Dronedeutung

Call for papers: Drone Theory / Dronedeutung

Deadline: 1 December, 2015 (extended deadline) 

The imaginary of modernity hinges on the technological mastery of the environment. Through technical extension, modern humans appear to dominate their surroundings. Yet, a specific segment  of its milieu seemed to elude modernity's reach: air space. Breached by fearless daredevils, wartime pilots and, eventually, opened up to large-scale travel and transport, air space remains hard to navigate and inhospitable to human colonisation. As such, it poses an ever-present affront to modernity's pretensions. From this point of view, drones seem to offer the fulfillment of an outstanding promise: the further expansion of human mobility and freedom, bringing air space into the everyday precisely by unmanning the device of flight and more thoroughly dominating earth's terrain from the skies. Walter Benjamin seemed already aware of the promise inherent in such technology:

'The achievements of the first technology might be said to culminate in human sacrifice; those of the second, in the remote-controlled aircraft which needs no human crew.' (Benjamin (2002) ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility' (Second Version), Selected Writings Volume 3, p. 107)

Yet, this promise of modernity's drone-assisted conquest of air space is far from uncomplicated, both technically, politically and aesthetically. The notion of the drone or Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) becomes more confusing the more we become aware of its far-reaching implementations. Drones are primarily associated with attacks and anonymous victims. At the same time, we hear about drones for picking strawberries, drones for anti-whaling activism, and the emerging field of 'drone journalism'.

This special issue of Krisis aims at a better understanding of this object by placing the different kinds of vehicles in their various social and conceptual contexts. When does a technology become a killer or a saviour or a service vehicle? Is it a question of usage, of naming, or a problematic politics embodied in the technology itself? How is the relation between land, air and space reconfigured? At the same time, Krisis wants to reflect upon the new kind of concepts and aesthetics that arise with UAVs. How have artists and technology enthusiasts used drones in ways that allow for new understanding?

Drone strikes have changed our understandings of war and killing. How do anonymity and technologically mediated distance operate within the moral discourse about warfare? What strategies do victims and activists engage in, as they try to give faces to the faceless victims, for instance by transmitting them to the drone operator's screen? (Inside Out Project.) Do drone operators suffer from new forms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder? And can we critically evaluate the assumptions behind the word 'unmanned'? Krisis also wishes to better understand the normative challenges associated with the rise of the drones.

UAVs also change our awareness of our movements, our notions of public and private space and our perception of being visible, as this becomes 'resolutionary': What happens when becoming invisible requires becoming smaller than a pixel, as expressed in the work of artist Hito Steyerl? What kind of legal repertoire is needed to cope with drones, as they do not easily correspond to previous and more static forms of CCTV surveillance? Do we need new alarm systems in our homes that are able to detect robots the size of a fly?

Flight and the aesthetics of flying involve complex emulation and control of nature. How have the aesthetics of 'wing control', and animals able to fly in reverse, inspired drone technology? How does this form also inspire artistic interventions, such as 'Drones for Filesharing' that repurposes today's most dangerous defense technology for a form of piracy that painfully disturbs corporate and state actors?

Finally, it is important to take into account the rather massive attention given to drones in recent years. What to make of this reception and public imagination - or even drone fetishism - with regards to UAVs? Might there be something like a drone fatigue coming? How can we engage with drones without lapsing into a politics of spectacle and reductionist accounts of technological determinism?

We invite contributions that combine philosophical reflection and detailed analysis of:
- the disentanglement of, and critical evaluation of, the jumble of words like UAVs (Unmanned Air Vehicles), UASs (Unmanned Aircraft Systems), RPASs (Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems), Killer Drones and Combat Drones;
- changing notions of war, trauma and victimization;
- the sensory politics and aesthetics involved with the use of UAVs and/or drones;
- the creative re-appropriation of UAV-associated technology;
- the legal-philosophical consequences of, or proposals for, the use of UAVs;
- the ethics of technological systems with respect to UAVs and/or drones and the normative challenges they pose;
- the reception practices of drones within popular media and how to understand these philosophically;
- the practices of UAV associations and research clusters.

We are also looking for book reviews or review essays on these topics.

Krisis also accepts Dutch language contributions.

Word limits, excluding bibliographies, are as follows :
Articles (peer-reviewed): 7000 words;
Essays (non-peer reviewed): 5000 words;
Review essays: 4000 words;
Book reviews: 2000 words.

See here for additional information on submissions. Please send submissions to info@krisis.eu before 1 December, 2015.