De and Re territorialization: A study on the impact of biometric facial recognition, its application in surveillance systems, and responses to it from the field of contemporary art

This research attempt to bring contribution and a complementary response to elucidate biometric facial recognition technology in the field of visual culture and contemporary arts. This paper reviews Gilles Deleuze’s studies on society of control; Shoshana Zuboff’s studies on surveillance capitalism; Kelly Gate’s concerns on biometric power in society; also, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s study on deterritorialization and reterritorialization. Then I attempt to study modern surveillance systems, the application of technology in surveillance systems, and the impact of technology on human rights and human privacy. Furthermore, I investigate the significance of the face in biometric recognition and study artistic responses to biometric surveillance. Finally, this research launches an artistic component on deterritorialization and reterritorialization: transforming numeric codes into visual languages for surface design. In this artistic component, it contributes to offer a new perspective in contemporary art. I generate QR-codes from texts of 1984 and transform QR-codes into multiple types of visual language for surface design on ski masks. It links to the idea of a practical application and theoretical thinking on facial recognition technology, coding, decoding, and surveillance theories, also shows certain new possibilities and practical implications for future studies in visual culture, contemporary art, and design. This project is titled De and Re territorialization as a short form of deterritorialization and reterritorialization. It is a new phrase that brings with it my own visual languages and expression in responding to the impact of biometric facial recognition