Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality.
Log in
- Convenors:
-
Susanne Oechsner
(University of Klagenfurt)
Katharina Kinder-Kurlanda (University of Klagenfurt)
Matthias Wieser (University of Klagenfurt)
Send message to Convenors
- Chair:
-
Susanne Oechsner
(University of Klagenfurt)
- Format:
- Traditional Open Panel
Short Abstract:
What makes drones act? What complex interplay of heterogeneous actors and data shapes drone agency? We invite contributions that explore drone interaction and agency in different use contexts and communities of practice, and that investigate sensing, datafication, visualization, automation and more.
Long Abstract:
In recent years, we have witnessed the proliferation of engagement with drones, in their development and deployment as well as in the critical reflection of drone imaginaries (e.g. Graae & Maurer, 2021; Grewal, 2017), their visual and sensory regimes (e.g. Gregory, 2011; Wilke, 2017; Parks, 2014; Agostinho et al., 2020) and the at times violent lived experience of being in their scope (e.g. Gregory 2017; Wall & Monahan 2011). As a sociotechnology of (in)security (Suchman et al. 2017), drones have had a sustained presence in warfare, policing and surveillance, and increasingly in conservation, agriculture, environmental monitoring, disaster relief, humanitarian aid, activism and cultural production (Fish & Richardson 2022).
Drones as sensing and data-processing technologies produce multiple and heterogeneous sensory data from interactions between drones, humans and the environment. In this panel we want to focus on drone interaction and agency in different use contexts. We invite theoretical as well as empirical contributions to discuss what allows drones to take on the role of agents, how this role is sustained, and what its effects are: What makes drones act? What complex interplay of heterogeneous actors and data shapes drone agency in different use contexts?
Contributions to the panel will be invited to ask questions related to areas of investigation such as:
- Production: What data are produced in certain situations of interaction? What is represented, amplified, and (in)visibilized and how?
- Learning: How do drones learn from data how to act? How do they become attuned to other actors in the environment? How can drone agency become and remain transparent to humans?
- Circulation: Where does drone data move and into what practices does it get integrated? How does it create value and for what communities of practice? How is data made useful for further drone development?
Accepted papers:
Session 1Elisa Serafinelli (Manchester Metropolitan University)
Short abstract:
Drones are changing the ways we see our surroundings and our visual practices. From an interdisciplinary sociocultural framework, I explore how drones alter visual narratives and influence our understanding of the world.
Long abstract:
The common denominator of most (if not all) drone applications is the ability to capture images from new and different angles or in dangerous situations, providing visual aesthetics never seen before (Serafinelli and O’Hagan, 2022). Despite the growing interest surrounding drones, not much attention has been given to their visual impacts from a sociocultural standpoint. My research bridges this gap by exploring the role of drone-generated visuals in shaping new visual practices, applications, and understanding of our world.
In the context of constant technological developments, the growing use of drones opens new debates on the relationship between media and mobility (Hildebrand, 2019), material practices (Howley, 2018), and vertical power (Kaplan, 2018).
My research employs an interdisciplinary theoretical framework that includes science and technology studies (Jasanoff and Kim, 2015), cultural studies (Aiello and Parry, 2019), and human-computer interaction (Zemnukhova, 2013). This approach further honours the principle that a nuanced understanding of visual practices needs to consider the interaction between technological use and its integration into individual experiences, knowledge, and broader socio-cultural contexts (Pink, 2021, 2023).
My analysis delves into the synergy of technology, data, and human interaction that empowers drones devices to redefine visual narratives. Central to my analysis is how drones extend our capacity to see, perceive, and engage with our surroundings in unprecedented ways (Serafinelli, in press). This includes the generation of unique images that differ from traditional visual conventions, such as 360 degrees panorama, and top-down perspectives, and shadow play, thereby contributing new vocabulary to our sociocultural imaginaries (Serafinelli and O’Hagan, 2022).
Conclusively, my research endeavours to advance critical reflections on the augmented visual perception enabled by drones as well as the complex and wide-ranging effects these devices exert on our geographical conceptions and daily experiences.
List of References
Aiello, G. and Parry, Kate (2019) Visual communication: understanding images in media culture. 1st edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Hildebrand, J.M. (2019) ‘Consumer drones and communication on the fly’, Mobile Media & Communication, 7(3), pp. 395–411.
Howley, K. (2018) Drones: media discourse and the public imagination. New York ; Bern ; Frankfurt ; Berlin: Peter Lang.
Jasanoff, S. and Kim, S.-H. (eds) (2015) Dreamscapes of modernity: sociotechnical imaginaries and the fabrication of power. Chicago ; London: The University of Chicago Press.
Kaplan, C. (2018) Aerial aftermaths: wartime from above. Durham: Duke University Press (Next wave).
Pink, S. (2021) Doing visual ethnography. 4th ed. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.
Pink, S. (2023) Emerging technologies: life at the edge of the future. London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Serafinelli, E, (in press) Drones in Society: New Visual Aesthetics, London: Palgrave.
Serafinelli, E. and O’Hagan, L.A. (2022) ‘Drone views: a multimodal ethnographic perspective’, Visual Communication, p. 147035722110650.
Zemnukhova, L.V. (2013) ‘Human-Computer Interaction through Sociological Lens’, International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, pp. 232–236.
Youngrim Kim (Rutgers University)
Short abstract:
How do drones shape the visual culture of transboundary air pollution politics in China and South Korea? This paper explores the role of these new aerial media and their "vertical mediation" of toxic air in shaping public discourse on transnational air governance.
Long abstract:
This paper examines the visual cultures of transboundary air pollution politics in China and South Korea. Air pollution in Northeast Asia has become a transnational concern due to pollutants crossing borders via seasonal winds. This toxic air, carrying invisible nanoparticles, triggers various respiratory illnesses and has been a significant public health concern in both countries since the 2010s. However, the shared environmental problem has become a sensitive subject of geopolitical and ethno-racial tension between China and South Korea. As experts debate the origin of pollutants—whether they come from China or are generated within Korean territory—significant investments have been made in recent years in new technologies to surveil the flow of polluted air along the aerial border between the two countries. For example, the Korean government partnered with NASA in 2016 to develop data-driven tools for monitoring transboundary air pollution from space. I refer to these technologies that capture and visualize air as “aerial media,” which include sensor-attached drones, airplanes, satellite imagery, and others. Through an analysis of representations of air pollution in major Korean news outlets, this paper demonstrates how these new aerial media and their “vertical mediation” (Parks, 2016) of the toxic air transform public discourse on transnational air governance. Specifically, it explores how this vertical mediation of air unveils the post-Cold War geopolitics in Northeast Asia, underscoring South Korea’s profound anxiety regarding China’s ascent in global tech power—which leaves behind "toxic dust" as its material and symbolic residue.
Jens Hälterlein (Paderborn University)
Short abstract:
The paper is engaging with concepts and embodiments of drone swarms as a specific form of autonomous weapon systems. Based on the analysis of two military research and development projects, questions about a swarm agency or distributed agency in human-swarm assemblages will be addressed.
Long abstract:
The paper is engaging with concepts and embodiments of drone swarms as a specific form of autonomous weapon systems. Current military discourse in the US and many other nations assigns robotic swarms a significant role in future warfare - especially in potential conflicts with adversaries who are equipped with modern information and communication technology and are therefore to be considered equal opponents. Based on complexity theory concepts of collective intelligence, emergence and adaptivity, robotic swarms are seen as the key to superiority on the "battlespaces" of the future. On the other hand, swarms also pose a problem in that they have their own agency, which defies claims to controllability and predictability and therefore implies a lack of responsibility and trust. In addition, the political demand for a meaningful human control of Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (LAWS) as well as fundamental military Command and Control (C2) concepts pose specific challenges for the design of human-swarm interactions and human-swarm teaming.
Against the background of these discourses and imaginations, I would like to present two military research and development projects that (among other things) deal with robotic swarms and analyze their implications for swarm agency or distributed agency in human-swarm assemblages: Firstly, the DARPA project Offensive Swarm Enabled Tactics (OFFSET) and secondly, a relevant part of the European major armament project Future Combat Air System (FCAS).
Pedro Francisco (University of Virginia)
Short abstract:
This work explores military drones in the Brazilian Armed Forces as essential actors in the military-industrial complex. Through a multi-situated ethnography, it demonstrates how drones' circulation shapes military institutions and defense markets, highlighting their role as enablers and promoters.
Long abstract:
Drones have been adopted by the Brazilian Armed Forces since the beginning of the 2000s. Until 2019, their use was restricted to exceptional situations and tended to have an experimental character: operations in border regions, military exercises, or as surveillance tools on special occasions, such as the mega-events held in Brazil in the last decade. It is possible to state that the primary function of military drones in Brazil was to be part of military doctrine development processes focused on intelligence, surveillance, and monitoring operations. However, besides this function, the military drone is also a commodity and, as such, has a fundamental role. When analyzed in their circulations as socio-technical arrangements, drones can be observed not only as mere intermediaries but also as enablers and promoters of individuals, military institutions, private companies, and defense and security policies. In this work, carried out from a multi-situated ethnography done between 2016 and 2019 with military personnel from the Brazilian Armed Forces in military exercises, seminars, workshops, and defense and security technology fairs, I demonstrate that when drones circulate, going from their manufacturers to exhibitions and, eventually, reaching the hands of their end users, they actually take part in the relationships that structure the military-industrial complex. In other words, this work shows how drones are actors currently contributing to the maintenance and transformation of military institutions and the defense and security market.
Nina Swen (International Institute of Social Studies)
Short abstract:
This paper questions the transformative potential of drones for environmental monitoring. Based on ethnographic research in the Amazon, it shows the limitations of drone agency in tropical conditions and raises questions about their value and impact on indigenous sovereignty.
Long abstract:
Drones have gained prominence as tools for environmental monitoring and conservation efforts in the Amazon, with international NGOs and funders proclaiming their emancipatory potential in enabling indigenous communities to document deforestation and contamination. However, departing from these portrayals of drones as transformative agents, this paper reframes drones as fragile, fickle, and unstable devices that perpetuate dependencies.
Drawing from ethnographic research and firsthand experience implementing a drone project to monitor oil spills in the Peruvian Amazon, the paper highlights the myriad challenges of flying drones in this environment. Oil spills, often occurring beneath dense canopy cover, defy conventional aerial surveillance methods, limiting the efficacy of drone photography. Moreover, the heat and humidity of the rainforest exacerbate technical issues, with drone batteries overheating and shutting down. Furthermore, the paper illustrates how accidental entanglements with spiders, swamps and spirits interfere and disrupt the functioning of drones, countering their supposed detachment.
Critically examining the narratives used to promote drone projects in the Amazon, including the assumed juxtaposition of indigeneity and technology, this paper questions if, and what kind of value drones can produce in such contexts, and for whom. Despite their touted emancipatory promise, the fragility of drones, coupled with their constant need for repair and replacement, ultimately undermines indigenous data sovereignty.
Through this exploration, the paper contributes to a deeper understanding of the agency, as well as the vulnerability, of drones. It furthermore invites critical reflection on the broader implications of the promotion of drones for indigenous territorial vigilance by external actors.