Summary:

This presentation explores digital art as a space where Uyghur diasporic individuals can publicly participate in and express various modes of engagement in a context of transnational repression, examining how they navigate a fundamental tension between visibility (to raise awareness and make political claims) and invisibility (to protect themselves and their families). I argue that different forms of anonymity mobilized by Uyghur artists in the diaspora, or strategies of « creative opacity », should not be understood simply as a protective mechanism,  but as a constitutive condition of Uyghur digital art today, opening space for interaction, experimentation and creativity otherwise impossible. Meanwhile, I also look at the limitations of anonymity practices and at the ways in which transnational repression continues to shape what can be expressed, shared or imagined through art in the Uyghur diaspora.