Taiwanese art school student put up a revealing photo of himself on a village billboard as part of a social experiment.
Passersby complained of public indecency, only to become ok with it once they learned it's a male in the photo. /1
Passersby complained of public indecency, only to become ok with it once they learned it's a male in the photo. /1
2/ When asked, the artist Wu Zongdai (吳宗岱) questioned the boundary between 'public' and 'private' spheres. He noted naked female bodies are 'unacceptable' and 'triggering' in public, but they are 'works of art' when placed in museums & art galleries. -- How public is 'public'?
3/ His inspiration for this experiment comes from social media. Wu once uploaded a topless photo of himself onto Facebook. Because of his appearance, FB's algorithm deemed it to be a topless female and deleted the photo for its 'indecent exposure'.
4/ Wu noted algorithms doesn't censor topless male photos, only topless females. That experience made him want to try it in the real world, to see if real humans will judge his photo and seek to censor it like Facebook's AI did.
5/ It turns out humans are open to changing their mind. People initially greeted it with outrage. But they became sympathetic after the student artist showed up and explained he is a biological male.
6/ Then villagers became "Just let it stay there. Have some heart -- Don't let this poor student's hard-earned money (spent on this school project) go to waste".
7/ The open question that remains, though, is what if the artist never told them about his sexuality? What if his sexuality remains anyone's guess, like a #Schrödinger's cat?
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