[Slate] People Conditioned to Inhumane 'Visual Violence'

'She Died' and 'The Eight Show': Perspectives Contained
A Lens Complementing Imperfection, Triggering Transformation of Voyeurism
Time to Place Hope on the Possibility of Tactile Vision

In the movie 'She Died,' Gu Jeong-tae (Byeon Yo-han) is a licensed real estate agent. He secretly enters homes using keys entrusted by clients to spy on their private lives. He considers this a professional privilege. He feels proud as he uncovers the hidden sides behind social media (SNS) or YouTube broadcasts. This is voyeuristic visual violence.

At its core lies visual centrism, which maximizes presence (現前性). Objects are placed right before the eyes and made present, then studied, utilized, and accessed. There is a tendency to maintain distance from the object while observing it as if through a transcendental gaze, aiming to grasp, control, and possess it.

This can also be glimpsed in the Netflix series 'The Eight Show.' The story unfolds as eight people are trapped in a secret space. As time passes, they play a game to earn money, repeatedly experiencing division and conflict. The black hand who hosts the game never reveals their identity. They simply watch the eight participants with amusement through closed-circuit (CC) TV.

Secret observation points to modern visual centrism. Lenses placed everywhere compensate for the imperfections of human vision. They allow us to see farther and more accurately. Thus, they become tools that amplify voyeuristic gazes. For example, the visual desire of modern men to secretly watch and know women reached its peak with the advent of the camera following the telescope. Alfred Hitchcock’s film 'Rear Window' (1954) features Jeff (James Stewart), a photographer who spies on his neighbors, as a representative symbol.

Author Yoo Seo-yeon wrote in her book 'The Violence of Vision,' "Above all, the camera lens is used for illegal filming of women today." She explained, "Initially, the camera lens created a fixed, single eye that looked contemplatively at external objects without involvement. However, the contemplative gaze, which takes no ethical responsibility for the object and maintains distance without involvement, gradually transformed into voyeurism?secretly watching from a distance to dominantly control, exploit, and manipulate the subject greedily."

Today, Jeff’s peeping using a telephoto lens is merely a classical method. Now, small camera lenses observe every move in apartments, schools, workplaces, and more. Some are used for illegal filming done secretly. The captured subjects are uploaded to online sites, appearing before viewers as distorted and fragmented body images with time removed. This is a familiar form of violence. Just four years ago, the unprecedented sexual violence case known as the Telegram 'Nth Room' shocked people deeply.

The police operated a special digital sex crime investigation unit for nine months, confirming 1,154 victims. Among them, 60.7% were minors. A total of 3,755 perpetrators were arrested, with 245 detained. The ringleader 'GodGod' was sentenced to 34 years in prison, and the operator 'Doctor' received 42 years. This firmly established digital sexual violence as a serious crime, not merely a matter of obscene material.

Of course, the root cause has not yet been eradicated. Rather, it is evolving in various forms, riding on advances in digital technology. The 'Seoul National University Nth Room' case revealed on the 21st is a representative example. It is a deepfake sexual crime. It shows clear differences from the 'Nth Room' case in methods, targets, and purposes. The perpetrators used AI technology to create and distribute sexually exploitative content. Since the crime occurs with just one photo, victims were practically defenseless.

The transcendental and violent light is ultimately a problem for all of us. We must continuously raise the question, "How should we look at the subject in front of us?" Only then can we approach eradication. This moment leads to issues of philosophy and ethics. It frees us from voyeurism that seeks to dominate and exploit specific subjects and the contemplative gaze on which it is based. It is time to place hope in the possibility of tactile vision that stands beside the other, contacts their interior, and seeks coexistence.