Twin Faces as Sites of Uncertainty in Algorithmic Image Cultures

In November 2017, a number of identical twin social media stars with vast online followings posted videos on their YouTube accounts to mark the release of the iPhone X. There was one feature of the new range of phones that the twins were especially excited to test for their millions of followers: Face ID. This new security system seemed to be a gift to twin consumer tech reviewers determined to identify flaws in the interface: what better test for face-recognition algorithms than identical twin faces? Most videos showed the twins were able to unlock each other’s phones. But Face ID is only the latest biometric technology promising to ‘stabilize the messy ambiguity of identity, to automatically read a stable, individual identity off the body’. Biometric systems emerged in parallel with twin studies methodologies during the second half of the nineteenth century, in response to the rapid growth of an urban population deemed a potential threat to security.