ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 – Vision, faces, identities: technologies of recognition – focuses on the use of facial recognition in automated border control, a technology that verifies ID through visual analysis of facial traits, as well as procedures for identifying threatening objects in luggage – in both cases, by adding up multiple minute details to construct a ‘plausible story’ about the traveller. The chapter compares algorithmic and human sensory work and procedures of recognition through examples and discusses how border guards and automated systems interact, and how they mutually format each other’s vision, as well as processes of visual enskilment and deskilment. It discusses the premises for recognition and identification and the authority vested in ID photos, concluding that all it takes to pass the border is to sufficiently resemble a small ID photo.
