With her Yamada Taro project, [Katsuki Nogami](http://flavors.me/katsukiz2000#_) explores ideas of international identity and the anonymity of technology. Yamada Taro is a placeholder Japanese name, like John Smith in the US. To create placeholder people, Nogami attached iPads to performers&#x2019; faces. The performers then took photos of people they encountered on the streets of Berlin and Tokyo. Each photo appeared on the iPad screens in both cities as well as in the hall where Nogami presented her project, giving each &#x201c;person&#x201d; a transcontinental existence.

Nogami describes the iPad people as &#x201c;walking icons,&#x201d; representations of people who masquerade as others online. Watching the semi-cyborgs totter around crowds in Germany and Japan, we can see both the playful and spooky effect of interacting with anonymity.

Below, check out the short video for yourself:

Identity is made fluid on the Internet, hiding behind pseudonyms and avatars; there is no way to be completely sure if a recipient or distributor of information online is real. Twitter, for instance, has approximately 4.8 million bot accounts masquerading as people; identity is deferred, performed by a series of ones and zeroes. The Japanese view these empty, bogus accounts as a problem and refer to them as bakatter. The Yamada Taro Project conflates the public and the private, transposing the increasingly vague and mutable identities on social networking services and elsewhere on the Internet. Yamada Taro is the Japanese equivalent of John Smith, an allegedly common name that could belong to anyone, yet belongs to no one in particular, which gives anonymity a name. The confounding, blank figure of Yamada Taro finds representation in the equally anonymous mannequin with an iPad functioning as a fluctuating mask, mirroring the face of passersby. An influx of performers will walk around the city — similar to how streams of pedestrians interact with storefronts peddling luxury attached to expressionless mannequins — clothed in self-effacing sheets and iPads that will function as an interface of faces.

I was inspired from the matter which famous actress office brought a suit against who have fake her twitter account got 1 million follower.I was so surprised from that just joke in the internet was brought a serious realistic suit in real world.I felt getting strict internet.Then I've come to think that icon looks like a pierrot.At first,I started to wear iPad myself, and communicated to get face, make animation of those, made iPad man increase.The more face increased, the more difference between body and face spread.There is various background which fake politician account got increased,and Bakatter who commits a crime for fun appeared, that I couldn't go to my exhibition in Japan from Germany.People talk to iPad man,or said weird and you got me,or attack to him.In Brazile,people are very surprised.Because they are not familier with iPad.For them,that is mysterious something.Public art with communication makes me notice difference of common sense and media literacy.


パフォーマンス--- パフォーマーはiPadを顔に装着して、街で人の顔写真を撮って自分の顔にします。人々は彼のiPad 上に写る顔でこの人を認識します。
それはインターネット上の名前やアイコンのようなものだと思います。SNS では自分もしくは有名人やアニメのキャラクターなどの顔写真
を自分の顔としています。そういった一時的で匿名性のある、インターネットを表したパフォーマンスです。ちなみにプロジェクトの名前である山田太郎は、日本で一番匿名的だけど実際にはほとんど存在しない、一番匿名的な名前です。
展示---iPad を被った様々なマネキンの顔が、通りすがりの人間の顔になります。マネキンは顔が無く、色々な服を着せ替え人形のように着させられる匿名的な存在です。ウィンドウショッピングでは下着の広告塔として子供も見えるような場所で下着を露わにしています。日本ではコンビニなどの公共の場所でもポルノグラフィが誰にでも見れるようになっており、SNSという公共とプライベートが交錯する現代の問題と通じている部分が含まれています。
インターネットでのアイデンティティ、公共とプライベートを題材に扱っている作品です。

このプロジェクトは、電車で見たiPadがiPhoneと違って物感を感じ彫刻的なものに感じた事で、仮面のように顔にあててみる所から始めました。また、Twitter上で何十万人もフォロワーがいる剛力 彩さんの偽アカウントが芸能事務所に訴えられた事に驚いた事もきっかけにありました。そのアカウントは相当下品でおもしろい事を発しており、ネット上での悪ふざけでしかなかったそんな行為が実世界での訴訟という一番シリアスなところに掲げられ、SNSでのアイコンが段々ふざけているピエロのようにも思え、ネット上での不自由さも感じました。最初は自分がiPadを一人で被って見ることころから始まり、様々な人とコミュニケーションして顔をもらったり、それを動画にしたり、コピー&ペーストのように増やしたりしました。人種や体型のバリエーションが増えれば増えるほど、顔と体の剥離は顕著に現れました。政治活動でのSNSが認められて偽政治家アカウントが増えたり、SNSでの愉快犯バカッターが出現したり、ドイツにいる際に日本での展覧会に行けなかった事など、色々なバックグランド

山田太郎プロジェクト YAMADA TARO PROJECT

[山田太郎プロジェクト 東京×ベルリン 出張blanClass＠森美術館](http://vimeo.com/82250584) from [Katsuki Nogami](http://vimeo.com/user8859846).

via [Prosthetic Knowlege](http://prostheticknowledge.tumblr.com/post/75751725861/yamada-taro-project-japanese-art-project)

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Katsuki Nogami's Yamada Taro project creates "smart people" to explore the anonymity of technology.

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From Berlin To Tokyo, People Are Turning Their Faces Into Tablets

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From Berlin To Tokyo, People Are Turning Their Faces Into Tablets

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