Possible Bodies

Subtitles for Facial Weaponization Communiqué: Fag Face

Item number: 023
Item title: Subtitles for Facial Weaponization Communiqué: Fag Face
Author(s) of the item: Zach Blas
Year in which the item emerged culturally or was produced industrially: 2012
Entry of the item into the inventory: 11/2014
Activities in which the item participated: GenderBlending


2
00:00:20,324 --> 00:00:24,567
Today, in our world of information capital and global Empire,
3
00:00:24,567 --> 00:00:29,655
biometric control has emerged as a golden frontier for neoliberal governance.
4
00:00:29,655 --> 00:00:33,734
A multibillion dollar industry in security and marketing sectors,
5
00:00:33,734 --> 00:00:39,231
biometric companies produce devices like iris scans and facial recognition machines
6
00:00:39,231 --> 00:00:43,533
with the hopes of manufacturing the perfect automated identification tools
7
00:00:43,533 --> 00:00:47,234
that can successfully read a core identity off the body.
8
00:00:47,234 --> 00:00:49,887
Biometric devices are becoming powerful weapons
9
00:00:49,887 --> 00:00:53,404
to control and police national borders and citizenship status,
10
00:00:53,404 --> 00:00:57,420
track and target a nation or companies' enemies and criminals
11
00:00:57,420 --> 00:01:01,317
as well as to profile and parse various sectors of the public
12
00:01:01,317 --> 00:01:05,736
into potential risk categories, like activists.
13
00:01:05,736 --> 00:01:08,450
Biometrics also determine marketing strategies
14
00:01:08,450 --> 00:01:11,209
through standardized algorithmic processing
15
00:01:11,209 --> 00:01:15,605
of identification markers such as gender and race.
16
00:01:15,605 --> 00:01:20,662
Biometric technologies rely heavily on stable and normative
conceptions of identity,

17
00:01:20,662 --> 00:01:24,762
and thus, structural failures are encoded in biometrics that discriminate
18
00:01:24,762 --> 00:01:28,908
against race, class, gender, sex, and disability.

edit