Voice
Video Installation, HD, Single Channel, 2:23 min, 2018
"Voice" is single video installation works focusing on foreign laborers participating in the Japanese Technical Internship Training system, which is a government initiative established to transfer technology from Japan to less economically advantaged countries. While the intent is to benefit economic development of a participating country, in practice it provides Japanese industry cheap foreign labor in a tightly controlled environment. Technical Intern Trainees in Japan suffer from workplace abuse, low wages and unsatisfactory living conditions.
This work uses the voices of foreign laborers in Japan who are participating in Japanese speech contests sponsored by the training program. The video focuses on the internalization of obedience among trainees which is instituted through Japanese political coercion and the educational system.