An Audio-Visual piece that explores the presence of racial bias, and white supremacy through computer vision by London based artist Jinia Tasnin. It’s “Dumb Bitch Computer Vision” because we don’t know if we, the subject is dumb, or is the white capitalist patriarchal gaze that keeps watching us dumb.
During the age of surveillance capitalism, it’s worth investigating in what ways racism and white supremacy plays into benefitting white men in the USA creating these systems at the expense of everyone else. Technology like most other aspects of present-day life is upheld by white supremacy and when mass surveillance is part of policing society it can become a dangerous concoction of prejudice and misconceptions. These technologies are made by white people for white people to try and watch and identify non-white people (POC).
The visuals in DBCV are broken into three biased ways I may be perceived through the white patriarchal gaze:
A Brown woman: Unfortunately, due to white supremacy being the norm of the “global north”, white people suffer from a protagonist complex where they see themselves as individuals; meanwhile anyone who is non-white immediately becomes the “other”. Even terms like “POC” can be additive to this kind of thinking.
A Muslim woman: If wearing a headscarf, I will immediately be identifiable as a Muslim woman. Due to islamophobia being another major issue that white supremacy upholds, there can be dangerous prejudices that can come attached with the white gaze when watching me in this context.
A White-washed “modern” woman: I am referring to capitalism as modern day colonial ventures so when referring to modernity I mean white capitalism. This version of myself is in reference to when I had “white-washed” myself to assimilate to modernity. White washing is referring to the removal of other identities to try and assimilate into society as that is what white capitalism preaches. Success looks white therefore in order to succeed one may just have to try and be palatable for the white gaze.
More art by Jinia Tasnin: www.jiniatasnin.com