Paper short abstract:

Drawing on a case study of the use of remote biometric monitoring during the pandemic, this presentation describes the "becoming granular" of biopolitics: the use of automated systems to intervene in customized, targeted interventions in the physical environment.

Paper long abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic has provided opportunities for facial recognition technology and other forms of biometric monitoring to expand into new markets. One anticipated result is the wholesale reconfiguration of shared and public space enabled by the automated identification and tracking of individuals in real time. Drawing on data from several industry trade shows, this article considers the forms of ‘environmental’ governance envisioned by those developing and deploying the technology for the purposes of security, risk management, and profit. We argue that the ‘contactless culture’ that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic anticipates the normalization a form of granular or mass customized biopolitics: the ability to operate on the population and the individual simultaneously via automated forms of passive identification. This form of governance relies not just on machinic recognition, but on the real-time reconfiguration of physical space via automated access controls and the channeling of both people and information.