Papers by Ryanne Bleumink
Science & Technology Studies
This paper explores how race comes to matter in the practice of police facial composite drawing. ... more This paper explores how race comes to matter in the practice of police facial composite drawing. The confidential nature of criminal investigations prevented us from using research material collected through observations of police practices. The authors developed an experimental film project in collaboration with two forensic artists to illuminate the production of (visual) differences in the context of facial composite drawing. We recorded the process using a variety of technologies to produce different materializations of the drawing event. The experimental setting created a reflexive space for all participants, albeit not in the same way. Tinkering with the materials generated allowed us to analyze the enactment and slipperiness of race in practice. This paper combines written text with experimental montage to address three different practices through which race takes shape in the process of making facial composite drawings: 1) touching as describing; 2) layering and surfacing; a...
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Science & Technology Studies, 2021
This methodographic paper explores the performativity and materiality of methods in STS research ... more This methodographic paper explores the performativity and materiality of methods in STS research practice. Studying the absent presence of race in facial composite drawing in the Netherlands, the confidential nature of criminal investigations put constraints on our possibilities to study this practice. To generate data to work with, we created an ethnographic experiment producing two facial composites in collaboration with two forensic artists. We recorded the drawing process using a variety of (audiovisual) technologies to produce different materializations of the event. Tinkering with and analyzing the generated materials sensitized the ethnographers to three different modes of doing difference in which race surfaces in the process of facial composite drawing: 1) touching as describing; 2) layering and surfacing; and 3) articulating the common. We argue that different modes of doing ethnography, for instance, conducting research with audiovisual and experimental methods, can open up new ground to approach difficult and slippery objects such as race.
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Papers by Ryanne Bleumink