English subtitles for the work Keep Moving
Chapter 1. Proposition
Proposition 65: Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act
Proposition 65 was enacted in 1986 to protect California residents from exposure to harmful chemicals that may cause cancer, reproductive harm, or birth defects.
The number of listed hazardous substances started at around 30 in 1987 and has increased to over 900 as of 2025.Among them, approximately 350 are classified as carcinogens and 550 as reproductive toxicants.
This warning applies to hundreds of thousands of items in various contexts, including products, food, buildings, and workplaces. While the warnings are mandatory, the use of the substances themselves is not prohibited.
Common items bearing Proposition 65 warnings include electronics using lead or PVC, kitchenware including ceramics, cosmetics, automotive products, a variety of furniture, and foods such as chocolate and coffee.
Case 1: Chocolate
Due to concerns over cadmium and lead content, over 30 chocolate brands were sued in 2018 by the advocacy group As You Sow for violating Proposition 65.
Cadmium is a heavy metal absorbed by cacao trees through their roots, while lead accumulates in trace amounts during harvesting, drying, transportation, and processing of cacao pods.
Even in small quantities, prolonged consumption of these substances may lead to kidney damage, neurological disorders, and reproductive toxicity.
In response, companies conducted voluntary testing, added warnings, and reformulated certain products. The lawsuit ended in a settlement.
Case 2: Coffee
Acrylamide, a chemical naturally formed during coffee roasting, was listed as a carcinogen under California Proposition 65 in 1990.
In 2010, the nonprofit Council for Education and Research on Toxics (CERT) filed a lawsuit against coffee companies, including Starbucks, for failing to provide warnings.
In 2018, the court ordered warning labels, but in the same year, California’s environmental authority proposed an exemption, stating that acrylamide in coffee posed no significant cancer risk.
This exemption was officially adopted in 2019.
Despite the exemption, legal disputes continued. In 2025, a federal court ruled that mandatory warnings on coffee violated freedom of speech and declared the requirement unconstitutional.
As a result, Proposition 65 warnings on coffee were permanently banned.
Not only foods such as French fries, chips, popcorn, bread, toast, cookies, cereals, and crackers, but also car parts, the interior air quality of new vehicles, and flame retardants used in mattresses and sofas are subject to warning requirements.
There have also been multiple cases of toys—including plastic toys and children’s accessories—testing positive for lead, cadmium, or phthalates.
These have been addressed through voluntary recalls and Proposition 65 labeling.
Approximately 40–50% of products distributed in California fall under Proposition 65 warning requirements.
The overabundance of warnings often leads to consumer confusion and desensitization.
Proposition 65 visualizes risk—but it does not eliminate it.
The warning functions as a structure of indemnity, operating under the logic that “responsibility is waived once the risk is disclosed.”
This paradoxical mechanism—making the invisible visible, only to obscure it again—is one way in which modern power manages risk.
Chapter 2. Instruction
HTTP 404 NOT FOUND
HTTP 404 Not Found is a client-side error code used when a request has been successfully sent to the server but the resource cannot be found—or when the server chooses not to reveal its existence.
It is not merely a technical error, but a formalized response that systematically communicates a rejection of the request.
Thus, a 404 error is a deliberate status message that occurs precisely because the system is functioning normally, serving as meta-information about the location and accessibility of a web resource.
By visualizing the absence of the requested information, the 404 message temporarily reveals—then conceals again—the hidden structure of the system.
It operates at the intersection of visibility and invisibility.
The incorporation of even failure into a controllable protocol exemplifies a routine technique of contemporary power.
Chapter 3. Institution The Techniques of Discipline
Like Proposition 65, systems such as airport security, GMO labeling, and emergency alerts appear to be guidance for user safety, but in reality, they shift the burden of risk and responsibility onto individuals, while reinforcing control in the hands of institutions and power structures.
These mechanisms perform power formally, while in practice maintaining control through the suspension of authority.
QR code entry systems and temperature checks, which became widespread during the COVID-19 pandemic, similarly embed automated systems of surveillance and control into daily life—much like the 404 Not Found error.
Today, power coordinates the body, senses, perception, and behavior within institutionally constructed conditions, all under the guise of “choice” and “autonomy.”
Surveillance and discipline are no longer enforced through coercion but take the form of voluntary choice and self-development.
This structure is repeated in the art world.
Artists and audiences alike internalize standards such as “creativity” and “criticality,” positioning their practices within frameworks of autonomy and subjectivity.
Artistic autonomy masks institutional autonomy as personal choice, while artistic subjectivity operates as a performed image shaped by the demand for self-optimization.
The act of proving oneself to be an “autonomous artistic subject” is less an expression of freedom and more a role repeatedly invoked and performed according to institutional conditions.
Today, freedom does not mark the absence of power—it operates as a device that conceals the restructuring of power itself.