Abstract
Nowadays, the face appears as one of the most relevant and controversial bio-techno-political battlefield. The paper defines the ‘Algorithmic Facial Image’ (AFI) as the image generated by the aggression of new algorithmic technologies over the face. The AFI is a form of ‘Machinic Selfie’ characterized by a new genre of algorithmically constructed liveness and non-human agency. If security-oriented face-tracking technologies are built on the idea that one’s face is unique, the amount of entertaining face-tweaking apps suggests the opposite—the face is trackable, and its uniqueness hackable. Thus, the face turns into the site where contradictory regimes of truth coexist in a form which keeps an appearance of immediacy while hiding layers of algorithmic complexity. How does this regime of truth relate to processes of ‘datafication’ and value extraction?
(The chapter is a new version of a text which appeared on Aprja journal in July 2018. Azar, Mitra. 2018. ‘Algorithmic Facial Image. Regimes of truth and datafication’. Aprja, Vol 7 No 1 [2018]: Research Values, 2018-07-06.)
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Azar, M. (2021). Algorithmic Facial Image (AFI), Datafication and Truth Value. In: Della Ratta, D., Lovink, G., Numerico, T., Sarram, P. (eds) The Aesthetics and Politics of the Online Self. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65497-9_13
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