Bug splat : the art of the drone
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Date
01/05/2016Author
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Grant ID
MRF-2013-073
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Show full item recordAbstract
This review article considers a variety of artworks, including stories, poems, plays, photographs and films, to explore what ‘drone art’ or ‘drone aesthetics’ can tell us about the politics and ethics of drone operations or drone warfare. The article finds that the politics and the ethics are troublesome and troubling; and that the art illuminates some important issues, through the focus on the drone pilot or operator, and, more fundamentally, through the exposure of what has been called an ‘empathy gap’. The attention paid to the drone operator is admirable, as far as it goes. It has unquestionably served to demystify drone operations, and in a certain sense to humanize drone warfare. Democracy is founded upon visibility. To see the drone, it will be necessary to capture it, and contemplate it, from different points of view.
Citation
Danchev , A 2016 , ' Bug splat : the art of the drone ' , International Affairs , vol. 92 , no. 3 , pp. 703-713 . https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2346.12609
Publication
International Affairs
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0020-5850Type
Journal item
Rights
© 2016 The Author(s). International Affairs © 2016 The Royal Institute of International Affairs. This work is made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at onlinelibrary.wiley.com / https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-2346.12609
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