This week’s readings, Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences [1]by Geoffrey C Bowker and Susan Leigh Star; Experimentation in humanitarian locations: UNHCR and biometric registration of Afghan refugees [2] by Katja Lindskov Jacobsen; and Body, biometrics and identity [3] by Emilio Mordini and Sonia Massari; all revolve around the use of technology to keep track of human characteristics. I feel like this topic of tracking humans through the use of biometrics is the most humanitarian subject we have looked at in this course because it deals with racial typing; installing technology to make choices instead of humans making that call. For example, in archive theory courses, we talked about how the human is still designing the programs and technology, therefore typing in their preconceived biases into the program, to track people based on their race, or other characteristic.
Article 1 took a look at the apartheid history of classifying the human to keep track of their population in South Africa. The authors make sure to point out the race classification of human beings allows for racism and through the use of a government ran classification program allowed for decades of it. Article 2 looked at the UNHCR’s use of iris detection as a way to register refugees. Article 3 focused on biometrics as a whole; stating the human body is becoming your way of being identified.
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