[spectre] Unmanned Aerial Ecologies: proto-drones, airspace and canaries in the mine

[Honor Harger]

Dear Spectres,

I just wanted to let you know that I've posted up the notes from a 
recent talk I gave about the use of drones, or unmanned aerial 
vehicles, in tactical media art: http://is.gd/aerialecologies

It is absolutely not intended as an exhaustive survey (that might 
come later), but does include some details about some canonical 
tactical media pieces from the late 1990s, that some of you might 
find interesting, including work by Marko Peljhan and the Bureau of 
Inverse Technology.

The intention with the talk, and with the write-up, was to place the 
work Lighthouse is presenting at this year's Brighton Festival - 
'Under the Shadow of the Drone' by James Bridle, and 'The Air Itself 
is one Vast Library' by Mariele Neudecker (http://is.gd/BF2013) in a 
wider art historical context, and to acknowledge some of the 
significant interventions that artists working in our field have made 
over the past 10-15 years.

As many of us know, today many other artists - Jordan Crandall, Alex 
Rivera, Matthew Battles, Ricardo Dominguez, Adam Harvey, to name but 
a few - are making work about the impact of drones on our lives.  But 
I feel it's useful and interesting to look back at some of the 'prior 
art', so to speak.

It's a talk, not an essay, so forgive the conversational language.

Let me know what you think.

Best,

Honor Harger
Artistic Director, Lighthouse, Brighton, UK

-------------------------------------------

Unmanned Aerial Ecologies: proto-drones, airspace and canaries in the mine
Notes from a talk by Honor Harger, 16 April, 2013
http://is.gd/aerialecologies

This write-up aims to show how media artists have, for the past 15 
years, created projects which presciently framed and contextualsied 
the issues and technologies which have collided to enable today's 
drone-wars.  During this period, the work of a selected group of 
media artists expressed an understanding, and an unease, with the 
expanding technological capacity of commercial and military 
organisations.  As their ability to carry out acts of pervasive 
surveillance and aggression, using technologies such as UAVs, grew, 
so did the concern of a generation of artists using the tools and 
strategies of tactical media. Artists such as Marko Peljhan, Bureau 
of Inverse Technology and Trevor Paglen created canonical works 
between 1998 and 2008 that both revealed the growing capabilities of 
drone technologies, but also used these very capabilities to turn our 
attention towards the manufacturers and users of these devices. 
These were classic acts of tactical media, a form of activist art 
practice, that goes beyond mere revelation, and actively intervenes 
within a system deemed to be morally, politically or ethically 
problematic.

Today, a new generation of practitioners his emerged who are 
monitoring and critiquing the use of drones not only for military 
purposes, but also for civilian activities. Their hallmark is a 
playful curiosity, about how these technologies may be integrated 
into our daily lives.  Working in parallel to the growing movement of 
UAVers, the ham radio operators of the drone world, these artists and 
makers, are hacking freely available UAV technology to create unusual 
aerial antics. But whilst these blithe, inquiring actions are needed 
and valid, in the meantime, the drone-war continues, with hundreds of 
civilians killed each year, its remit ever expanding.  It would seem 
that now more than ever, robust, critical, tactical media 
interventions, are urgently required.

The illustrated notes are here: http://is.gd/aerialecologies

I must acknowledge the generous help of Marko Peljhan, Kate Rich, 
Natalie Jeremijenko, and Usman Haque who helped situate this 
research. And thank you to all the artists and technologists cited, 
including Trevor Paglen, Timo Arnall, James Bridle, Mariele Neudecker 
and Liam Young.  There's full credits and references here: 
http://is.gd/uavtalk




-- 
Honor Harger
Email: honorharger at gmail.com
Phone: +44 7765834272
http://about.me/honor

Work
Director, Lighthouse, Brighton, UK
http://www.lighthouse.org.uk

Talks
TED Talk: http://is.gd/harger
Lift: http://is.gd/lifttalk
Shift Happens: http://is.gd/shifttalk