Audiovisual – Motion Graphics
Editorial
Photography
Biometric
security
The entrance door
In social theory, Bruno Latour (2021) discussed how nonhumans are delegated with functions traditionally given to human actors, such as the automatic door or the speed bump that act as their human counterpart would do but in a different way. Early 2022, our compound installed a facial recognition door entry system at its three entrances. I first had to register my face with a photograph at the local bureau. Then, every time I would come back from work or from a walk outside, the doors would automatically open after scanning my face. This would not replace the guards as they were still at the entrance to open the door in case there was an issue or if delivery drivers would come in, but that probably facilitated their job in managing people’s entrances under a strict zero-covid policy. In such an extreme scenario, the facial recognition system was linked to our health kit and the door would open if a PCR test was done according to the latest policies. The door would remain closed if it could not recognize the face or the PCR test was not done correctly, the latest inducing morality and indirectly restraining one’s basic right to return home. Guards would still open the door or even let people enter behind others as the norm was rather to regulate than to prohibit, but this would be enough to show how technology would take agency over people in rather sensitive ways.
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Latour, B. (2021) Where Are the Missing Masses? The Sociology of a Few Mundane Artifacts, in Deborah G. Johnson and Jameson M. Wetmore (eds.), Technology and Society, Second Edition, MIT Press, pp.103–120.
Posted: December 25th, 2022
Technology
and politics
A series of thoughts
Jiang Zeming, former president of China from 1989 to 2002, died the 30th of November 2022. From that day until his state funeral a week later, many popular applications turned to black and white to mourn him. For not only one day but a full week, users would see products that are usually colourful and attractive to be suddenly presented in grey. This would be a perfect example of how politics shape technology’s impact on society, or how ideology regulates consumerism in a market economy with Chinese characteristics. It is also interesting to think about colour on how it conveys meaning. In this context, vibrancy and saturation symbolise life, activity, variety and consumerism while a scale of grey means sobriety by reminding the death of a political leader, as if the State wanted to restrain its citizens in their impulses. By imposing a change in the slightest detail of everyday life, the State shows its presence and strength. Colours and their momentary disappearance are only a kind reminder of such presence.
Posted: December 25th, 2022
Beijing Health Kit
Every day for three years
In China, WeChat is the equivalence of WhatsApp with the same chat function, but it is also a social media as one can share photos, videos, and messages on a public wall. However, one of its most important functions besides the chat is the mobile payment option linked to a bank account. WeChat Pay is easy and quick to use as one just need to scan others' QR codes or letting them scanning 'us', as we would say. Scanning a QR code hasn't only changed the way people pay but also the social interaction during the transaction as one just enters the shop, searches the QR code usually visible at the entrance or somewhere close to the vendor, scans it, pays, and almost no words are needed. In a sense, WeChat Pay determines how we pay as its digital wallet has entirely replaced physical coins and bills in the cities.
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It is important to first introduce WeChat Pay as people got increasingly used to scanning QR codes on a daily basis, sharing their data and not resisting such technological determinism. Since the Covid-19 pandemic started, a widespread tracing program made its appearance, the Beijing Health Kit, as one of the most used mini-programs embedded to WeChat. Record on vaccination is found but more importantly the last PCR tests done. It also detects if one has been in a high-risk area, which would instantly bring pop-up windows, the green code would change to orange and one would receive calls from the local bureaus to stay home for an enforced home quarantine. From mid 2020 to late 2022, the Health Kit QR code had to be scanned every day, everywhere, before entering supermarkets, restaurants, shopping malls, parks, any building or residential area. Requirements varied as scanning was first asked to check if the code was green and one did not visit any high-risk area, which was the primary function of the Health Kit, but since March 2022 it started to also go hand in hand with Beijing testing policies.
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The capital decided to let people enter public places with a PCR test done in the last 24h, 48h or 72h. Rules changed according to the severity of the outbreaks, as a 24h test was required in April 2022, 72h were required in summer and since November we were required a 48h test to move anywhere, even for taking the subway. Needless to say, the Beijing Health Kit as platform is political and only exists to enforce China’s zero-covid policy; influencing the way people live by restraining them in their movements. As all platform driven by politics, it will lack of meaning as laws change, as it already happened in the last two weeks where the state abruptly abandoned its restrictions. Soon enough, the Beijing Health Kit will become obsolete, as its tween the travel code, which stopped to work the 13th of December 2022.
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As the Health Kit shaped people's everyday life for three years, it is interesting to see how the program’s interface design evolved. For example, the coloured circles around the profile picture were suddenly animated to avoid people from using screenshots, which would only show still circles and then allow them to fake their condition. Also, the number of days since the last PCR test was done was highlighted in size and boldness so a guard could see it in less than two seconds. Not only visuals would let the guards know if conditions were met, as the program also had a voice that would automatically mention the number. I have to say that I would often keep the sound low in case the scan would not work, generating an annoying and embarrassing alarm. For many years, beijingers will remember the meaning of "no abnormal conditions" and the anxiety that came along.
Posted: December 20th, 2022
