Abstract

Responses to biometrics rooted in tactical evasion, such as obfuscation, masking, and camouflaging, have taken hold in artistic and activist practices. Such responses, in different ways, reclaim a space of intelligibility and refusal of identification from digital media and computational technologies, proposing a counter-aesthetics that resists the regime of visibility imposed by ubiquitous surveillance systems. Yet, these counter-aesthetics also tend to operate within the parameters set out by these surveillance systems, rather than conceptually challenging their terms of address. This paper will discuss the tensions inhabited by these practices of withdrawal, and ask what other options of resistance beyond tactical evasion may be available. In dialogue with the artistic work of Sondra Perry, and drawing on the theoretical contributions of Wendy Chun and Kara Keeling, I ask if reclaiming a space of recognition and vulnerability, rather than concealment, might offer a different aesthetics of opacity that brings together visibility and intelligibility, wherein other subjectivities may flourish.