Hidden in Plain Sight: Artist Amy Suo Wu Reveals the Potential of Invisible Ink

Virtual event description:  

Steganography is the art and science of hiding a message in plain sight. Amy Suo Wu will present her artistic research on steganographic practices as acts of protection, survival, and resistance in the face of oppression and violence. What began as a techno-political inquiry into how analog steganography might subvert digital surveillance and bypass censorship, gradually shifted to focus on invisibility tactics used by marginalized cultures and social movements. This body of work on steganographic practices is published by Onomatopee under the title A Cookbook of Invisible Writing.

About the Speaker:

Amy Suo Wu was born in China, grew up in Australia, and lives in the Netherlands as an artist, designer, and teacher. Her recent interest and practice circles around literal and metaphorical approaches of mending, design as remittance and self-fulfilling prophecy, and how text and textile might be woven together to form embodied publishing. She is currently researching intergenerational mending together with her mum Maria Ling Qing Huang under the auspicious title of Serenity Department. From 2014-2019 she co-organized the Rotterdam zine festival, Zine Camp. She has taught experimental Publishing at Piet Zwart Institute and Cultural Diversity at Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam and is currently teaching in the Design Department at the Sandberg Instituut, Amsterdam.