Drone Aesthetics : War, Culture, Ecology

Abstract

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.