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Short abstract:

Using a multi-modal approach that brings together Media Theory, STS and Critical Security Studies, this contribution explores the slow ‘tinkering’ of European security infrastructures as a process generative of new practices through both qualitative and art methods.

Long abstract:

In its pursuit of further security cooperation, the European Union is about to set up a new data infrastructure for the circulation of biometric data. In November 2023, the European Union (EU) institutions reached a political agreement on the so-called Prüm II regulation. This initiative foresees, among other things, the creation of a novel IT system that reorganizes the transnational circulation of DNA and fingerprint data in the context of law enforcement cooperation, and creates new avenues for the exchange of facial images. In perspective, this novel infrastructure superimposes existing socio-material and legal practices of European security (foreseen under the existing Prüm framework), some of which have never been fully implemented as expected. Bringing Media Theory into the traffic between STS and Critical Security Studies, this paper explores how plans for a novel data infrastructure are both generative and remediative processes. That is, how a major policy program does not only promise to create new practices, but in fact hits the ground running even before the start of its implementation, and this is because it must deal with legacy systems (or their lack of implementation). Paraphrasing Karin Knorr (1979), this contribution aims to unearth the slow tinkering of European security, whereby attempts to overcome existing and foreseeable socio-material and legal frictions are as important as debates about ideals and values. In the spirit of the DATAUNION project’s multimodal approach, the paper explores how we can study the coming into being of European security infrastructures through both qualitative and art methods.