Concealment of the face and new physiognomies

Abstract

Facial recognition technology has enabled governments and private companies to have control of millions of faces in different countries around the world. This becomes dangerous since it threatens the privacy of citizens, which is why different activists demonstrate against this form of control and surveillance using different technological and aesthetic resources to prevent said recognition. This work aims at showing how face concealment can be a powerful semiotic device that can slow down or divert facial recognition technology, configuring new physiognomies. We begin by characterizing the forms of concealment of the face in the contemporary digital age, and then we analyze, from a semiotic perspective, a particular case: the different types of makeup that Adam Harvey proposes so that faces cannot be recognized. The results of the investigation show how this form of face concealment that generates new physiognomies builds political senses of resistance against advanced technology that aims to identify, monitor, and control human faces.