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Diagramming, Filming, Coding: Knowing Algorithmic Security Through Multimodal Making

This seminar session will welcome Francesco Ragazzi (Leiden University). He will present the projet "Security Vision", which focuses on AI-based vision technologies.

Event, Research Seminar

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salle Goguel, 56 rue des saint pères, 75007 Paris

Abstract

This talk presents the research project Security Vision, which examines contemporary security systems, particularly AI-based vision technologies such as emotion recognition, violence detection, and movement tracking. The project’s premise is that these complex sociotechnical systems cannot be fully captured by conventional qualitative or quantitative methods; instead, practices like mapping, diagramming, reconstructing, filming, and coding provide access to non-propositional forms of knowledge—tacit assumptions, affective thresholds of classification, and the operational aesthetics through which security claims gain credibility. Multimodal methods are thus not auxiliary tools for communication but central instruments of scientific inquiry. The seminar will draw on specific cases, including a collective data-visualization and diagramming project, the reconstruction of emotional AI datasets, the analysis of a violence-detection algorithm, and an interactive installation re-enacting people-tracking systems.

Biography

Francesco Ragazzi is Associate Professor in International Relations at Leiden University (Netherlands) and co-director of ReCNTR, the Center for Audio-Visual and Multimodal Methods (Leiden University). His research interests include algorithmic security politics and multimodal / audio-visual methods in international politics. His work has been published in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes. His films (directed or produced) have been selected in festivals such as Torino Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Visions Du Réel. He is as co-editor in chief of the journal PARISS and serves on the editorial board of the journals International Political Sociology, Citizenship Studies and Cultures & Conflits. He has been consulted as an expert on issues of security by the European Parliament, the Council of Europe and the French Senate.

Practical information

This seminar will be held in person and in English, on Tuesday, June 16, 2026, from 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM, in room Goguel, 56 rue des Saints-Pères, 75007 Paris.

Registration is mandatory via this link.