Inconsistent Projections

Con-Figuring Security Vision through Diagramming

Abstract

In this paper we propose a time-based digital tool, a diagram-in-the-making, as to learn about computer vision in the field of security. With this method we want to map the heterogeneous and multiple nature of security vision tech- nologies and their imaginaries. Concretely, we conducted qualitative interviews with professionals who develop, use or militate against these technologies and asked them to draw a diagram as to support their narrative. In spatialising the conversation, the diagrams allow for a wide variety of actants and relations to emerge. The time-based unfolding of the lines enacts imaginaries of computer vision practices which are intrinsically intertwined with the narratives of which they are part. It creates space for hesitation, uncertainties, incongruities and complexities that would have been rendered invisible in a geographic map. Through the spatial, material and temporal unfoldings of the diagrams we learn that security vision imaginaries are partial and contradictory.