the visuals. For me, network glitches remind ears are eavesdropping and eyes are monitoring our data.
