Skin White Algorithm

Alice Marcelino uses photography to explore how migration, tradition, and identity intersect and evolve across cultures in today’s global society. Drawing from Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks, this work explores how colonial ideologies persist within algorithmic systems where Blackness is frequently coded as threatening or deviant. These inherited prejudices are masked as objectivity, amplifying harm through seemingly neutral processes. By converting mugshots into ASCII code, the universal language of computers, Marcelino highlights how individuals are stripped of humanity and reduced to data, offering a critique and a reflection of how race and identity are shaped in the digital age. Notable exhibitions include Albuns de Familia: Fotografias da diáspora Africana em Portugal, Padrão dos Descobrimentos Lisbon, (2024); Polirritmia, MOVART gallery in collaboration with World African Artist United and MEXTO, Lisbon, (2024); 1-54 Fair, London, (2023); AKAA Art & Design Fair, MOVART gallery, Paris, (2022) and Kitoko - Stories from the Black Diaspora, Galeria Arte de Almada, Portugal, (2021).