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Short abstract:

This paper focuses on the role of color in datafication processes to attend to the “death dealing” and “life-promoting” (Haraway 1990) capacities of data. It draws on empirical materials pertaining to natural history specimen digitization as well as the datafication of facial phenotypes.

Long abstract:

This paper takes an interest in negotiations and considerations around color in datafication processes to attend to the “death dealing” and “life-promoting” (Haraway 1990) capacities of data. It does so first of all by considering practices of digitizing natural history specimens, where making sure an image is “true to color” -representing the colors as they can be observed in live animals- is posed as a scientific concern. But color in specimen digitization is at the same time instrumental in drawing the attention of the public to the extinction of species. Ensuring the “liveliness” of a digital image, color then comes to play a crucial role in making data generative, enabling action regarding societally urgent issues. To understand and appreciate the work of color and how it informs ways of relating with and to data, the paper contrasts the digitization of specimens with the datafication of facial phenotypes. While articulating wholly different politics, considering the role of color in datafied renderings of faces demonstrates how color plays a crucial role in processes of identification, and of generating attention for unsolved cases of violent crime. The paper asks how considerations and negotiations around color, for example how to represent the “true colors” of an insect in a digital image, or whether to classify pictures of human eyes as grey or blue, point us towards questions around data and their politics of life and death.