The “cryptocurrencies” in my title refers to what are generally called virtual currencies. The real reason for creating this work lies in a very personal experience about money.

Cryptocurrencies, being virtual, have no real bills or coins. They are stored in invisible wallets. The biggest difference about cryptocurrencies is the lack of any central authority like a bank or other institution. If you lose the password you set for your wallet, no one will ever be able again to access your cryptocurrencies. Therefore, cryptocurrencies are essentially predicated on self-responsibility and self-management.

Your last resort if you forget your password is a decryption key. My work is grouped into 15 sets of photos with one word for each set. These form my decryption key. Because decryption keys are formed randomly, the words themselves have absolutely no meaning.

I took photos of 15 places out of 10 countries around the world and created 15 books with the 15 words of the decryption key. Because the group of words is a password, if you get the order wrong, you will decode a different wallet. To ensure I won't mess up the word order, I made these books that associate the locations where I took the photos and my own memories.

For example, the first book — “know” — are photos of the Philippines. When I was five, my aunt took me to the Philippines. The sixth book — “unhappy” — are photos of Iceland, a country I have never been to. I have a memory of becoming infatuated with the Icelandic singer Björk when I was 16. In this way, the locations I photographed were locations associated with events I will always remember.

Normally, you mustn't let other people know your decryption key, but everyone can use this decryption key and access my wallet.

Another reason for conceiving this work was the idea that photos and currencies share some common traits. Images are translated into data and viewed on smartphones and computers; rarely are they translated into analog form. Currencies, too, are often exchanged today through bank transfers, credit card payments, and the like without using real paper money.

One more impetus was that money has such a poor image in Japan. When I go somewhere and take photos, it is an economic activity from the viewpoint of a company. But from my viewpoint, it is the act of an artist producing a work. My thinking is that new value is produced as an outcome of such activities, and this value is converted into money as a visible and necessary credit. Despite this, money seems to be haunted by a negative image in today's Japan.

The true transforming power of cryptocurrencies is not the convenience of going cashless. It is the tremendous changes they will bring to our lives by erasing national borders and other boundary lines created by money. A society will rise up constructed on some kind of valuation other than money replacing those structures built up in the past by money. I'm very excited about this. I don't know what kind of future cryptocurrencies will ultimately bring about, but I'm really hoping for a new future will come, in the way this work will weather away in an instant.