Drone Aesthetics: War, Culture, Ecology - new open access book

GH
Gary Hall
Tue, Aug 20, 2024 10:21 AM

Announcing the latest title in Open Humanities Press's Technographies
series:

/Drone Aesthetics: War, Culture, Ecology/
https://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/drone-aesthetics/,
edited by Beryl Pong and Michael Richardson.

https://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/drone-aesthetics/

There can be little doubt of the canonical drone aesthetic: a flattened
aeriality that moves with an inhuman smoothness, drifting and pitching
to capture an uncanny vantage. But with the unfolding, contested
landscape of drone development and proliferating drone use, how is this
disruptive technology changing our understanding of war, culture and
ecology?

This edited collection offers a pluralized understanding of drones by
bringing together twelve essays from interdisciplinary scholars working
on drone pasts and drone futures, encompassing fields such as cultural
anthropology, critical war studies, disability studies, international
relations, media studies, and cultural studies. It examines the
intersection between drones and aesthetics in terms of visual culture
and the arts; the body and its relationship to the material environment;
the mechanic capacities for sensing and sense-making; and in terms of
politics and what makes politics possible. To more fully account for the
unique politics of drone perception, it also features three visual
essays by multimedia artists whose aesthetic practices have shaped the
field of drone scholarship. Offering new ideas and arguments about the
technology, logics, and systems with which drones are intertwined, this
collection scrutinises how the aesthetics of drones are fundamental to
its ethics; how drone aesthetics are impacting the way we relate to one
another and to the human and more-than-human worlds; and how drones are
altering our relationships to life and death.

Contributors: Michele Barker, Antoine Bousquet, Kathryn
Brimblecombe-fox, Edgar Gomez Cruz, Joseph DeLappe, Jack Faber, Adam
Fish, Caren Kaplan, Amy Gaeta, Sophia Goodfriend, Mitch Goodwin, Anna
Munster, Tom Sear, J.D. Schnepf, Yanai Toister, Simon M. Taylor,
Madelene Veber.

Editor Bios

Beryl Pong is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow at the Centre for the Future
of Intelligence, University of Cambridge. She holds affiliated positions
with the Faculty of English and with Trinity College at Cambridge, and
with the Department of English, Linguistics, and Theatre Studies at the
National Univrsity of Singapore. She is the author of /British
Literature and Culture in Second World Wartime: For the Duration/ (2020).

Michael Richardson is writer, researcher, and teacher living and working
on Gadigal and Bidjigal country. He is an Associate Professor in Media
and Culture at UNSW Sydney, where he co-directs the Media Futures Hub
and the Autonomous Media Lab, and an Associate Investigator with the ARC
Centre of Excellence on Automated Decision-Making & Society. His
research and writing examines technology, power, witnessing, trauma, and
affect in contexts of war, security, and surveillance.

Like all Open Humanities Press books, Drone Aesthetics is available open
access (and can be downloaded for free):

https://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/drone-aesthetics/

--
Gary Hall
Professor of Media
Director of the Centre for Postdigital Cultures, Coventry University:
https://postdigitalcultures.org/about/

Website:http://www.garyhall.info
Follow on Mastodon here: @garyhall@hcommons.social

Latest:

'Magazine': Robot Review of Books:https://www.robotreviewofbooks.org/

Journal article: 'Culture and the University as White, Male, Liberal Humanist, Public Space', New Formations:https://journals.lwbooks.co.uk/newformations/vol-2023-issue-110/abstract-9912/ (Open access pre-print available here:https://pureportal.coventry.ac.uk/en/publications/culture-and-the-university-as-white-male-public-liberal-humanist-.)

Blog posts: 'A Brief History of Writing: From Human Meaning to Pattern Recognition and Beyond', with Joanna Zylinska, The Writing Platform:https://thewritingplatform.com/2024/05/a-brief-history-of-writing-from-human-meaning-to-computational-pattern-recognition-and-beyond/

'Creative AI: Thinking Outside the Black Box', Media Theory:https://mediatheoryjournal.org/2024/05/24/gary-hall-creative-ai-thinking-outside-the-black-box/

Announcing the latest title in Open Humanities Press's Technographies series: /Drone Aesthetics: War, Culture, Ecology/ <https://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/drone-aesthetics/>, edited by Beryl Pong and Michael Richardson. https://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/drone-aesthetics/ There can be little doubt of the canonical drone aesthetic: a flattened aeriality that moves with an inhuman smoothness, drifting and pitching to capture an uncanny vantage. But with the unfolding, contested landscape of drone development and proliferating drone use, how is this disruptive technology changing our understanding of war, culture and ecology? This edited collection offers a pluralized understanding of drones by bringing together twelve essays from interdisciplinary scholars working on drone pasts and drone futures, encompassing fields such as cultural anthropology, critical war studies, disability studies, international relations, media studies, and cultural studies. It examines the intersection between drones and aesthetics in terms of visual culture and the arts; the body and its relationship to the material environment; the mechanic capacities for sensing and sense-making; and in terms of politics and what makes politics possible. To more fully account for the unique politics of drone perception, it also features three visual essays by multimedia artists whose aesthetic practices have shaped the field of drone scholarship. Offering new ideas and arguments about the technology, logics, and systems with which drones are intertwined, this collection scrutinises how the aesthetics of drones are fundamental to its ethics; how drone aesthetics are impacting the way we relate to one another and to the human and more-than-human worlds; and how drones are altering our relationships to life and death. Contributors: Michele Barker, Antoine Bousquet, Kathryn Brimblecombe-fox, Edgar Gomez Cruz, Joseph DeLappe, Jack Faber, Adam Fish, Caren Kaplan, Amy Gaeta, Sophia Goodfriend, Mitch Goodwin, Anna Munster, Tom Sear, J.D. Schnepf, Yanai Toister, Simon M. Taylor, Madelene Veber. *Editor Bios* Beryl Pong is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow at the Centre for the Future of Intelligence, University of Cambridge. She holds affiliated positions with the Faculty of English and with Trinity College at Cambridge, and with the Department of English, Linguistics, and Theatre Studies at the National Univrsity of Singapore. She is the author of /British Literature and Culture in Second World Wartime: For the Duration/ (2020). Michael Richardson is writer, researcher, and teacher living and working on Gadigal and Bidjigal country. He is an Associate Professor in Media and Culture at UNSW Sydney, where he co-directs the Media Futures Hub and the Autonomous Media Lab, and an Associate Investigator with the ARC Centre of Excellence on Automated Decision-Making & Society. His research and writing examines technology, power, witnessing, trauma, and affect in contexts of war, security, and surveillance. Like all Open Humanities Press books, Drone Aesthetics is available open access (and can be downloaded for free): https://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/drone-aesthetics/ -- Gary Hall Professor of Media Director of the Centre for Postdigital Cultures, Coventry University: https://postdigitalcultures.org/about/ Website:http://www.garyhall.info Follow on Mastodon here: @garyhall@hcommons.social Latest: 'Magazine': Robot Review of Books:https://www.robotreviewofbooks.org/ Journal article: 'Culture and the University as White, Male, Liberal Humanist, Public Space', New Formations:https://journals.lwbooks.co.uk/newformations/vol-2023-issue-110/abstract-9912/ (Open access pre-print available here:https://pureportal.coventry.ac.uk/en/publications/culture-and-the-university-as-white-male-public-liberal-humanist-.) Blog posts: 'A Brief History of Writing: From Human Meaning to Pattern Recognition and Beyond', with Joanna Zylinska, The Writing Platform:https://thewritingplatform.com/2024/05/a-brief-history-of-writing-from-human-meaning-to-computational-pattern-recognition-and-beyond/ 'Creative AI: Thinking Outside the Black Box', Media Theory:https://mediatheoryjournal.org/2024/05/24/gary-hall-creative-ai-thinking-outside-the-black-box/