Many technologies we use in our everyday lives were first developed for the military. Even those as ubiquitous as computers and the internet were born from military applications and communication protocols. Drones are no different. Aerial surveillance has been a boon to military intelligence from the earliest aircraft. This technology has made its way from the military to commercial and domestic sectors, even finding humanitarian purposes. The three speakers on this panel approach drones through very different lenses: art, philosophy of science and technology, and aerospace curation and education. The seminar examines the technical and human protocols that informed the early development of drones and how they have co-evolved with commercial and household technologies since their advent. Through artist Heba Amin‘s work The General’s Stork, we consider how bio-inspired design influenced drone technology development as well as ongoing conversations about various forms of technological intelligence in warfare.

Drones and the Bird’s-Eye View is co-convened with High Line Art in the context of artist Sam Durant‘s High Line Plinth commission Untitled (drone), a large-scale fiberglass sculpture in the shape of an abstracted drone atop a 25-foot-tall steel pole. With this work, Durant seeks to make visible the intentionally obscured drone warfare perpetrated by the U.S. and remind the public that drones and surveillance are a tragic and pervasive presence in the daily lives of many living outside—and within—the United States. An extensive public engagement program for Untitled (drone) is offered in conjunction with the sculpture’s presentation, including an extended symposium hosted by High Line Art and the Vera List Center in spring 2022.

Participants:
Those registered and
Heba Amin, artist
Roger D. Connor, Curator, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
Peter Asaro, Associate Professor and Director of the Graduate Program in Media Studies at the School of Media Studies at The New School
Convened with Melanie Kress, moderator and High Line Art Associate Curator

This seminar is supported by the Barbara Jordan Lectures: The State of Democracy fund.

As for Protocols  Seminar Series
Led by Vera List Center faculty and staff, each monthly seminar in this year-long series is convened with a partner organization, collective or independent curator to examine a particular aspect of protocols, among them those relating to aerial surveillance, platform cooperativism, and jazz and modernism, enacting protocols and ethics for collaboration. Building on last year’s collaboration with The New School faculty and conversations started in previous sessions, each seminar is centered by an art project and accompanied by readings. It is presented as part of the Barbara Jordan Lectures: The State of Democracy series.