This video installation translates real UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle, or drone) war footage into a colourful, pixelated LED display, examining how digital interfaces reshape perception and mediate violence. Taking the operator interface as its point of departure, the work shows how contemporary technologies turn acts of warfare into abstract, image-based interactions. Within these systems, targets appear as flattened symbols, detached from the realities they represent. Action is thus mediated through interfaces that prioritise clarity and efficiency while obscuring their human consequences.

The work frames this condition as a contradiction of freedom. UAV interfaces grant operators disembodied agency and physical safety, while their game-like aesthetics create psychological distance and reduce accountability. This “freedom to act” is therefore contingent upon the complete loss of freedom experienced by those rendered as targets.

Hsu Hsun-Hsiang, co-founder of Shio, works across architecture, digital media and new media art, examining how technological systems shape perception and reveal the ethical tensions embedded in contemporary visual culture.